CompTIA: Tech Employment Increases Amid Tight Labor Market

Tech industry employment, tech occupation employment and the tech unemployment rate recorded positive gains for the month, according to analysis by CompTIA, a suburban Chicago-based industry association. Tech sector companies increased their staffing by 5,432 employees in July, based on CompTIA’s analysis of recent findings by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. New hiring in IT and custom software services and systems design; and PC, semiconductor and components manufacturing led the way.

Tech occupations among employers across all industry sectors of the economy increased by 65,000, reversing the negative growth of the previous month. The tech occupation unemployment rate fell to 1.8%, the lowest rate since January 2023.

“Given the pace of tech hiring, it remains a fairly tight market for tech talent,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer, CompTIA. “It continues to be an environment where employers must supplement recruiting efforts with proactive talent development strategies.”

Employers eased back on job postings for tech occupations, which totaled approximately 204,400 for the month. Positions for software developers and engineers, IT project managers, data analysts, IT support specialists and emerging technologies saw the strongest demand. Positions in emerging technologies or requiring emerging tech skills accounted for about 23% of all tech job postings in July. Within the emerging tech category, 35% of job postings referenced artificial intelligence work and skills.

While most metro markets saw a decline in tech job postings, several ‘under the radar’ regions experienced month-over-month growth, including St. Louis, Jacksonville, Sacramento, and Las Vegas.

Channel Impact^®
The data serve to show channel partners the specific areas of the tech workforce that are rising or declining.