Dive Brief:
- Technology job postings declined across sectors during the first half of the year, according to Dice data released Tuesday. The career marketplace analyzed job postings in manufacturing, consulting, finance, education and aerospace/defense.
- Despite the downturn, organizations continued to invest in automation, modernization, cloud capabilities and emerging AI solutions, the company said.
- Faced with rising salaries, low unemployment and persistent economic uncertainty, enterprises turned to outside consultants for digital transformation planning and execution, according to Art Zeile, president and CEO of Dice parent company DHI Group.
Dive Insight:
As growth slowed and big tech shed jobs, even consulting pared back on hiring. IT job posting volume in the sector fell to under 44,000 in June, a 30% year-over-year drop from more than 62,000 last June, the report said.
But as low unemployment during the first half of the year indicated, there weren’t enough technologists on the market to satisfy enterprise appetite for data science, software engineering, cloud architecture, web design and other digital skills.
“If you have AI or cybersecurity or cloud engineering skills, there's probably zero unemployment and you can probably name your price,” Zeile said.
Enthusiasm for generative AI coupled with federal funding for AI research, silicon chip production and onshoring manufacturing fed the demand for technical expertise, according to Zeile.
“We have all these simultaneous dynamics that are increasing the demand for technologists,” said Zeile, pointing to long-term business modernization projects and investments in technology driven manufacturing and infrastructure. “All of that puts a simultaneous strain on the supply of technologists.”
In manufacturing, where there’s a push to automate, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nike and Nestle were among the top technologist recruiters through June, Dice found. And, while postings decreased significantly year over year in finance, large banks continue to seek out technologists with SQL, Python and Java expertise, as well as CX and backend developers and cloud architects to support digital strategy, the report said.
Capital One, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase helped contribute to more than 13,000 finance tech job postings in June, a nearly 50% drop from more than 25,000 last year, but still more than enough to outpace supply.
“It's a tougher time for banks,” said Zeile. “But the bigger banks are focused on digital transformation and they are hiring armies of technologists. If you looked today, you'd find that JPMorgan Chase has thousands of postings.”
