According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, US IT job growth slowed further in October, adding 4,800 positions. Latest figures from information technology job consulting firm Janco Associates. This is down from the 8,900 positions added in the revised September figures.
Overall growth in IT positions comes even as the highly infectious delta variant of COVID-19 continues to hamper overall job growth, primarily due to a slowdown in the restaurant, entertainment and retail sectors. location and service.
The IT industry’s bigger challenge is finding qualified candidates for those IT jobs, M. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco, said in a statement. And the ordeal won’t be over anytime soon, he said:
From the data we’ve looked at, the outage causes fewer computer science applicants to graduate from college and trade school. Those in the pipeline for those levels have also fallen. One of the drivers of that trend is that border closures have limited the number of foreign nationals who can qualify for training and education.
Many of the new positions that CIOs are trying to fill are in new technologies. There is a shortage of individuals with the necessary training and skills. There are open positions that cannot be filled. … At the same time, time consuming rates are increasing in many IT organizations.
U.S. IT job growth at the start of the year was stronger, before delta variation and talent shortages: August saw an increase of 25,400 new jobs, about 18,500 higher than in October 6 and 9,900 in July (all adjusted figures), reflecting business activity continuing to recover from the pandemic. In fact, the IT job growth rate has been for 15 consecutive months, although it was uneven throughout May. As of 2021, I have received an average of 13,000 new jobs per month.
The IT job situation in the US continues to be the same as it was before the pandemic: more positions than applicants. In fact, businesses will fill more IT positions in September if they find enough qualified candidates, Janulaitis said. Finding web developers and experts in cybersecurity and compliance remains the toughest task for CIOs, he said — and is making HR focus more on retaining IT staff.
The talent shortage has put more pressure on businesses to raise wages — and US IT wages are already trending up in 2021, Janulaitis said.
Janco still expects 2021 to see greater IT job growth – there are 189,000 new positions in 2021 as of October 31, with two months of hiring left in the year – than in any previous year, more than make up for the job losses due to the pandemic. The last high was in 2015, when 112,500 new positions were created. In 2018, 104,600 new IT positions were added; in 2019, the increase is 90,200; and in 2020, this industry will lose 33,200 positions.
Janco estimates there are 3.72 million professional IT jobs in the US.
Tech jobs monthly Report published by industry association CompTIA also showed slower hiring growth in October. CompTIA calculated that there were 8,300 new jobs in the US tech sector last month, down from 18,700 in September, 26,800 in August. 10,700 in July and 10,500 in June. According to CompTIA data, the number of jobs in the US technology sector is still higher than the March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions, just above past 4.81 million in October 2021, according to CompTIA data.
CompTIA calculates both technical and non-technical positions at technology providers, with approximately 44% technical and 56% non-technical; Janco considers IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.
CompTIA calculates an estimated unemployment rate for the tech sector to be 2.1% in October, down from 2.2% in September but up from 1.5% in August and July. Industry in the technology sector is currently in the lowest range for 2018-19, which ranges from 1.2% to 2.4%. The national unemployment rate for October was 4.6%, down from 4.8% in September, according to the BLS.
