Though they remain low, unemployment figures have seesawed over the past six months, a phenomenon that has some tech industry experts scratching their heads trying to make sense of what may be the new norm.
Last month, unemployment in technology fields increased along with the overall US unemployment rate, which rose from 3.5% in July to 3.8% in August, according to new data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). At the same time, total employment across all markets increased by 187,000 jobs in August.
The mixed messages in last Friday’s employment report carried over to the tech industry and workforce, according to an analysis by industry group Coptic.
Tech unemployment had dropped from 2.3% in June to 1.8% in July, as tech firms and employers in other industries added workers after a spate of high-profile layoffs in the tech industry.
The latest BLS report, however, found that employers across the US economy reduced tech occupations by an estimated 189,000 positions, pushing the unemployment rate for tech jobs up to 2.1% — almost where it was in June, Coptic said.
“The usual caveats of monthly fluctuations in labor market data apply,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at Coptic. “The seesawing between strong and lagging tech jobs reports is undoubtedly confusing, but the overall macro trend of growth in the depth and breadth of the tech workforce remains steady.”
Employer job postings for future tech hiring (a separate category tracked by Coptic) totaled nearly 208,000 in August, a slight decline of 1.4% from the previous month. But job postings for information security analysts increased 19% from July to August to more than 12,000 postings. Other in-demand occupations include software developers, tech support specialists, computer systems analysts, and data scientists.
With ‘pandemic paranoia’ about hiring lingering, companies are continuing to hold onto their workers, remembering how hard it was to rehire, said Becky Frankiewicz, president of global staffing firm Manpower Group’s North America Region. "Essential workers we valued through the pandemic may not be feeling so essential, as real-time job postings for blue collar roles like operations and logistics/maintenance and repair are down 43% month over month" based on Manpower Group’s real-time data.
"This Labor Day is a great occasion to celebrate the resilience of the American worker," she said. "Although we are seeing a slowdown, the labor market remains healthy, and we are optimistic about the future."
Positions in emerging technologies or jobs requiring emerging tech skills, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and data science, accounted for 23% of all tech jobs postings in August. Among emerging tech job postings, 37% were associated with AI, with California, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and Virginia showing the highest numbers of AI-related job postings.
New data from IT staffing firm Experts found that an increasing number of companies surveyed are either adopting or planning to adopt emerging technologies in their recruiting processes. That comes as more than three quarters (78%) of IT organizations report difficulty finding talent with the right skills — a 17-year-high.
According to Experts, 58% of employers believe AI and virtual reality will create jobs, not kill them. Additionally, cybersecurity, technical support, and customer experience remain high-priority IT staffing areas. Half of employers say they are training and upskilling their current workforce to address staffing challenges.
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