Dive Brief:
- The number of tech workers economywide dropped by 32,000 in January as compared to the previous month, according to a CompTIA review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. This resulted in a 0.5% drop in tech workers compared to the addition of 130,000 in December.
- But the tech unemployment remains low, dropping to 1.5% last month from December’s rate of 1.8%. The lower rate is “an indication many laid off workers were re-hired and absorbed back into the labor market,” CompTIA said.
- The tech unemployment rate sits well below the national average, continuing the multiyear trend. The national unemployment rate also dropped in January, reaching 3.4%, down from 3.5% in December.
Dive Insight:
Despite a rash of tech-sector layoffs, demand for tech workers continues to outpace supply.
“The low tech unemployment rate and steady hiring activity by employers confirms the long-term demand for tech talent across many sectors of the economy,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement.
Tech unemployment consistently trails national rate
Percentage of tech position unemployment compared to national rate
A steady appetite for tech workers economywide remains. There were nearly 269,000 tech job postings, an increase of more than 22,000 compared to December. This broke a two-month consecutive decline. In December, the number fell by more than nine percentage points to 246,000 from 270,000 in November.
Major metropolitan areas saw a notable jump in tech job postings, including Atlanta, Georgia, Tampa, Florida, Washington and three major areas in Texas — Dallas, Houston and Austin.
Businesses in professional, scientific and technical services; finance and insurance; and manufacturing were most eager to hire tech workers.
In the first month of the year, employers economywide added 517,000 jobs.
