For two straight years, the technology sector has added jobs every month.
In November, US tech companies added 14,400 workers, and tech jobs in all industry sectors grew by 137,000 positions, according to a new report from CompTIA.
While the needle on overall US unemployment remained unchanged in November at 3.7%, for the technology sector it dropped to 2% from 2.2% in October, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures compiled by CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.
CompTIASo far this year, tech industry jobs grew by 207,000 positions, according to BLS data.
“The hotter-than-anticipated tech jobs report confirms there are still many more employers hiring tech talent than shedding it,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer. “It’s certainly premature to dismiss concerns over the health of the economy, but this should be a reassuring sign for the tech workforce.”
The growth in the tech sector belies an economy beset by high inflation and what many still believe is an impending recession. And although inflation slowed to 7.7%, it is still well over the 2% target set by policymakers at the Federal Reserve Bank.
In November, nearly a dozen big name companies announced layoffs — some in the thousands, including Amazon, Cisco and HP. But experts believe the targeted layoffs, which have been ongoing over the past three months, are mostly a result of poor hiring strategies.
Due to a dearth of tech talent over the past two years, companies rushed to hire, bringing in a raft of tech workers with seven to 10 years’ experience and highly specialized skills.
On top of that, the companies tended to pay two to three times more than what they would have for someone with less experience but with the right education, aptitude, and attitude to be part of a sustainable workforce, according to Tony Lysak, CEO of The Software Institute, which offers IT consulting and education services.
“We need them, and can’t get them, so let’s pay more,” said Lysak, summing up how many companies have approached hiring during the past two years.
According to IT employment consultancy Janco Associates, the latest BLS data shows there are now just shy of four million jobs for IT professionals in the US. Janco sees this trend of IT jobs increases continuing but at a slower pace in the future. Layoffs will continue as companies seek to improve productivity levels.
“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals will continue to be positive but not as broad in scope as in the first three quarters of this calendar year,” Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. “CIOs and CFOs are looking to improve the productivity of IT. They are focusing on eliminating ‘non-essential’ managers and staff. They will continue to hire coders and developers. The highest demand continues to be for programmers, blockchain processing, and security professionals. There still are over 200K unfilled jobs in the IT job market.”
IT salaries for existing IT staff and middle managers increased by just under 3% while new hires were paid 5% to 6% more than existing staff, according to Janco’s Mid Year 2022 IT Salary Survey. “In conversation with several CIOs, we observed that starting pay rates for new hires were in the 8% to 10% range a few months back, but this is not the case currently,” Janulaitis said.
November hiring by technology companies was broad-based across occupation categories, led by IT services and custom software development (+8,100). Employment growth also occurred in data processing, hosting and related services (+4,100), other information services, including search engines (+2,100), and computer and electronic products manufacturing (+1,900).
CompTIAEmployer job postings for future tech hiring fell back in November, but still totaled nearly 270,000. Openings for software developers and engineers accounted for about 28% of all tech jobs postings. Demand for IT support specialists, systems engineers, IT project managers, and network engineers was also solid.
While major tech hubs recorded the largest numbers of job postings for tech positions, ‘under the radar’ markets showed notable increases in employment opportunities, including Topeka, Kan.; Virginia Beach, Va.; Worcester, Mass.; and Riverside, Calif. Among industries, the professional, scientific, and technical services sector had the most tech job postings (41,188), followed by finance and insurance (35,132) and manufacturing (31,036).
CompTIACompTIA’s analysis also showed 30% of all tech jobs postings are for positions in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, or in roles that require emerging tech skills.
Janco’s report also shows corporate executives are challenged by inflation and the economic downturn. Those executives are reluctant to hire replacement employees at salaries that are significantly higher than those who left as part of the Great Resignation. In their 2023 salary budgets for IT pros, “CIOs are trying to address the inflationary pressures faced by employees. We believe that starting salaries for IT Pros in 2023 will be 6% to 7% salary above existing levels,” Janulaitis said.
