Strong Tech Employment Figures Counter Layoffs Narrative

Staff Report

Tuesday, December 6th, 2022

Technology companies added workers for the 24th consecutive month and tech occupations expanded throughout the economy in November, the latest "Tech Jobs Report" from CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the technology industry and workforce, reveals.

CompTIA's analysis of today's U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics #JobsReport reveals that tech companies added 14,400 workers last month. Tech sector employment has increased by 207,200 this year.

Tech occupations in all industry sectors grew by 137,000 positions, pushing the unemployment rate for tech workers down to 2%, from 2.2% in October.1

November hiring by technology companies was broad-based across occupation categories, led by IT services and custom software development (+8,100). Employment growth also occurred in data processing, hosting and related services (+4,100), other information services, including search engines (+2,100) and computer and electronic products manufacturing (+1,900).

Employer job postings for future tech hiring fell back in November, but still totaled nearly 270,000. Openings for software developers and engineers accounted for about 28% of all tech jobs postings. Demand for IT support specialists, systems engineers, IT project managers and network engineers was also solid.

While major tech hubs recorded the largest numbers of job postings for tech positions, 'under the radar' markets showed notable increases in employment opportunities, including Topeka (KS), Virginia Beach (VA), Worcester (MA) and Riverside (CA). Among industries, the professional, scientific and technical services sector had the most tech job postings (41,188), followed by finance and insurance (35,132) and manufacturing (31,036).

CompTIA's analysis also reveals that 30% of all tech jobs postings are for positions in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, or in roles that require emerging tech skills.

The "CompTIA Tech Jobs Report" is available at https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report. For more analysis and perspective visit the CompTIA Tech Job Report video series at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuqIJd7KnBU_nZd2oXEwa0I5X7Vt124eM.