Bob Schmidt remembers a time 20 years ago when his boss at Frito-Lay Inc. called together members of the information technology department to issue a warning.With personal computers rapidly becoming ubiquitous in the workplace, she told the staff, “Knowledge of COBOL is no longer going to be enough to survive.” To stay in the game, she said, staff members would need to broaden their skills.

Although most observers are calling 2006 a good year for the information technology job market, at least one research firm predicts another major upheaval within just a few years. And the firm is giving out the same advice that Schmidt heard 20 years ago.

An analysis by Gartner Inc., a research firm based in Stamford, Conn., predicts that the IT job market will shrink by a whopping 40 percent by 2010. IT folks who specialize in a single technology will be the most vulnerable to job cuts.

“Make no mistake: If you are an IT specialist who ignores or downplays the demand to develop business-oriented competence, you are at risk of being unemployable within the next five years,” said Diane Morello, a vice president of research at Gartner. “Versatility will be crucial. By 2010, IT professionals will need to possess expertise in multiple domains.”

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