To address the OP, if tech is changing is it some fundamental transitional shift, or another in the many waves of contraction and growth that occur regularly? The current economic malaise must be having a large impact on IT development projects. I would not be surprised to see more of what J4B has described, but I think it's just a phase. There may be a lot of big-bath-accounting in Q4 as companies write things off and clean up balance sheets.
A book called Shifting Gears: Thriving in the New Economy was written by an economist named Nuala Beck in the early '90s. The author wrote that growth in the economy was changing from older industries like manufacturing, mining, construction to new generation industries like computers, IT and telecommunications. She hypothesized that traditional industries would suffer as the economy was coming to the end of secular post-war growth, especially in the western developed world. Those industries and jobs would continue to exist, but their employment and earnings potential would diminish, while jobs in IT, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, instrumentation would show sustained growth. That does not mean there would be great job security in growth industries, in fact quite the opposite, where new companies and technologies would come and go, and workers would experience job insecurity and turmoil, but there would be many new companies with good growth and employment opportunities. Contrast that to manufacturing or resource industries, where if you work at the one plant in town and it closes, your job opportunities are really limited and you may have to move or accept a lesser position. Think how many GM employees in Oshawa will be lucky to find a job paying half as much when that plant closes. Tech <> job security, but it can be career security. Many Nortel and RIM employees got laid off, but there are a lot of companies that want those skills and experience, so career opportunities are often good and lucrative. I said can be, because technologies march on, and you need to keep your skills and technical abilities up to date. A good friend of mine was a DEC VAX programmer making good money, but in the late 2000s most VAX equipment was replaced by newer platforms. His career ended because the good times blinded him to industry changes. Lots of people become independent contractors opening up huge opportunities for interesting, clean, lucrative careers with plenty of opportunities to take time off.
The book resonates with me because the first 1/3 of my career was in sales and marketing to heavy industries like iron & steel, machine tools, power generation, mining. By the late 80s I could see that growth potential was diminishing for a number of reasons including more efficient processes, slower infrastructure growth in developed countries and growth shifting to an endless series of other countries including Japan, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, China.
So I decided to change careers and set telecommunications as one of my target industries because it had cool technologies, was deregulating drawing many new opportunities and growth, and had great potential to improve peoples lives through technological change. Opportunities abounded, although lots of boom-bust, and it was usually very lucrative relative to many industries. It was fascinating because we had a real sense of developing things that would improve productivity, drive enhanced capabilities and make peoples lives better. Imagine life without online banking, mobile phones, wi-fi, Bluetooth, medical imaging, bar codes, car safety systems and so many more.
Tech is fascinating but stressful. It has bad job security, but good career security. It can be very lucrative but you have to be able to ride out the bad times. You need to learn and evolve or see your career disappear out from under you. It makes an incredible amount of money for a few investors and extracts a lot of money from many naïve investors. It is fascinating to work in because it has potential to enhance productivity and improve many peoples' standard of living and lifestyle. It's not a career choice for the masses.