Tech Companies Accelerate Hiring As Other Industries Slow Down

Tech sector growth continues to push the pace for the U.S. economy.

Hiring by U.S. technology companies in August reached a near two-year high, a positive counterweight to slower payroll growth and tech employment in other sectors of the economy, an analysis by CompTIA finds.

Tech companies added an estimated 26,800 workers last month in both technical and non-technical positions, according to the “Employment Situation” report released early September by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

It’s the largest monthly gain in tech industry jobs since November 2018. So far this year, tech industry hiring has increased by more than 120,000 positions.

Highlights from the report:

  • The unemployment rate for technology occupations remains at a very low 1.5% compared to the national rate of 5.2%.

  • Within the tech sector, all five employment categories were in positive territory in August paced by new hiring in data processing, hosting and related services (+11,900) and IT services and custom software development (+9,800).

  • Other information services, including search engines (+3,500) and computer and electronic products manufacturing (+1,400), also showed solid job growth, while telecommunications had a modest gain (+200).

  • Employer job postings for open technology positions continued to trend upward in August, surpassing 321,000. Three in 10 job postings were for positions in emerging technologies or jobs that require emerging tech skills.

  • Top industries for tech job postings included professional, scientific and technical services (58,608), finance and insurance (32,548), manufacturing (24,352), information (19,304), educational services (15,718) and retail trade (10,521).

  • The Jacksonville metropolitan market recorded the largest month-over-month gain in tech jobs postings, followed by Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore and Boston.

  • At the state level, Florida, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland and Idaho had the best month-over-month performance.

“The U.S. IT jobs situation continues to look very much like the pre-pandemic state: more positions than candidates. In fact, businesses would have hired more IT positions in August had they found enough qualified candidates to fill them, Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis said. “Finding web developers and cybersecurity and compliance pros remains the toughest task for CIOs, — and is causing HR to focus more on IT staff retention,” he said.

Source: CompTIA