Dive Brief:
- Tech occupations across the economy fell by nearly 100,000 positions in April, one of several mixed signals in the tech employment sphere, according to a CompTIA review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
- The tech sector, which posted employment losses in March amid widespread layoffs, reversed the trend and added 18,795 positions last month. April marked the highest month in hiring since August 2022, according to CompTIA.
- Unemployment among tech professions rose, reaching 2.3%, though the rate remained below the national unemployment rate of 3.4%. In March, tech unemployment held steady at 2.2%.
Dive Insight:
April marked another month of mixed signals from the labor market, according to Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA.
“The surprisingly strong tech sector employment gains were offset by the pause in tech hiring across the economy," said Herbert in a statement.
A wave of layoffs hit technology companies earlier this year, a response to souring economic indicators and previous oversized hiring pushes. Though cutbacks have slowed, last month companies let go of nearly 20,000 employees according to layoff tracking site Layoffs.fyi.
Month-to-month shifts in hiring follow the ebb and flow of the economy and broader dynamics in technology. But the need for tech skills is not going away: employers added more than 300,000 tech positions job postings last month, according to CompTIA data.
Rising adoption of AI is showing signs of long-term impact in hiring trends, as companies such as Meta and IBM announced shifts in hiring to accommodate the technology.
