Afraid of losing your job to a younger, cheaper IT worker?

You've been in the IT industry for 30 years, gaining knowledge and experience that's valuable to you and your employers at every step. Now we're in a recession and a new crop of younger, perhaps techier, and definitely less expensive employees are entering the workforce. Should you be worried about losing your job? (See five things Gen Yers can do to survive recession.)

It's a fair question, but asking it doesn't mean resigning oneself to getting laid off. There are plenty of advantages older IT workers bring to the table that can help ensure they stay employed through the recession and beyond.

"You need to consider the value you bring to the organization that a younger person might not, and in particular you need to think about how can you be a resource to help develop the younger members of the staff," says Jim Michael, a 51-year-old who is associate director of IT at California State University, Fresno.

Generally, CIOs want their staffs to contain diversity in technical backgrounds, skills, personality and sometimes in age, Michael says. A CIO probably wouldn't want an entirely young staff, because the experience of older workers can help the young avoid the same problems faced in the senior employees' youth. A staff made up entirely with people who have 30 or 40 years experience is a problem too, particularly if company officials are thinking about the long term and want younger workers to learn from their elders and eventually replace them. (See a story about how the younger generation is spoiled.)

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