The unemployment rate for technology occupations fell to 2.5% in September, the steepest month-over-month decrease in four years, according to analysis by CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the tech industry and workforce. “A broad mix of companies viewed recent economic developments as a greenlight to address their tech talent needs.”
Overall tech industry employment increased by 8,583 net new positions for the month. Analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) #JobsReport data reveals new hiring was primarily driven by the subsectors of cloud infrastructure, data processing and hosting (+6,000) and tech services and custom software development sector (+2,900). Across the entire economy, tech occupation employment increased by 118,000 new positions. The significant increase pushed the tech unemployment rate back down to 2.5%, well below the national unemployment rate. An estimated 6.4 million professionals are employed in core tech occupations by companies of all types across the economy.
“It was never really a question of if, but when employers were going to resume hiring,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer, CompTIA. “A broad mix of companies viewed recent economic developments as the greenlight to move forward in addressing their tech talent needs.” Employer job postings for future tech hiring climbed for the second consecutive month, to more than 516,000 active postings, including 225,000 new listings added in September.3 Job openings for tech support specialists and database administrators saw the largest percent change increases for the month at 14%.
Employers continue to cast a wide net in their recruiting efforts as new job posting volumes for positions not specifying a four-year degree increased for the fifth straight month. CompTIA analysis of Lightcast job posting data indicates 46% of tech job postings in September did not specify that candidates require a four-year degree for hiring consideration.
Job postings were dispersed across industries, reflecting the universal nature of technology in the global economy. Companies in automotive (General Motors, Ford), financial services (JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo), healthcare (Cardinal Health, CVS Health, Humana, Intermountain Health), hospitality (Marriott International), and technology (Apple, Google, Meta, Oracle, TEKsystems) were among employers with the highest volumes of tech job postings last month.
Employment opportunities were also widely available geographically. The Washington (15,104), New York (13,291) and Dallas (10,676) metropolitan areas had the most job postings for the month, but markets such as Portland (OR), Lansing (MI), Trenton (NJ), Des Moines (IA) and Virginia Beach (VA) were also active.
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