October 2022
Tech firms in October hired between 15,300 and 20,700 workers (depending on who’s doing the counting), marking roughly two straight years of hiring growth in the industry, according to two new employment reports.
So far this year, tech industry employment has increased by 193,900 jobs, 28% higher than the same period in 2021, according to a jobs report from CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.
In contrast, technology job postings by tech and non-tech companies had been on a five-month downward slide until last month. Tech workers employed throughout the economy, regardless of industry, declined by 116,000 last month, according to CompTIA. CompTIA’s report is based on the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.
“The data is roughly in line with expectations,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement. “Tech hiring activity remains steady, but there are undoubtedly concerns of a slowing economy.”
CompTIAIn October, the number of tech workers employed throughout all industries grew by 10,000 over the previous month, according to CompTIA.
Most of the issues affecting the economy are due to supply chain problems, according to Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates, which also released its IT jobs report on Friday.
“If China opens up and supply chains will improve, that should lessen the recessionary pressures that are driving the tech giants to reduce staff,” Janulaitis said in a statement. “Also, the results of the election in the US will provide an opportunity to improve the economic climate.”
Tech job postings reflect the total of “help wanted” ads companies listed last month. There were 317,000 such postings in October, according to CompTIA. It was the first time since April 2022 that the number of job postings increased over the prior month.
CompTIA also noted that tech manufacturing employment is up 43% compared to the same period last year.
CompTIAWhile the tech industry unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 2.2% in October from 2.1% in September, it remained well below the overall US unemployment rate, according to CompTIA’s report. The overall US unemployment rate also ticked up to 3.7% in October.
CompTIA’s jobs report differs somewhat from Janco Associates’s figures. Janco reported 15,300 new hires by tech companies in October; that compares to 13,700 job listings added by the tech industry the previous month.
There are now a total of 3.98 million jobs for IT professionals in the US, according to the BLS data analyzed by Janco.
“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals will continue to be positive, but not as broad in scope as in the first three quarters of 2022,” Janulaitis said in a statement. “CIOs and CFOs are looking to improve the productivity of IT. That means they are focusing on eliminating “non-essential” managers and staff. They will continue to hire coders and developers.”
CompTIAThe highest demand in IT will be for programmers, blockchain processing, and security professionals, according to Janulaitis. Much of the hiring will be limited to filling positions that have been approved and are unfilled — not staff expansion.
Within the tech industry, the bulk of new hiring occurred in three sector categories, according to CompTIA:
- IT services and custom software development (+8,800)
- Other information services, including search engines (+6,800)
- Computer and electronic products manufacturing (+5,400)
In Janco’s mid-year 2022 IT Salary Survey, it found IT salaries for existing IT staff and middle managers increased by just under 3%, while new hires were paid 5% to 6% more than existing staff. “In conversation with several CIOs, we observed that starting pay rates for new hires were in the 8%-10% range a few months back, but this is not the case currently,” Janulaitis said.
The disparity in pay between veteran IT workers and new hires is a point of contention and has likely led to some problems in worker motivation, according to Sinem Buber, lead economist with ZipRecruiter. When new employees are hired, they often come in with pay and benefits equal to or better than veteran employees. Even as companies have raised wages, it’s often across the board, ignoring seniority.
“So, the link between hard work and raises is broken,” Buber said.
CompTIARemote work hiring trends on the upswing
Remote work shows no signs of slowing down, according to CompTIA. Employer job postings for tech positions that specify remote work or work-from-home options continue to increase, with a year-to-date rate of 34% compared to 27% in 2021, and 22% in 2020.
Major tech hubs saw significant month-over-month increases in tech jobs postings, including Boston (+2,732), New York City (+1,459), San Francisco (+884) and San Jose (+864). The top industries for tech job postings were professional, scientific, and technical services (50,688); finance and insurance (35,500); and manufacturing (34,488), according to CompTIA.
Positions for software developers and engineers led the October job postings (85,796). “There is also strong demand for IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and network engineers,” CompTIA said.
