Tech Sector Employment Stays Strong in April
U.S. tech sector employment grew by 18,900 jobs in April, with most of the jobs in technology services, custom software development and computer systems design.
That’s according to a CompTIA analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) latest “Employment Situation” report. Tech employment across the entire economy, however, declined by 62,000 jobs last month and the number of job postings for new hiring fell by more than 41,000.
Tech sector employment grew by 16,000 jobs in March.
“The data speaks to the dynamic nature of tech employment, whereby employers may simultaneously hire, shift or shed workers,” said Anna Matthai, CompTIA’s senior manager of research and market intelligence. “This reflects the continuous need for skills and expertise that keep pace with ever-changing technology.”
Contributing to tech sector growth were gains in other information services, including search portals, up 5,200 jobs, and computer and electronic products manufacturing, up 2,200 jobs. The category of data processing, hosting and related services added 500 jobs.
The tech sector’s April employment numbers would have been more impressive if not for a loss of 3,100 positions in telecommunications, according to CompTIA.
Janco Associates expects more than 107,000 new IT jobs will be created this year.
“With 40,300 new IT jobs created in the first four months of 2019, the market is the tightest that is has been since the early 2000s,” said Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis. “New positions associated with big data, blockchain, and distributed ledger technology are in especially short supply. The shortage of qualified IT professionals is across the board with programmers and business analysts of all stripes also in high demand. For example, (on) both coasts a data scientist can name their only price with median salaries over $120,000.”
The unemployment rate for IT occupations was 2.4 percent last month, up slightly compared to April of last year. The U.S. unemployment rate declined to 3.6 percent, according to CompTIA.
The number of April job postings by employers for core IT positions fell by about 41,469 from March. Software and application developers continue to be the most in-demand talent companies are looking to hire, with 78,000 job postings last month. Other tech jobs companies were looking to fill included computer user support specialists (19,700), computer systems engineers and architects (19,100), computer systems analysts (16,500) and web developers (15,200).
