US Tech Hiring Rebounds in January, CompTIA Analysis Reveals

2/8/2020
CompTIA
 

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2020 -- Employment in the U.S. technology sector grew by an estimated 15,800 new positions and companies across the economy added some 370,000 core information technology (IT) workers in January1, according to an analysis by CompTIA, the leading trade association for the global IT industry.

The January tech hiring data from today's U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation report (#JobsReport) represents a bounce back after several lackluster months to end 2019.

"This month's employment data brings tech hiring activity back in line with expectations," said Tim Hebert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA. "Employers continue to signal the need to expand their base of tech talent to meet short and longer-term business objectives."

The majority of January hiring within the tech sector occurred in two categories – IT services, custom software development and computer systems design (+ 8,800 jobs) and data processing, hosting and related services (+ 5,300).

Job gains were also recorded in other information services, which includes search engines and portals (+ 1,400) and computer and electronics product manufacturing (+ 700). The addition of tech manufacturing positions occurred during a month when 12,000 manufacturing jobs were eliminated across all industries. The telecommunications employment category lost 400 jobs last month.

The positive employment data for January was accompanied by growth in employer job postings for future hiring. The number of postings for IT occupations increased by 52,090 in January over December 2019. Software and app developer positions led the way with 115,100 postings. Other in-demand tech occupations employers are looking to fill include IT user support specialists (32,200), systems engineers and architects (25,400), systems analysts (23,500) and IT project managers (21,300).

California, Texas, Virginia, New York and Florida were the top five states in total IT job postings last month. States recording the strongest month-over-month growth in job postings were led by Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Broken down by metropolitan area, New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Dallas and San Francisco had the most job postings for IT talent last month. Washington, D.C., Dallas, Chicago, Charlotte and Philadelphia topped the list of metro markets with the highest month-over-month growth.

The CompTIA IT Employment Tracker for January is available at https://www.slideshare.net/comptia/comptia-it-employment-tracker-february-2020-227281294.

Visit https://www.comptia.org/newsroom for more news from CompTIA.

About CompTIA
The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is a leading voice and advocate for the $5.2 trillion global information technology ecosystem; and the estimated 75 million industry and tech professionals who design, implement, manage, and safeguard the technology that powers the world's economy. Through education, training, certifications, advocacy, philanthropy, and market research, CompTIA is the hub for advancing the tech industry and its workforce. Visit www.comptia.org to learn more.