I'm not entirely sure where you are, but the IT industry in the US is still basically strong, despite resourcing and offshoring trends over the last few years. It is more like where it was in 1994, (when I started), as opposed to 1998, but still not bad, by any means. Networking still offers some very good jobs, but CONVERGENGE is very imporatnt these days. You know, the voice and video stuff. Many "data only" guys either don't care about this or just refuse to care, so if you spend your time learning these things, you will do well, in all likelihood. Knowing VoIP technolgies and related stuff really matters for most "cool" jobs.
my $.02
Jason V. (never been without a good job in IT yet).