CompTIA Analysis: Mid-year Employment Data Signals Continued Demand for Tech Talent

Washington, DC (July 5, 2019) — U.S. technology sector employment increased by more than 56,000 jobs during the first six months of 2019, enhanced by a solid month of hiring in June, according to an analysis by CompTIA, the leading technology industry association.

CompTIA’s examination of today’s U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics “Employment Situation” report finds that the tech sector added an estimated 13,500 new jobs in June.

Through the first six months of 2019 tech sector employment has grown by an estimated 56,400 positions, compared to 49,700 during the first half of 2018.

“The mid-year tech employment report card shows many positives, reflecting the broad-based employer demand for tech talent,” said Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA. “Businesses continue to make progress in adopting a range of emerging technologies, with hiring following suit.”

Across the entire U.S. economy last month, tech occupations expanded by an estimated 135,000 positions. The unemployment rate for IT occupations stood at 1.5 percent, compared to the overall unemployment rate of 3.7 percent.

Within the tech sector, June job growth was paced by solid employment gains in the categories of technology services, custom software development and computer systems design (+ 7,200 positions) and computer and electronics products manufacturing (+ 6,500). The bulk of the new hiring in manufacturing occurred in two areas, electronic instruments (+ 3,900) and semiconductors and electronic components (+ 2,000).

Employment in other tech sector job categories was essentially flat, with modest gains reported in data processing, hosting and related services (+ 200) and other information services, including search portals (+ 100). Telecommunications employment declined by an estimated 500 jobs.

Looking ahead, software and application developers are the most in-demand occupation companies are looking to hire, with 83,700 job postings in June. Computer user support specialists (22,100), computer systems engineers and architects (19,400), computer systems analysts (17,500) and web developers (15,800) rounded out the top five list of IT occupation job postings in June.

The CompTIA IT Employment Tracker report is available here.

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About CompTIA
The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is a leading voice and advocate for the $5 trillion global information technology ecosystem; and the more than 50 million industry and tech professionals who design, implement, manage, and safeguard the technology that powers the world’s economy. Through education, training, certifications, advocacy, philanthropy, and market research, CompTIA is the hub for advancing the tech industry and its workforce.