Weldon;

I can speak from personal experience in Silicon Valley. It seems to have gotten much more difficult for the consultant in my area for a number of reasons. One is corporate attitudes towards who creates computer applications, the tools that are used and another is the type of applications being written. There is a great deal of Java/Unix work available (web) and not too much desk top client/server work being done. Microsoft tools and operating systems are not as popular as they once were. Some of the larger companies still use Microsoft tools but there is much more employment in the .COM industry (with 130 failures this year).

The mix of types of jobs here in Silicon valley may change once the .COM smoke settles. I think I have seen two Visual FoxPro positions advertised this year in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visual Basic has a greater demand but not like it did two years ago.

I went to a Job Fair in Santa Clara in April and there were just over 1000 companies hiring. I went to the computer inside the Job Fair and made a request for Microsoft positions. There were two - one for Visual Basic and one for NT 4.0 Server. The rest was Java/Unix. After spending the day and reviewing about 500 of the "booths" I was convinced the numbers were correct.

Tom