CompTIA: Tech Employment Data Signals “Cautious” Hiring

The latest employment data confirms a continuation of caution in tech hiring among employers, according to analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data by CompTIA, a suburban Chicago-based industry association.

Overall tech industry employment was essentially flat month-over-month. Companies in the tech services and custom software development sector continue to be a pocket of growth adding 3,400 new workers for the month. However, this was offset by the tech manufacturing sector shedding 2,500 workers.

Across the entire economy, tech occupation employment declined by 28,000 positions in August. The unemployment rate for tech occupations inched up to 3.4%, compared to the national unemployment rate of 4.2%. About 6.3 million people are employed in core tech occupations by companies of all types across the economy.

Active employer job postings for tech positions increased modestly to just over 500,000 last month. Positions for software developers and engineers and data scientists saw the largest month over month increase. Demand also remains solid for tech support specialists, data analysts, IT project managers and network analysts.

“The bumpy stretch of tech labor market data requires the usual balancing of shorter-term and longer-term perspectives,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer, CompTIA.

Among metropolitan areas, the largest numbers of tech job postings were in the Washington, D.C., New York and Dallas markets. California, Texas, Virginia, New York and Florida topped the list of states.

Channel Impact^®

It’s easy to observe that the market has hit another round of layoffs amidst a modest uptick in employer job postings for future tech staffing.