Hiring activity for technology workers throughout the U.S. economy hit a two-year high in October, an analysis by CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the information technology (IT) industry and workforce, finds.
Employers listed 360,065 job openings for technology positions, an increase of nearly 76,000 from the previous month and the highest monthly total since September 2019.
Meanwhile, technology companies added 8,300 new hires in October, with 7,000 of those positions in IT services and custom software development, according to the “Employment Situation” report released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reveals. (#JobsReport).
Tech industry employment has expanded by an estimated 140,000 jobs so far in 2021. That’s well ahead of the same period in 2020, which was negative, and 34% ahead of the same period in 2019.
“We continue to see robust hiring activity and staff retention efforts among employers,” said Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA. “Our research indicates a top reason tech workers considering leaving is lack of career growth opportunities, a telling message to employers to not underestimate the value of investing in staff training and professional development.”
October tech jobs postings were strong across multiple industries and geographies, reaffirming the importance of technology, innovation and digital transformation for businesses. Also notable is that one-third of the opening were for emerging tech positions or jobs requiring emerging tech skills, suggesting that companies are expanding or resuming their activity in areas such as artificial intelligence, automation, robotics and the internet of things.
Impressive month-over-month gains in tech jobs postings were reported in a number of major metro areas led by Dallas (+4,215), New York (+3,270), Washington (+2,798), Los Angeles (+2,248) and Boston (+2,163).
Industries with the highest number of tech job postings included professional, scientific and technical services (69,528), finance and insurance (38,009), manufacturing (30,140), information (29,112), retail trade (14,751), health care and social assistance (9,183), educational services (7,620) and public administration (7,330).
IT occupation jobs among all employers declined by 71,000 in October, a reminder that monthly occupation-level data reporting from the BLS may be subject to higher levels of variance and volatility. The unemployment rate for tech occupations stands at 2.1%, less than half the national unemployment rate.
