Tech industry employment experienced a net increase of 12,922 new positions, the largest monthly gain since April 2023, CompTIA’s analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Jobs Report data reveals. Jobs were added in four of the five primary sub-sectors, led by technology services and software development (+8,500) and cloud infrastructure and related positions (+4,400). Tech manufacturing led by semiconductors also had a solid month (+1,600).

Technology occupations throughout the economy declined by 79,000 positions last month, according to CompTIA.’s report. The unemployment rate for tech occupations increased to 2.3%. In comparison the national unemployment rate stands at 3.7%.

Tech Employment Remains Optimistic 

“Tech employment remains on solid footing,” says Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “Despite the ongoing pattern of mixed signals in the labor market tracking data, the optimistic outlook continues to hold.”

Job postings for tech occupations also fell back. Active job postings for tech positions totaled nearly 364,000, including 142,295 newly added by employers in December, according to the CompTIA report. Employer hiring for artificial intelligence job roles and specialized skills continues to exceed the 10% threshold as a percentage of all tech job postings.

Industries with the largest volumes of tech job postings included professional, scientific and technical services; administrative and support services; and manufacturing. Among metropolitan markets, Washington, New York, Dallas, Chicago and Los Angeles had the most tech job openings. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh and Providence recorded modest month over month gains in postings.

The CompTIA Tech Jobs Report is available at comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report.

Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister-site Commercial Integrator on January 5, 2024. It has since been updated for My TechDecisions’ audience.

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Tech companies added 14,400 workers last month and tech sector employment has increased by 207,200 this year, according to CompTIA’s analysis.

“The hotter-than-anticipated tech jobs report confirms there are still many more employers hiring tech talent than shedding it,” says Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “It’s certainly premature to dismiss concerns over the health of the economy, but this should be a reassuring sign for the tech workforce.”

Monthly occupational data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals 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.

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.

CompTIA’s complete Tech Jobs Report can be found here.

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The Downers Grove, Ill.-based nonprofit association for the technology industry workforce reveals that tech sector companies added a net 4,800 workers, extending the job gains streak to 22 consecutive months. Year-to-date tech industry employment is tracking 22% ahead of 2021. Companies across the economy added an estimated 84,000 tech workers for the month.

“Despite the prevailing sentiment of a slowing economy, the gains in tech employment say otherwise,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, in a statement. “We can infer from the data that aggregate demand for tech talent remains strong enough to offset any pockets of weakness.”

The tech unemployment rate edged down slightly to 2.1% signaling a still very tight labor market. Employer job postings for technology positions totaled 302,370 for the month, a decrease of -12% versus the previous month.

The employer job posting data again confirms the expansive footprint of technology across the economy with hiring activity spanning every sector, including professional, scientific and technical services (46,263), finance and insurance (39,619) and manufacturing (38,386).

Hiring activity remains widely dispersed on a geographic basis, as well. As expected, the metro markets of New York City (19,993), Washington (16,985), Dallas (12,279), Chicago (10,941) and Los Angeles (10,848) has the largest totals of tech jobs postings. But markets such as Wichita (KS), Little Rock (AR), Lansing (MI), and Dover (DE) saw notable jumps in postings from August to September, reflecting the ongoing shifts in remote work.

CompTIA’s complete Tech Jobs Report can be found here.

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In July 2022, tech occupations across all industry sectors increased by an estimated 239,000 positions. The unemployment rate for tech occupations was 1.7% in July, according to CompTIA’s analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Through the first seven months of 2022 U.S. companies listed approximately 3.1 million jobs postings for tech positions, an increase of 49% for the same period last year.

“The tech jobs market has repeatedly outperformed in the face of real and perceived economic weakness,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, in a statement. “The data confirms that for every layoff announcement there are other employers stepping in to take advantage of tech talent hiring opportunities.”

