Tech Job Market Still Smoking Hot

If you might be on the lookout for a brand new IT job, there’s some excellent news for you within the US Bureau of Labor Statistics January jobs and unemployment reports. However, CIOs and different IT and tech leaders can anticipate a continued difficult surroundings in terms of retaining and recruiting expertise.

Overall, the US noticed sturdy nationwide development of 467,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment charge held at 4%, in line with the Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

What’s It Mean for IT Workers?

Drilling down, the unemployment charge for areas the place IT staff are employed noticed vital enchancment from the identical interval a 12 months in the past. The unemployment charge for skilled and enterprise providers fell to 4.5% in January 2022 from 6.8% the identical interval a 12 months in the past. The unemployment charge for data staff fell to 4.2% in January 2022 from 7.4% throughout the identical interval a 12 months in the past.

“By all accounts this was an exceptionally strong start to the year for tech employment,” mentioned Tim Herbert, chief analysis officer at CompTIA, an IT trade affiliation, in a press release. “The arms race in recruiting and retaining tech talent undoubtedly challenges employers in direct and indirect ways.”

CompTIA Analysis

CompTIA points its personal Tech Jobs Report analysis
to coincide with the month-to-month Bureau of Labor Statistics job report and pulls extra details about job postings from EMSI Burning Glass. The group mentioned that employer job postings for tech positions reached almost 340,000 final month throughout trade sectors, geographies, and ability units. The January charge of tech job postings is monitoring above the 12-month common by roughly 11%, in line with CompTIA.

“Employer job posting analysis confirms the interconnected nature of technical skills across cloud infrastructure, applications, data and cybersecurity, as well as the critical importance of soft skills, project management skills and business acumen,” Herbert mentioned.

Tech job postings in these industries led the record in January, in line with CompTIA:

• Professional, scientific, and technical providers (56,860)
• Finance and insurance coverage (38,820)
• Manufacturing (31,379)
• Information (16,796)
• Retail commerce (11,687)

Additionally, the group reported that greater than half of January’s job positive aspects within the tech sector have been in IT providers and customized software program improvement (up 14,800). Technology corporations additionally added staff in knowledge processing, internet hosting and associated providers (+7,500), different data providers together with search engines like google and yahoo (+3,100), and laptop and digital merchandise manufacturing (+2,000). The solely damaging class, shedding 3,100 jobs, was telecommunications employment.

The sturdy labor market is sweet for staff, however it makes for a difficult retention and hiring marketplace for employers, who’re going through greater employment prices, in line with one other latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Are Workers Looking for New Jobs?

These sturdy job numbers for January observe on extra and separate analysis launched by CompTIA this week, revealing that roughly 30% of staff have been on the lookout for a brand new job or a brand new profession during the last three months. The Job Seeker Trends report was primarily based on a survey of 1,119 adults within the US labor power who’re at the moment employed or actively on the lookout for work.

“These findings confirm there is also a great resetting of expectations underway as workers and employers seek better models for reskilling, talent matching and career navigation,” mentioned Todd Thibodeaux, CompTIA president and CEO, in a press release.

Further, CompTIA mentioned that amongst present job seekers, 61% mentioned they’ve checked out new alternatives in a unique profession subject and 63% have looked for jobs inside their present or most up-to-date profession subject. The findings are constant throughout gender, age, and training demographics, in line with the group.

What to Read Next:

How IT Managers Can Retain Talent in Today’s Job Market

The IT Talent Crisis: 2 Ways to Hire and Retain

Enterprise Guide to Digital Transformation