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Tech Employment Declines in September: CompTIA

With many in the workforce thinking about leaving their jobs, our leadership columnist asks CISOs how much of their current teams can they afford to lose. (Orbon Alija/Getty Images)
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Tech occupations across all sectors of the economy declined by an estimated 20,000 in September. And tech sector companies reduced staffing by a net 2,632 positions in September. That’s according to nonprofit IT industry association CompTIA’s analysis of today’s U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics job report for September 2023.

“There is no sugar-coating the off month of tech employment data,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer, CompTIA. “Despite the persistently high demand for tech skills on many fronts and positive forward-looking projections, there is a lag in hiring at the moment."

September was a continuation of the up-and-down trends that have characterized technology employment throughout 2023, according to CompTIA.

How Tech Employment Compared to Overall Employment

September’s job numbers for technology occupations and the tech sector are in contrast to the rest of the employment picture for the month. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported job gains in leisure and hospitality; government; healthcare; professional, scientific and technical services; and social assistance.

Total non-farm payroll employment increased by 336,000 in September, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.8%.

Here’s a look at some of the additional employment numbers for September 2023:

  • Employer job postings for future tech hiring fell to 184,077.
  • Demand for software positions continues to drive the largest volume of hiring activity.
  • Other stronger job roles include IT project management IT support, data analytics and systems/cloud infrastructure.
  • Positions in emerging technologies or jobs requiring emerging tech skills accounted for 26.5% of all tech job postings for the month, up from 22% in August.
  • Within emerging tech job postings 36% were associated with artificial intelligence (AI)
  • Employers in the professional, scientific and technical services; manufacturing; administrative support; finance and insurance; and information sectors had the largest share of tech job postings.
  • California, Texas and Virginia had the largest volumes of tech job postings at the state level, while Washington, New York City and Dallas led metro markets.

    • What About Remote/Hybrid Work

    CompTIA’s analysis shows that remote and hybrid tech job postings peaked in July 2022. While they’ve fallen since then, they still haven’t declined to pre-pandemic levels reported in 2019.

    The top remote positions in tech job postings were (in order of the most postings) software developers; IT project management, data analyst, and emerging technology; data scientists, systems analysts, IT support specialists, database administrators, cybersecurity  analysts and engineers; web developers; network and systems administrators; and database architects.

    The full CompTIA Tech Jobs Report is available here.

    Jessica C. Davis

    Jessica C. Davis has spent a career as a journalist and editor covering the business of technology including chips, software, the cloud, AI, and cybersecurity. She previously served as editor in chief of Channel Insider and later of MSP Mentor. She now serves as editorial director for CyberRisk Alliance’s channel brands, MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E.

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