Jobs Report Mixed for Tech Industry

Tech services, tech manufacturing and cloud infrastructure added jobs for the month, while the broader measure of tech employment across the economy took a breather, according to analysis by CompTIA, a suburban Chicago-based industry trade association.

Tech sector companies increased staffing by 18,795 positions in April, the largest volume of monthly hiring since August 2022, according to CompTIA’s analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Tech occupations throughout the economy took a step back, declining by 99,000 positions. The unemployment rate for tech occupations inched up to 2.3%, still well below the national unemployment rate (3.4%).

“It was another all-too-familiar month of mixed labor market signals,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “The surprisingly strong tech sector employment gains were offset by the pause in tech hiring across the economy.”

Employers listed more than 300,000 job postings for tech positions in April, signaling demand for tech talent continues to hold up.

Within the tech sector three occupation categories paced April hiring, led by IT services and custom software development (+12,700). Job gains was also reported in cloud infrastructure, data processing and hosting (+7,300) and PC, semiconductor and components manufacturing (+3,200).

Employer job postings for tech positions were widely dispersed geographically and by industry. Employers in administrative and support (32,861), finance and insurance (32,820) and manufacturing (31,959) were among the most active last month.

Among metropolitan markets, Washington, New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago had the highest volumes of job postings. Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Boston, and Seattle saw the largest month-over-month increases in tech job postings.

The number of tech job postings that specify remote work or hybrid work arrangements as an option continued to trend upward in April – more than 65,000 positions across the country, with software developers, IT project managers, data analysts and jobs in emerging technologies topping the list.

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