Positive momentum for technology-related employment in the United States continued in February, with key indicators pointing to strong current and future employer demand for tech talent, according to an analysis by CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the information technology (IT) industry and workforce.
Tech sector companies added 7,700 workers in February, data in the “Employment Situation” report released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals. The total includes both technical and non-technical job roles.
IT occupations throughout the nation’s economy expanded by 178,000 jobs last month.1 The unemployment rate for IT occupations remains at 2.4% compared to 6.6% nationally for all occupations.
The number of employer job postings for open IT positions surpassed 277,000 in February, a 12-month high.
“Even though tech employment held up reasonably well during the turbulence of the past 12 months, many employers were in a wait-and-see hiring mode,” said Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA. “With the three recent months of tech employment gains we’re likely seeing that pent-up demand translate to new hires.”
Within the tech sector four of five employment categories recorded job gains in February, led by IT services and custom software development (+6,200). Data processing, hosting and related services (+1,800), computer and electronic products manufacturing (+1,700) and other information services, including search engines (+1,400) also were in positive territory. Telecommunications employment declined by 3,400 positions, dampening an otherwise solid month of job growth in the tech sector.
February job postings suggest that employers’ search for IT professionals is growing. More than 277,000 open positions were advertised, an increase of better than 44,300 over January and the highest monthly total since March 2020.
Positions for software and application developers accounted for the largest share of the openings (88,600), followed by systems engineers and architects (22,700), IT support specialists (22,000), web developers (18,000) and IT project managers (17,400).
Industries with the highest numbers of February job postings for IT talent included professional, scientific and technical services (51,068), finance and insurance (20,878), manufacturing (20,219), information (16,453) and retail trade (9,131).
Across the country, the metro areas of Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C. and San Jose recorded the highest month-over-month gains in IT job postings. Among the states, California, Illinois, Washington, North Carolina and Texas had the strongest month-over-month performance.
Job openings in emerging technologies or positions requiring emerging tech skills increased by nearly 24% in February, surpassing 81,000 and accounting for 29% of all open positions advertised by employers. Positions in artificial intelligence (12,237) accounted for nearly 15% of the total. The top five metro areas for AI job postings were Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle.
