While some high-profile hiring freezes and layoffs in the tech sector, including the cryptocurrency market, demand for IT professionals remains strong, the tech job market remains strong.
CompTIA analysis of data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that technology jobs across all industry sectors increased by nearly 240,000 jobs in July, and IT industry employment rose by 143,700 jobs this year, a 55% year-over-year increase. . The analysis showed that the unemployment rate for tech jobs dropped to 1.7%.
Among the most in-demand roles are software developers and engineers, followed by IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and architects, and network engineers and architects.
Career opportunities are available across the country at every experience level, in a variety of career categories and in every metro market and state, which shows that despite the economic headwinds, technology professionals still have a very strong market to tap into.
Major metro areas, including New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, saw significant month-over-month increases in job postings. However, many smaller cities — from Topoka, Kansas to Rochester, New York — also posted significant increases.
Computer knowledge is required
Matthew Warner, CTO and co-founder of Blumira, noted that during the last recession, a significant number of IT workers were being laid off from organizations as they migrated to managed service providers to provide support.
“However, over the past 10 years, the expansion of responsibilities and the need for internal IT staff has evolved with MSP support staff,” he said. “While there may be some reduction in headcount at certain organizations for IT, there will be job openings for anyone who is smart and tech-savvy.”
As information grows in organizations, computer literacy and the ability to solve complex problems are more important than ever.
“While entry-level positions are still scarce, candidates with years of experience are needed more than ever to perform the demands of running agile organizations without additional or unnecessary supervision,” Warner said.
The benefits of nurturing in-house talent
Jonathan Webster, CEO of cyber security firm CybSafe, says that in this tech job market, nurturing local talent gives small firms a way to meet their IT talent needs and improve company culture at the same time.
“We have a supply and demand issue. “If you’re not hiring and developing junior talent, you’re not helping people get great jobs and you’re not helping the high-tech skills shortage.”
To that end, CybSafe is working with supporting organizations like Girls to Code First and Black Women Coding to help remove barriers to entry into technology.
“We are passionate about how we can support our company’s philanthropic work by encouraging everyone to give the time they deserve,” he said. “The team is doing everything from helping people get into technology, to elementary schools and telling young kids that software engineering is anyone’s part.”
CybSafe also revamped job ads and job descriptions, removing requirements for years of experience or special academic achievements, Webster said.
“We model the interview process as closely as possible to real-life cybsafe experience, so if you like the challenge and can do it, you’re a good fit for us,” he said.
Despite a strong tech job market and overall optimism for the future for tech professionals, Webster cited external pressures on the economy as a concern, warning that “inflation is real” and will affect people, although he said he believes careers like software engineering will remain the same. They are protected to some extent.
“A big fear – talking to friends who are engineers – they’re more worried about the stability of their company, right now a lot of tech companies are struggling with valuations and funding cuts,” he said.
Big data, data warehouses and related efforts are among the emerging career areas that technologists should be aware of, Webster said.
“Furthermore, as post-Covid life means more remote work and communication, the need to expand cloud security and remote infrastructure will continue,” he said.
While there may be some bumps in the road, IT and technical jobs will continue to grow, Webster says.
“Similarly, there won’t be enough people to fill these open roles, and there will always be openings for smart IT people,” he said.
About the author
Nathan Eddy is a freelance writer for ITPro Today. He has written for Popular Mechanics, Sales and Marketing Management Magazine, FierceMarkets and CRN, among others. In the year In 2012, he made his first documentary, The Absent Column. He currently lives in Berlin.
