Tech Sector Employment Expansion Continues

​Continuing the post-pandemic trend, the US IT industry has seen significant job progress to this point in 2021.

Technology company hiring continues on a growth path with tech firms adding 10,500 workers in June and 80,600 through the first half of 2021, revealed by CompTIA. The tech sector has experienced job growth in 10 of the past 12 months.

New staffing in the data processing, hosting and related services employment category led the June job gains, with 13,200 positions added, according to the “Employment Situation” report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Other highlights include:

  • An estimated 1,000 jobs were added in other information services, including search engines, while the IT services and custom software development was essentially flat last month.

  • Job losses were reported in telecommunications (- 2,200) and computer and electronic products manufacturing (- 1,400).

  • The unemployment rate for IT occupations was 2.2% in June compared to the national unemployment rate of 5.9%.

  • Employer job postings for open tech positions remain on solid footing, with an estimated 307,000 postings advertised in June.

  • Software and application developers, IT support specialists, systems engineers and architects, systems analysts and IT project managers are in the highest demand.

  • Jobs in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, or those requiring emerging tech skills, accounted for 28% of all open positions.

  • The demand for workers extends beyond technology-related companies into industry sectors such as finance and insurance (32,100 postings), manufacturing (24,970), retail trade (10,081), healthcare and social assistance (7,659), public administration (6,549) and educational services (5,820).

All of this activity is a reflection of the improved economy scrambling to hire to meet customer demand, which has surged back as the economy reopens and consumers enjoy restaurant meals, take delayed vacations and spend money saved in the pandemic on other goods and services.

Source: CompTIA