U.S. tech sector employment grew by 16,000 jobs in March, marking the strongest month for hiring so far this year.

That’s according to a CompTIA analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) latest “Employment Situation” report. New hiring in technology services, custom software development and computer systems design led the way, adding 11,500 new hires.

CompTIA’s Tim Herbert

“Employer demand for these skills aligns with investments in technology,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s senior vice president for research and market intelligence. “Technology services and software account for nearly half of spending in the U.S. tech market. As cloud computing continues to expand its footprint, along with advances in edge computing, 5G wireless networks and other infrastructure technologies, expect to see continued strong demand for technology professionals in the services and application and software development realms.”

Tech sector employment grew by about 7,500 positions in February.

Computer and electronic products manufacturing employment increased by 2,100 jobs in March, a bright spot in a month where overall durable goods manufacturing was down 7,000 positions.

Job gains also were reported in data processing, hosting and related services, up 1,600; and other information services, including search portals, up 900.

Telecommunications employment continued its decline, shedding 100 jobs.

Across the entire economy, IT occupations declined by 155,000, offsetting some of the gains from February. There tends to be a higher degree of variance with monthly BLS data at the occupation level, so the monthly occupation figures should be viewed as directional, according to CompTIA.

The unemployment rate for IT occupations was 1.9 percent in March, while the overall U.S. unemployment rate was unchanged last month at 3.8 percent.

Looking ahead, employers increased the number of job postings for core IT positions by a little more than 62,000 in March over February. Software and application developers were the most in demand, with 90,500 job postings. Other tech positions companies were looking to fill included computer user support specialists (24,700), computer systems engineers and architects (21,900), computer systems analysts (18,300) and IT project managers (17,700).