Tech Employment Increases as Companies Keep Up Pace of Hiring

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New employment data shows that employers continue to grow their technology teams, reaffirming tech's essential role in powering business and industry, according to CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the information technology (IT) industry and workforce.

Tech sector companies added 25,500 net new workers in August, with growth in five major occupation categories, CompTIA's analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) "Employment Situation" report reveals. Tech industry employment has increased by 175,700 jobs in 2022 and is tracking 46% ahead of last year and 92% ahead of 2019.

"Despite all the economic noise and pockets of layoffs, aggregate tech hiring remains consistently positive."

Companies throughout the economy added an estimated 21,000 tech workers for the month. The unemployment rate for tech occupations edged up to 2.3% paralleling the directional change of the national unemployment rate (3.7%).

"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."

Employer job postings for tech positions eased back in August, coming in at just under 320,000. Companies are seeking a range of tech skills, including software development and engineering, IT support, IT project management, systems engineering and network engineering.

Among industries, the largest numbers of job postings occurred in professional, scientific and technical services, finance and insurance, manufacturing, information and retail trade. Employment opportunities in tech are available across the country, in markets large, medium and small. The New York City, Washington, Dallas, Chicago and Los Angeles metro areas had the most job postings for tech positions, while Allentown, PA, Raleigh, NC, and Columbus, OH recorded the largest month-over-month increases in tech job postings.

CompTIA's analysis also shows that options for remote work and work from home continue to increase for technology workers. From January through August 2022, tech job postings where employers specify remote work is up 56% over last year and 281% from the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

Within the tech sector, new hiring in the IT services and custom software development occupation category, which expanded by 14,400 workers, paced August's job gains. Solid growth also occurred in computer and electronic products manufacturing (+4,500), data processing, hosting and related services (+3,200) and other information services, including search engines (+3,000). Telecommunications jobs increased by a modest 400.