In line with a second consecutive month of disappointing national employment numbers, the IT sector added only 2,000 jobs in December. This is a sequential increase of a meager 0.04% to 5,390,300 jobs, according to TechServe Alliance, the national trade association of the IT & Engineering Staffing and Solutions Industry. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment was up 2.72% since December 2020, adding 142,800 IT workers.
Engineering employment grew by 0.23% sequentially to 2,667,700. On a year-over-year basis, engineering employment increased by 3.41% since December 2020, adding 87,900 engineering workers.
“We expect a continued slowdown in hiring with flat employment growth rate in the IT and engineering sectors for some time to come,” said Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. “With tech unemployment rate dropping to 2%, it is clear the slowdown is more a function of companies struggling to find qualified talent rather than lack of demand.”
“If you haven’t done so already, now’s a good time to revisit compensation and benefits packages to ensure they are competitive in today’s new normal, work with your recruiters to adopt a location-no-bar hiring policy, update your technology and security to enable smooth remote work environment,” Roberts added.
