Perhaps no other occupation has experienced changes as dramatic as have affected the information technology (IT) occupation in recent years. The growing use of IT throughout our economy has resulted in an unprecedented explosion in the demand for skilled IT workers. IT refers to systems and services used in the automated acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, assurance, or reception of information. IT includes computers, network components, peripheral equipment, software, firmware, services, and related resources. Which of the following best describes the opinion of the author with respect to the IT occupation? 1) the demand for skilled IT workers has peaked and will decline over the next decade 2) the IT occupation has undergone imperceptible changes over the past two decades 3) there is currently dearth of skilled IT workers 4) recent changes within the IT occupation have far exceeded those encountered by the other occupations 5) the growing use of information technology has had trivial impact on the demand for skilled IT workers