New Study: Tech Hiring Cooled in December

Hiring in the U.S technology sector slowed in December after two consecutive months of strong job gains, according to CompTIA, a trade association based in suburban Chicago, which leverages data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

According to the CompTIA IT Employment Tracker, the tech sector nonetheless added an estimated 6,000 new jobs in the final month of 2018, with the bulk of December’s new hiring occurring in computer and electronic product manufacturing and IT services, custom software development and computer system design. Other information services, including search portals and data processing, hosting, and related services also showed employment growth last month. The telecommunications category meanwhile lost 500 jobs.

The unemployment rate for computer occupations for December was 2.1 percent, slightly lower than December 2017. That compares to an overall unemployment rate of 3.9 percent. Across the entire U.S. economy, the number of core technology occupations was reduced by an estimated 18,000 positions in December. For the year, there were six months of job gains and six months of job losses in core tech jobs in all industries.

“The tech employment numbers for last month were fairly uneventful,” said Tim Herbert, senior vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA. “Looking at the bigger picture, we expect a continuation of a tight labor market for tech talent through 2019.”

New job postings for technology workers also declined in December, down about 45,000 from the previous month. Software and application developers continue to top the list of IT job postings, with more than 67,000 last month. Other in-demand positions include computer user support specialists, as well as systems engineers and architects.

Channel Impact^®
The data shows trends that relate to hiring opportunities, although it stands to reason that seasonal effects could also be a factor in the December numbers.