Dive Brief:
- The key indicators of tech hiring suggest the sector cooled in September, according to a CompTIA review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data published Friday.
- Unemployment among IT professionals ticked up to 2.2%, up from 2.1% in August, marking the second straight month of increases. IT unemployment still tracked below the national average, which remained unchanged from the previous month at 3.8%.
- The tech sector shed more than 2,600 jobs last month, while the economy overall lost 20,000 IT positions across industries, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
The slowdown in technology employment clashed against the national labor snapshot in September. Employers added more than 336,000 jobs, nearly doubling market expectations.
“There is no sugar-coating the off month of tech employment data,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, in a release. “Despite the persistently high demand for tech skills on many fronts and positive forward-looking projections, there is a lag in hiring at the moment."
IT unemployment rose in September as tech job market cooled
The report also shed some light on future hiring expectations related to tech positions. After reaching a three-year peak in mid-2022 at more than 370,000, job postings for tech positions fell to just over 184,000 last month.
"There is a combination of factors at play," said Herbert in an email. "Economic uncertainty, higher capital costs and persistent inflation may translate to segments of CIOs pausing or postponing hiring decisions."
The pause of large technology investment decisions that began last year is still carrying ripple effects in pockets of technology hiring, especially in the emerging and tech startup space, Herbert said.
Key labor market indicators continue to cast doubt over the stability of the tech industry, according to Kristin Hales, VP of people operations at Impartner. The results also prompt the industry to ask itself if it is as efficient as it can be.
Despite concerns, industry wide reliance on digital solutions and platforms suggest ongoing need for trained technologists.
"Tech talent is critical to most companies these days and impacts nearly every industry," Hales said in an email. "I believe companies will still need to hire for strategic and specialized roles. Roles with the most considerable demand are largely data related, for example, data engineers, data scientists, machine learning engineers and business analysts."