September 2022: Janco analysis
IT job growth has continued each month for over a year, and in the last 12 months 202,800 jobs have been added, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor data, which was analyzed by IT consultancy Janco Associates.
At the same time, CIOs and CFOs have started to slow the rate at which they’re creating new IT jobs and hiring due to inflation and recession fears, according to Janco’s latest report.
“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals will continue to be positive, but not as broad in scope as in the first nine months of 2022,” said M. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates. “CIOs are still posturing to hire staff and expand technologies to address blockchain processing and security applications based on market conditions. However, most hiring will be limited to filling positions open due to attrition, not staff expansion.”
U.S. tech firms added workers for the 22nd consecutive month, and companies across the economy hired an estimated 84,000 new tech workers in September, according to the latest Tech Jobs Report from CompTIA.
Job postings for new hiring were down 12% from August, but still totaled just over 300,000. Positions in software development and engineering, tech support, tech project management, systems engineering, and network engineering were in highest demand, according to CompTIA.
CompTIAAbout 30% of all postings were for positions in emerging technologies or in jobs that require emerging tech skills. Positions that offer remote work or work from home as an option surpassed 109,000.
Another new report by UK-based job search engine Hired showed that, unlike 2021, when companies were hiring faster than in years prior, the overall time to hire job seekers in 2022 slowed across the US, UK, and Canada. UK companies are now taking 68 days on average to fill open positions. US companies aren’t moving much faster, taking 60 days (up from 52 days in 2021). In Canada, it’s now 54 days. (Remote roles took 40 days to fill – that’s slower than in 2021, but the shortest time to hire overall, Hired said.
“Why? It’s not clear yet,” Hired said in its report. “Are jobseekers taking longer to evaluate opportunities? Or are employers moving candidates through the funnel more carefully? While this indicates an increase in the time to fill roles, it doesn’t equal an overall slowdown in tech hiring.”
Data from Hired indicates employers offering remote roles have a hiring edge over those requiring hybrid or on-site jobs. Since June 2021, candidates showed a preference for remote-only roles.
In January, 18% of active jobseekers indicated they only wanted remote roles. By May, preference for “only remote” roles climbed to 31% of all active jobseekers on Hired’s platform, and rose another percentage point to 32% in June. By June, 93% of candidates showed a preference for remote or hybrid jobs.
Janco AssociatesThroughout the year, IT salaries in the US and Canada (except for junior candidates with less than two years of experience) saw significant growth. Mid-level US candidates with four to six years of experience saw the biggest jump from $146,000 to $154,000 between 2021 and 2022. Remote salaries for all candidates, except the most junior, also saw significant growth; on average they jumped by $7,000 to $8,000 from 2021 to 2022.
CompTIASeptember 2022: CompTIA analysis
Tech companies added 25,500 workers last month, one of the strongest hiring months so far this year, according to new data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and industry analysts.
So far this year, employment in the tech industry has increased by 175,700 jobs, 46% ahead of 2021 — and 92% ahead of 2019, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce. (The total includes all employees —technical and non-technical — on the payrolls of tech companies.)
“Stability in tech hiring continues to be an over-arching theme this year,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “Despite all the economic noise and pockets of layoffs, aggregate tech hiring remains consistently positive.”
According to the latest BLS data, analyzed by IT consultancy Janco Associates, there are now 3.97 million jobs for IT Professionals in the US. For 24 months in a row, there has been an increase in the number of jobs added to the IT job market. Janco sees this trend continuing, according to its latest report released Friday.
CompTIAThe unemployment rate for tech occupations rose to 2.3% in August from 1.7% in July, according to CompTIA. There are likely two reasons for it jump: the overall US unemployment rate increased, as well, and some large tech firms announced layoffs, Herbert noted.
“The other component is we’ve seen a rebound in consumer confidence and worker confidence,” Herbert said. “So, it can also be attributed to tech workers feeling a renewed sense of confidence, and so they’ve quit their job and they’re looking for new opportunities. That was far more prominent earlier this year and last year with the ‘Great Resignation.’”