The tech job posting data from July shows that there are employment opportunities at every experience level, in a variety of occupation categories and in nearly every metro market and state across the country, says CompTIA. About one in five tech job postings were for positions requiring two years or less of experience. About half specified three to five years of experience, while 13% sought candidates with nine or more years of experience.

Software developers and engineers are the most in-demand positions employers are looking to hire – nearly 148,000 job postings last month. There is also a strong job market for IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and architects and network engineers and architects. Positions in emerging technologies or jobs requiring emerging tech skills accounted for one-third of all postings in July.

The New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco metro markets recorded the largest month-over-month increase in tech jobs postings. But “under the radar” markets also populate this list:

Metro Area July Tech Job Postings Increase

Topeka, KS 1,437 627
Lansing, MI 1,810 570
Trenton, NJ 1,770 468
Huntsville, AL 2,195 324
Rochester, NY 1,222 283
Little Rock, AR 1,949 257
Oklahoma City, OK 1,764 207

Within the tech sector, three occupation categories recorded job growth in July – other information services, including search engines (+6,800), data processing, hosting and related services (+4,100) and computer and electronic products manufacturing (+3,300). Hiring in the IT services and custom software development category was flat, while telecommunications-related occupations declined (-1,400).

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The number of ‘metaverse’ vacancies has more than quadrupled in four months, increasing +379% from October, according to research from the Indianapolis-based job search engine Adzuna.

The rise in job vacancies that mention “metaverse” in October doesn’t come as a surprise since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rebranded the company to Meta and announced a $10b project to build a parallel metaverse universe.

Metaverse opportunities range from openings for UI and animation designers to developers, UX designers, writers and data scientists. At a sector level, the top five industries currently hiring for metaverse experts are IT (1,705 jobs); creative & design (566 jobs); PR, advertising & marketing (361 jobs); engineering (272 jobs); and sales (202 jobs).

“Hiring metaverse experts is the latest recruitment trend to show exponential growth. The last few months have seen a surge in job openings related to the metaverse with demand catalyzed by Zuckerberg’s Facebook rebranding and refocusing exercise,” says James Neave, head of data Science at Adzuna.

Related: Tech Hiring Eases Amid Labor Supply Constraints

“Metaverse experts are the new hot ticket with related roles ranging from developers to data scientists, writers, and creatives. This follows booming interest in crypto and cybersecurity roles throughout 2021 and we continue to see the tech sector growing and strengthening during this time,” says Neave.

Although the re-branding of Facebook to Meta has catalyzed a rise in openings, the first metaverse posting was in April 2019, showing the concept has existed for several years as a niche rather than a mainstream term, according to Adzuna.

In the beginning of the year, Adzuna also started seeing other big tech brands investing in the metaverse. For instance, Microsoft announced its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the biggest video game developer and publisher, which will allow the company to develop Microsoft-backed games and software in the metaverse in the coming years.

Google is starting to invest again in augmented reality (AR) to get its foot back in the door within the metaverse, investing millions in a private equity fund for future metaverse projects.

Crypto and cybersecurity postings also growing

Two other areas have also seen rapid growth in job postings. The number of job vacancies mentioning the keyword ‘crypto’ has risen sharply, accounting for 5,302 advertised vacancies in February 2022, up from 2,662 in October, and +409% higher compared to 1,042 a year ago.

Similarly, there were 64,659 ‘cybersecurity’ jobs in February 2022, up from 48,183 in October, more than doubling (+137%) from 27,267 a year ago, according to Adzuna.

The number of job vacancies mentioning the keyword “crypto” has also risen sharply, accounting for 5,302 advertised vacancies in February 2022, up from 2,662 in October, and +409% higher compared to 1,042 a year ago.

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Today, tech job seekers are attracted to areas with lower costs of living. According to a CompTIA’s IT Career Insights survey, about one in four IT pros cite job flexibility in work hours or location as a driver for initially seeking a career in IT. Last year there were 3.3 million total job postings for open IT positions in the United States. About one-quarter of those (27%) were advertised as remote work.

