IT Employment Effectively Flat in July Amid Ongoing Tight Supply of Talent
Alexandria VA, Aug. 9, 2023 – IT employment was effectively flat in July, dipping only 0.03% month-over-month, according to TechServe Alliance, the national trade association for the Technology Staffing and Solutions Industry. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment was down 2.17% from July 2022, a net loss of 118,400 jobs. The Engineering sector showed a year-over-year job growth rate of 2.49% with the addition of 68,200 jobs during the year.
“After steeper declines in IT employment during the second half of last year through the first half of this year, employment levels have stabilized the last three months—coming in effectively flat in both June and July. While many employers shed jobs as part of their effort to correct over hiring during the pandemic and other employers pulled back on hiring amid the fear of recession—a recession that has yet to arrive, we appear to be poised for a shift in momentum” said Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance.
“While caution still seems to be the dominant watchword across the business community, there are regions and sectors that continue to hire. For example, computer systems and design services, management and technical consulting services and data processing, hosting and related services—sub-sectors that employ large numbers of IT professionals—all posted growth in July. With pent-up demand amid an unemployment rate of only 2.4% in Q2, we are going to see a return to the full-fledged war for IT talent once employers regain confidence in the economy,” added Roberts.