The number of workers quitting their jobs remained above 4 million in August, according to BLS data. Since June 2021, more than 4 million people have quit every month, according to BLS data, giving rise to the trend known as the Great Resignation. The trend reflects a deep dissatisfaction by many workers with their employment situations. The ongoing global pandemic pushed workers to rethink their careers, work/life balance, long-term goals, and working conditions.
Overall employer job postings for tech positions eased in August to just under 320,000 from 372,000 in July, with 31% of jobs posted last month for positions in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and IoT, or in roles that require emerging tech skills, such as data analytics and automation software.
“A lot of the technology is mature enough now that a lot of positions are implementing automation solutions, robotic process automation,” Herbert said. “Next-generation roles include cybersecurity, and broad categories of automation, so, marketing automation and HR automation.”
From January through August 2022, tech job postings where employers specify remote work or work from home as an option were up 56% over last year —and up 281% from the pre-pandemic year of 2019, according to CompTIA.
“The one thing that jumped out at me, to no surprise, was the trend toward remote work that I think is now in a semi-permanent state,” Herbert said.
The increase in remote employment was highlighted by the leap in tech job postings in states such as Wyoming, Montana and Alaska, Herbert said.
CompTIAEven as hiring was up, the number of job openings dropped, indicating the pace of new job vacancies could be slowing, according to Janco Associates. Its data is based on the latest BLS statistics.
There is some slowing in hiring as fears of a significant downturn or recession are on the horizon, Janco’s report stated.
“CIOs and CFOs now are more cautious than they were in the first quarter. CIOs do not have a clear understanding of how a downturn will impact their bottom line. Most still are hiring but at a slower pace,”Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis wrote in the report. “Some companies have stopped hiring and started laying off employees.”
“With all that, the IT job market remains tight with an average of 200,000 IT professionals jobs that are not filled due to a lack of qualified candidates,” Janulaitis continued. “The number of unfilled IT jobs has peaked from over 260,000 in April to 210,000 in July. That should still be enough of a buffer to keep hiring of IT pros on a positive track.”
Janco AssociatesJanulaitis also said new IT hires are on average receiving salaries that are 5% to 6% above pay for existing positions — and in some cases as much as 10% higher; The higher starting pay is needed to attract the best IT candidates. That salary disparity, however, is driving dissatisfaction and an increase in attrition rate among existing employees, according to Janulaitis.
“The challenge CIOs face will be how to keep the balance between the existing budget, providing salary increases to existing employees that address inflation and higher commuting costs, and having sufficient resources available to achieve the enterprise’s technology and bottom line objectives,” Janulaitis said.
The BLS doesn’t track tech industry jobs directly. Instead, the agency uses the “information sector” as a proxy for tech employment because there are tech jobs in most industries, and therefore technology is not an industry in and of itself.
The nation’s unemployment rate rose from 3.5% to 3.7% in August, with the number of unemployed rising by 344,000 to 6 million.
Overall, the US economy added 315,000 jobs in August, which was more than economists had predicted, but still far less than the 526,000 positions added in July – a record month for jobs.
Professional and business services added 68,000 jobs in August, according to the BLS. Within the industry, computer systems design and related services added 14,000 positions; management and technical consulting services grew by 13,000; and scientific research and development services increased by 6,000. Over the past 12 months, professional and business services has added 1.1 million jobs, according to the BLS.
“CIOs and CFOs now are more cautious than they were in the first quarter. CIOs do not have a clear understanding of how a downturn will impact their bottom line,” Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates said in a report last week. “Most still are hiring, but at a slower pace. Some companies have stopped hiring and started laying off employees.”
With all that, the IT job market remains tight, with an average of 200,000 IT professional jobs that are not filled due to a lack of qualified candidates, according to Janulaitis. If there is a major recession, many companies will choose not to fill those new open positions.
“That should be enough of a buffer to keep the hiring of IT pros on a positive track,” he said.
