Dive Brief:
- Employers across the economy added 228,000 technology occupations during the first month of 2025, marking the second consecutive month of growth, according to a CompTIA review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published Friday.
- Open tech jobs also jumped in January as companies added 51,000 net new job postings, for a total of 476,000 active open roles, according to CompTIA.
- Despite the rise in tech jobs, unemployment among IT positions also increased in January to 2.9%, up from 2% the previous month. The national unemployment rate dipped slightly to 4%.
Dive Insight:
The increase in tech unemployment clashes against the ongoing dearth of qualified technologists, especially in niche categories such as AI and data science.
A potential explanation for the month-over-month rise in unemployment is jobseekers may have restarted their search last month after a pause in December, but haven't yet found a new position, said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, in an email.
IT unemployment ticked up in January
Big tech providers, including Microsoft and Salesforce, reportedly conducted targeted layoffs in recent weeks. Google also offered workers in some divisions a voluntary exit package.
January workforce reductions have become common practice for large tech companies. In 2023, tech providers trimmed thousands of roles citing economic concerns. Last January, there were more than 34,000 tech job cuts according to self-reported layoff tracking site Layoffs.fyi.
Pressed by ambitious tech adoption plans in the months ahead, more than 4 in 5 IT decision-makers are concerned about having enough talent to meet their needs, according to a Revature report. AI and ML are among the key categories they hope to fill, mainly through upskilling and reskilling existing employees.
The market for AI skills is piping hot, with more than 40,000 active job postings for positions in AI or requiring AI skills, up from 38,500 in December.
