Flat Tech Employment Growth Indicative of Continued Talent Crisis in High-Demand Skill Sets
Amidst troubling macroeconomic trends and talks of a possible recession, hiring defied all expectations with U.S. businesses adding 528,000 jobs in July. Compared to the broader employment trend, job growth in the IT sector remained essentially unchanged from June, down 0.02% in July, 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 a meager 0.32% from July 2021, adding a net of only 17,400 jobs in the year’s period. The Engineering sector showed a year-over-year job growth rate of 4.08%, with the addition of 106,900 jobs over the course of the year.
“We continue to see a very strong demand for tech talent and a shortage of qualified candidates,” said Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. “This is validated by the low unemployment rate of 2.2% in the sector and by our member companies, who tell us that job requirements from their clients still continue unabated. It is not surprising that we are continuing to struggle in growing the overall technology jobs pie because of this significant supply-demand imbalance.
“This really underscores the need for businesses to move quickly with hiring decisions, offer competitive compensation, and not hold out for that perfect candidate or they will lose the candidate to other employers in need of the same skill set.”