August 2022
Despite a number of sizeable layoffs at high-profile companies in recent months, the tech sector continued to lead all others in low unemployment rates in July, according to a new report from CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.
Tech occupations across all industry sectors increased by an estimated 239,000 positions last month, according to an analysis of US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data by CompTIA.
Tech industry employment saw a net gain of 12,700 workers, the 20th consecutive month of growth. So far this year, the tech sector has gained 143,700 jobs, an increase of 55% year-over-year, according to CompTIA. The unemployment rate for tech jobs was just 1.7% in July (1.3% for women, 1.8% for men), roughly half the overall US unemployment rate of 3.5%.
Employer job postings for tech positions approached 484,000 in July, a slight decrease from the previous month but still at a near record level. Through the first seven months of 2022, US companies listed approximately 3.1 million jobs postings for tech positions, up 49% compared to 2021.
“The tech jobs market has repeatedly outperformed in the face of real and perceived economic weakness,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement. “The data confirms that for every layoff announcement there are other employers stepping in to take advantage of tech talent hiring opportunities.”
CompTIAMeanwhile, since June 2021, more than 4 million people have quit their jobs every month, according to BLS data, part of a trend known as the Great Resignation. The trend reflects a deep dissatisfaction by many workers with their employment situations. The ongoing global pandemic has enabled workers to rethink their careers, work/life balance, long-term goals, and working conditions.
Some of the top reasons workers quit this year are unhappiness with how their employer treated them during the pandemic (19%), low pay or lack of benefits (17%), and a lack of work-life balance (13%), according to a survey by employment listing website Joblist.
The BLS doesn’t track tech industry jobs directly. Instead, the agency uses the “information sector” as a proxy for tech employment because there are tech jobs in most industries, and therefore technology is not an industry in of itself.
CompTIAWithin the tech sector, three occupation categories recorded job growth in July – other information services, including search engines (+6,800); data processing, hosting and related services (+4,100); and computer and electronic products manufacturing (+3,300). Hiring in the IT services and custom software development category was flat, while telecom-related occupations declined (-1,400), according to CompTIA.
About one in five tech job postings in July were for positions requiring two years or less of experience. About half specified three to five years of experience, while 13% sought candidates with nine or more years of experience, CompTIA said.
Many employers, even those in tech industries, are ending college degree requirements for many job openings. Instead, organizations are focusing on the skills, experience, and personality traits of job candidates. The sea change opens up tech jobs to a more diverse pool of candidates.
CompTIASoftware developers and engineers are the most in-demand positions employers are looking to fill — accounting for nearly 148,000 job postings last month. There is also a strong job market for IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and architects, and network engineers and architects. Positions in emerging technologies or jobs requiring emerging tech skills accounted for one-third of all postings in July.
Faced with a dearth of workforce talent, many tech companies and others are hiring through non-traditional approaches that include coding bootcamps, low-code training, and a focus on population areas outside the norm.
July 2022
Over the past three months, IT job openings for entry-level positions have declined significantly, according to a new report.
Job openings for entry-level tech workers declined from 29,500 in April to 24,000 in May and to 18,400 in June, according to IT employment consultancy Janco Associates.
Janco’s report, which was compiled from US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and survey data, said the downward trend is the result of several factors — the most critical of which is an increasing belief among C-level executives that we are already or soon will be in a recession.
In creating its May forecast for future IT hiring, Janco found that almost all 217 CIOs it surveyed are planning on:
- Limiting the extension of existing contracts for contract workers and consultants beyond the 3rd quarter of the year.
- Managing the full-time employee headcount to budgeted levels through the end of this year.
- Not replacing departing employees who do not have critical IT skills and/or enterprise-specific operational knowledge.
“In our interviews, we have found that Wall Street has stopped hiring, and a number of job offers for recent IT college graduates have had offers that were extended pulled back,” Janco’s report stated. “The initial indicators from the monthly BLS data for June seem to be reinforcing those findings.”
