If you are looking for a new IT job, there’s some good news for you in the US Bureau of Labor Statistics January jobs and unemployment reports. However, CIOs and other IT and tech leaders can expect a continued challenging environment when it comes to retaining and recruiting talent.
Overall, the US saw strong national growth of 467,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate held at 4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report.
What’s It Mean for IT Workers?
Drilling down, the unemployment rate for areas where IT workers are employed saw significant improvement from the same period a year ago. The unemployment rate for professional and business services fell to 4.5% in January 2022 from 6.8% the same period a year ago. The unemployment rate for information workers fell to 4.2% in January 2022 from 7.4% during the same period a year ago.
“By all accounts this was an exceptionally strong start to the year for tech employment,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, an IT industry association, in a statement. “The arms race in recruiting and retaining tech talent undoubtedly challenges employers in direct and indirect ways.”
CompTIA Analysis
CompTIA issues its own Tech Jobs Report analysis to coincide with the monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics job report and pulls additional information about job postings from EMSI Burning Glass. The organization said that employer job postings for tech positions reached nearly 340,000 last month across industry sectors, geographies, and skill sets. The January rate of tech job postings is tracking above the 12-month average by approximately 11%, according to CompTIA.
“Employer job posting analysis confirms the interconnected nature of technical skills across cloud infrastructure, applications, data and cybersecurity, as well as the critical importance of soft skills, project management skills and business acumen,” Herbert said.
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