Jane Shipman, who works on a mainframe computer at a large business, said the market has changed for IT workers and the days of easily finding a new job are gone. "I think we're experiencing what other professions have experienced for a while, and we don't like it any more than they do," she said.

But Shipman sees positive things in her work environment. The company hasn't outsourced its data center, because it believes that "your own people are best situated to control your cost." And she also believes that her mainframe skills give her an edge in this market. The mainframe is "not going away, and it's not the hot thing that people are training on," she said. She also sees the retirement of many longtime mainframe workers creating a skills shortage.

Ken Williams, who works in a test environment at a large financial services firm, said offshoring was a worry for several years but is less so now.

"Everybody was afraid it was going to take jobs," he said. "In my environment, it's thought about much more positively at this point."

Williams said offshore developers are supplementing work, and their efforts are increasing his workload. It has also put demand on environments around the clock. "It's not replacing anybody; it's increasing our capacity," he said.