Janco’s report noted that some organizations have already started the process of layoffs.
- Netflix, PayPal, Getir, Klarna, Bolt, and Carvana instituted layoffs in May.
- Coinbase will cut 1,100 jobs, about 18% of its global workforce.
- Microsoft is slowing down its hiring “to better align its resources.”
- Meta (Facebook) and Twitter have frozen hiring for some departments.
Gartner research shows that just 4% of US companies have started laying off employees, while 7% have frozen hiring and 15% have started to slow down hiring.
Janco AssociatesHiring is still robust for experienced IT pros —particularly for certain job titles, including security-related positions and in-demand technology, such as blockchain and e-commerce positions — but entry-level candidates are finding it more difficult to find new jobs, according to Janco.
Overall, the number of open jobs in the US at the end of May was 11.3 million, a drop from 11.7 million in April, according to the BLS’s May Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report. Despite the drop in open requisitions, the U.S. added 390,000 jobs in May; The unemployment rate also held at 3.6%, and there were almost two job openings for each unemployed American. The number and rate of workers quitting their jobs remained almost unchanged at 4.3 million and 2.8%, respectively.
The impact of inflation and the potential of a significant downturn is not reflected in the preliminary budgets for 2023. Most CIOs and CFOs are trying to determine what they will do if that downturn occurs, Janco reported.
Janco also publishes a biannual salary survey in January and July. The just-published survey results showed that IT salaries were on the rise in the first six months of 2022. For the first time, median salaries for all IT pros in large enterprises exceeded $100,000.
Midsized companies were offering the greatest salary increases, which averaged north of 4% for IT middle managers and staff. IT executives saw an average 3.04% salary increase this year.
Large enterprises were more miserly, with staff receiving a 3.27% average increase and executives and middle managers earning a 3.47% and 1.20% average boost, respectively.
The unemployment rate for tech occupations fell to a near-record low in May, and employer job postings for tech positions passed 443,000, according to an analysis of the latest labor market data by CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.
“The already tight labor market just became even tighter as competition for tech talent reaches near-record levels,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “For any employer relying on the old hiring playbook, it’s time to rethink approaches to recruiting and retention.”
Employers throughout the US economy are stepping up their search for tech workers and tech companies continue to expand payrolls, according CompTIA. Specifically, tech firms added 75,200 workers through the first four months of 2022.
More than 190,000 new IT jobs will be created in 2022, according to IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. The IT job market now has more than 3.85 million positions in the US, with about 130,000 of those positions unfilled, Janco’s report stated.
Some of the top tech jobs in terms of hiring and pay include software developer/engineer, IT project manager, IT support specialist, systems engineer/architect, and network engineer/architect, according to CompTIA’s jobs report.
Tech workers employed in the cloud space saw some of the greatest salary increases over the past year, according to a new salary survey from O’Reilly Media, an online IT training provider. According to the report, cloud-focused workers are the most sought-after tech talent as a growing number of organizations of all sizes utilize cloud tools and services.
The survey revealed that cloud professionals are paid an average yearly salary of $182,000. Report findings also show the impact of the great reshuffle within the tech sector, with 20% reporting they’ve already changed employers over the last year, and 25% of respondents planning to find new employment with better compensation, raising a question of whether the great reshuffle will continue.
Janco AssociatesThe average salary increase over the past year for cloud workers was 4.3%. The average salary for women, unfortunately, is 7% lower than the average salary for men, the survey also found.
The highest-paid job titles include directors ($235,000) and executives ($231,000), followed by architects, “leads,” and managers ($196,000, $190,000, and $188,000, respectively).
“During the pandemic, we witnessed millions of workers resign from companies in an effort to reconfigure their careers and take deliberate steps toward new job opportunities with higher wages and better alignment between their work and life goals,” said O’Reilly President Laura Baldwin. “With these workers in such demand, we anticipate the great tech exodus to continue unless employers step up with competitive pay, substantial benefits, remote work flexibility, and on-the-job learning and development.”
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