While the overall job market continued to show resilience, adding 177,000 jobs in April and beating analyst expectations, IT employment ticked down 0.05%, according to TechServe Alliance, the national trade association for the IT & Engineering Staffing and Solutions Industry. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment grew by 0.52%, adding 27,300 jobs. Meanwhile, engineering employment inched down 0.03% month-over-month and down 0.05% compared to the same period last year.
“Despite small ticks down in March and April, IT employment has nevertheless stayed in a narrow range the last 10 months. While the dramatic shift in economic policy has certainly slowed decision-making and, in some cases, caused projects to be paused, we don’t yet see the direct impact of those changes in the employment data,” observed Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. “While there continues to be strong demand for talent in areas such as AI integration, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and data analytics, a broader recovery will be dependent on the overhang of uncertainty dissipating among other factors. The robustness of any eventual rebound is also likely to be unevenly distributed across industries and geographies,” added Roberts.
