While the overall employment picture was positive with 678,000 non-farm jobs added in February, IT employment ticked down modestly for the first time since August 2020. The IT sector-related jobs showed an incremental decline of 0.04%, down 2,400 jobs, to 5,406,700 jobs in February, 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 1.79% since February 2021, adding 95,200 IT workers.
Engineering employment grew by 0.20% sequentially to 2,670,500. On a year-over-year basis, engineering employment increased by 3.42% since February 2021, adding 88,400 engineering workers.
“Since emerging from its low of ebb brought on by the pandemic, IT employment has been essentially flat for last seven months. IT employment ticked down modestly for the first time in more than 18 months, reflecting an extraordinarily tight supply of technical talent,” said Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. “It’s up to companies to formulate their talent acquisition strategies that meet the expectations of the talent in terms of compensation and return-to-work policies. Additionally, to be successful in this environment, companies must be creative and diversify their approach to sourcing candidates.”
