Tech Employment Remains Effectively Flat Amidst an Extraordinarily Tight Labor Market
The U.S. economy and labor markets continued a path to recovery in March, adding 431,000 non-farm jobs with the unemployment rate dropping to 3.6%. However, in labor categories that were already at full employment like the IT sector, growth continued to be elusive continuing its almost year-long pattern of being effectively flat. Employment in IT slipped a tad bit again in March, showing an incremental decline of 0.07%, down 3,800 jobs, to 5,404,200 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 1.30% since March 2021, adding 69,400 jobs.
Engineering employment grew by 0.33% sequentially to 2,680,000. On a year-over-year basis, engineering employment increased by 3.39% since March 2021, adding 87,900 engineering workers.
“The new norm of work-from-anywhere has intensified the competition among companies for high-demand tech skills,” said Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. “This is not only putting significant pressure on organizations on the hiring front but also making retention of their existing workforce an imperative. Clearly, to be successful in this environment, it’s time for employers to not only rewrite the hiring and retention playbook but also cast a wider net by diversifying the technology talent pool.”