In a recent interview with Computerworld Magazine, Foote Partners CEO David Foote explained how government statistics dramatically under-report the number of IT workers in America today. But the question isn't who is an IT worker, but: who isn't?

In the olden days (currently defined as any time prior to Mark Zuckerberg's matriculation at Harvard), it was still plausible to define IT workers in dry terms like database administration, architecture analysis, and systems management. Not any more.

Today's IT workers must combine business savvy, subject matter expertise and tech skills if they are to be successful. This is true not just for user-experience designers, but for a wide variety of staff across industries and throughout the economy.

Public relations and marketing professionals must understand the technology that underlies the new tools of engagement and outreach. Customer service reps must become proficient in a new suite of software tools designed to integrate their job functions across the organization. CEOs tweet, writers edit html, and interns manage content management systems.

No wonder government labor statistics are skewed.

Only 20% of the modern IT professional workforce is accurately identified and tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, according to Foote. But even that statistic understates just how dramatically our workforce has changed.

Serving clients and customers, whether they're large financial institutions or individual consumers, is no longer about adding a tech guru to your team. Great customer experience design requires a rare combination of talents that includes business savvy and industry expertise as much as technical proficiency.

And the lesson for those in search of IT staff, custom software development, user-experience design and the like is pretty clear: you're going to need more than just a great programmer. Meanwhile, don't believe everything a government statistician tells you – at least some things remain the same.