Dive Brief:
- Employers added more than 200,000 technologists to the payroll in March, according to a CompTIA analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data published Friday.
- The hiring boom followed a significant dip in February, when the economy lost 133,000 tech positions and IT unemployment soared to 3.5%. The rate dropped to 3.0% in March, as the tech sector added 6,000 jobs, further contributing to the economywide surge.
- The numbers marked a “welcome return to stability,” CompTIA Chief Research Officer Tim Herbert said in a release. Prior to March, the number of IT positions declined for four consecutive months, dating back to October, when the economy added nearly half a million tech jobs.
Dive Insight:
Month-to-month hiring fluctuations smooth out over time, revealing reliably consistent demand for IT professionals in a technology-dependent economy.
When all the monthly numbers are tallied, the tech workforce is expected to add 300,000 net new positions this year, increasing 3.1% year over year, according to CompTIA’s annual market analysis report, published Wednesday.
“After periods of overperformance and underperformance, the overarching tech story remains positive,” Herbert said in the Wednesday release.
IT unemployment nearly matched the rate for all professions last month but fell below the 3.8% national rate in March, despite ongoing tech sector layoffs.
IT employment fell significantly below the national rate in March
Collectively, 235 tech companies have laid off 58,000 employees since the start of the year, according to Layoffs.fyi tracking, including Google, Microsoft, IBM and, most recently, Amazon.
The cuts Amazon announced this week extend to the company’s massive cloud division. The hyperscaler will eliminate several hundred roles in its Sales, Marketing and Global Services organization and a few hundred positions in Physical Stores Technology, an AWS spokesperson told CIO Dive Friday via email.
The hyperscaler intends to continue growing its workforce in other areas and currently has thousands of open job postings, the spokesperson said.
Employers added 191,000 IT job postings in March, according to CompTIA’s analysis, bringing the total number of active openings for technology roles to 438,000. Software developers and IT support specialists saw the biggest postings bump from February to March, and AI skills were mentioned in 41% of postings in the emerging technologies subcategory during the month.