CompTIA’s research team looked at 20 metropolitan areas with populations over 250,000, where demand for tech workers is greatest. The cities were then ranked based on cost of living, number of postings for open IT positions and projected job growth over the next 12 months and the next five years. Check out CompTIA’s 2022 Tech Town Index for a complete list of hubs around the U.S. where technology is blossoming. In the meantime, find below five surprisingly best cities in the U.S. for tech jobs.

Click “View slideshow” to reveal five surprisingly best cities for tech jobs in America for 2022.

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New staffing in the data processing, hosting and related services employment category led the June job gains, with 13,200 positions added, according to the “Employment Situation” report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

An estimated 1,000 tech sector jobs were added in other information services, including search engines, while the IT services and custom software development was flat last month. Job losses were reported in telecommunications (- 2,200) and computer and electronic products manufacturing (- 1,400).

Read: Cybersecurity, Customer Service Should Be Top Priorities For IT Help Desk Staff

Tech sector employment has experienced job growth in 10 of the past 12 months. IT occupations throughout the economy declined by 12,000. The unemployment rate for IT occupations was 2.2% in June compared to the national unemployment rate of 5.9%.

Employer job postings for open tech positions remain solid with an estimated 307,000 postings advertised in June.

Software and application developers, IT support specialists, systems engineers and architects, systems analysts and IT project managers are in the highest demand.

Jobs in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, or those requiring emerging tech skills accounted for 28% of all open positions.

The demand for workers extends beyond technology-related companies into industry sectors such as finance and insurance (32,100 postings), manufacturing (24,970), retail trade (10,081), healthcare and social assistance (7,659), public administration (6,549) and educational services (5,820).

Similarly, the geographic disbursement of open tech positions is widespread.

Major metropolitan areas, including New York, Washington, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Jose accounted for the largest number of postings in June.

Markets in Alabama (Huntsville, Birmingham and Montgomery) and Colorado (Colorado Springs, Boulder and Fort Collins) were in the top 10 metro areas with the largest month over month increases in tech job postings.

Monthly occupation-level data reporting from the Bureau of Labor Statistics may be subject to higher levels of variance and volatility.

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Citing the monthly U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CompTIA said the country’s technology sector added an estimated 14,200 jobs last month, including technical and non-technical positions at U.S. tech firms.

October marks the third out of the last four months that the tech sector has seen employment growth.

For the IT industry, gains were even larger, as the industry added an estimated 142,000 jobs in October. That brings the IT unemployment rate down to 2.8% from 3.5% in September. That’s far lower than the U.S. total unemployment rate of 6.9%.

The 14,200 additional job postings in October increased the total number of IT jobs available to 239,000, according to CompTIA.

“It is reassuring to see consistency in this month’s data with all four metrics pointing to momentum in tech employment,” said Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA.

Read Next: Most Tech Jobs Are Going to These Five Cities

IT services and custom software development led the way with the addition of 15,800 jobs, followed by 3,500 new jobs in tech manufacturing, and 800 new jobs in data processing, hosting and related services.

Total IT job postings last month were led by application developers at 72,100, IT support specialists at 22,000, system engineers and architects at 18,800, system analysts at 14,800 and IT project managers at 14,000.

The IT industry continues to be receptive to remote work possibilities, as 23% of IT job postings indicated that remote work was an option. That’s in line with the 2020 average of 22%.

Other findings from CompTIA’s analysis of the job data:

• Demand for tech talent continues to be broad-based with employers across industry sectors in hiring mode, led by professional scientific and technical services (41,252) finance and insurance (20,549), manufacturing (18,027) and information (13,644).
• Washington, D.C. (17,414), New York (14,036), Dallas (10,958), San Francisco (10,306) and Los Angeles (9,169) were the top five metropolitan areas with the largest numbers of IT job postings in October.
• Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas and Washington recorded the best month over month gains in job postings.

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