Dive Brief:
- IT unemployment fell for the third consecutive month in May, dipping to 2.5% from April's 2.8%, according to a CompTIA review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data published Friday. Tech jobs bucked a national trend of rising unemployment, which grew to 4%.
- Employers across the economy also added 27,000 job postings in May, for a total of 209,000 active postings — the highest total since June of last year, according to the IT trade group.
- "The jump in tech job postings is an encouraging indicator more employers are coming off the sidelines,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, in the report. “It may reflect pent up demand for the tech talent companies will need to support digital growth initiatives."
Dive Insight:
Employers continue to seek talent that drives technology forward, with AI accelerating the push. AI-related occupations accounted for 12% of job postings, up from 11% in the previous month.
IT employment fell in May, marking the third consecutive contraction
Generative AI adoption could have a knock-on effect on tech talent demand, according to Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at Indeed's Hiring Lab.
"If these technologies [are] a boon to the industry overall, they'll have this secondary inducement effect," Bunker told CIO Dive. "If these companies are growing, they're likely to hire for other positions that are not directly using these technologies, developing them or interacting with them."
Job postings for data scientists — a critical role for AI implementations — saw the highest growth rate in May, rising 24% month-over-month, CompTIA noted.
Though the downward trend in IT unemployment is an encouraging sign for jobseekers, technology occupations across the economy contracted slightly in May, falling by 42,000. CompTIA noted the loss represents "less than 1% of the total base of tech occupation employment of almost 6.4 million."
