Technology jobs have fallen so far this year, but the IT job market remains competitive as organizations look to fill in-demand tech jobs.
While large tech firms have made headlines for announcing large layoffs, job opportunities remain abundant across all over industry sectors, according to trade groups and industry analysts.
According to IT trade organization CompTIA, tech-related employment fell slightly in February as previously announced layoffs are now finally appearing in data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Tech sector employment, which includes all types of workers employed by tech companies, fell by 11,184 positions in February. In addition, tech occupations in all industry sectors declined by 38,000 positions, representing a 0.6% decline of the total base of tech employment across the U.S, according to CompTIA.
Now, the tech unemployment rate sits at 2.2%, the trade group says. Job postings for tech positions declined by about 40,000 to just over 229,000 last month, CompTIA says. Further, most metropolitan markets saw tech employment declines, while some smaller markets saw gains.
Across industry sectors, the largest number of job postings for tech positions was in the professional, scientific and tech services industry at 35,000.
In addition, IT consulting firm Janco Associates says the IT job market has shrunk by nearly 45,000 jobs in the first two months of 2023, and this is the first loss in the number of IT professionals employed in over 27 months.
In January, there were 10,000 IT jobs lost, and another 13,400 jobs were lost in February, the firm says.
However, the tech talent crunch is not over, says Gartner Senior Director Analyst Mbula Schoen. In a recent Q&A, Schoen says current demand for tech talent greatly outstrips supply, which Gartner expects will be the case until at least 2026, based on the firm’s IT spending forecast.
However, many of those highly publicized layoffs were in business functions at tech companies rather than tech roles, Schoen says, adding that there are still opportunities for IT jobs outside of tech companies. Many of those job cuts were largely driven by public companies seeking to optimize share prices and show shareholders that they are reducing spending after seemingly over hiring over the past three years.
However, new hires are not necessarily being impacted, Schoen says.
“Instead, recent layoffs affected a broader range of employees and initiatives as organizations prioritize key products and services to position their company for specific market opportunities,” Schoen says. “In fact, Gartner research found that the companies behind the 10 largest layoffs in tech talent still employ over 150,000 more people in total than at the beginning of 2020.”
CIOs and IT leaders should look beyond those headlines, because the competition for IT talent will continue to rise, especially in areas such s data science, software engineering and cybersecurity.
“Delivering on digital growth opportunities will only be achievable with the recognition that the IT talent crunch continues unabated,” Schoen says. “While the overall supply of tech workers in the labor market has increased by only a few percentage points at most, CIOs can take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen their recruiting efforts.”
To attract and retain top talent, Schoen recommends casting wider nets to tap into a large pool of “passive” IT candidates, ramping up employee referral programs, or use talent intelligent capabilities that leverage AI to source passive candidates from social search.
In addition, CIOs should target laid-off workers in adjacent categories and train them to build the necessary IT skills. For example, organizations could hire data and business analysts and train them on more technical skills to become data scientists.
Schoen also recommends that organizations improve their employee value propositions by focusing on factors other than compensation, such as flexibility and growth opportunity.
Leave a Reply