CompTIA: Hiring Up, Tech Company Layoffs Slowed in June

U.S. employers added an estimated 227,000 IT workers to their payrolls, and tech company layoffs slowed in June.

That’s according to CompTIA‘s analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest Employment Situation Summary. The two components of IT employment – industry and occupation – each showed signs of an improving labor market, it said.

While overall tech industry employment slightly declined (-5,600 jobs), three of five sectors saw gains. Tech manufacturing led the way with a net increase of 7,300 jobs, covering both technical and non-technical positions.

Through the first half of the year, tech occupation employment increased in five of the six months.

CompTIA’s Tim Herbert

“The latest employment data for tech was generally positive, with continuing signs of momentum,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s executive vice president for research and market intelligence. “While uncertainty is still a major concern, the forward-looking employer job posting figures suggest hiring will accelerate in areas such as software development, IT support, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity and certain emerging tech fields.”

Increases and Losses

In addition to tech manufacturing, data processing, hosting and related services added 5,600 jobs. The other information services category, which includes search engines and portals, added 2,200 jobs.

In terms of tech company layoffs, the IT services and custom software development segment lagged, with an estimated loss of 20,400 positions. The telecommunications sector also continued its downward slide, losing 300 jobs.

“Because the IT services and custom software development segment is dominated by small firms, they tend to be more sensitive to disruptions in customer spending,” Herbert said. “As the broad small business market recovers, we expect hiring will resume among IT services and customer software development firms.”

There were approximately 263,000 job postings in June. That is an increase of 42,000 postings over the previous month.

There were gains in each of the top five job categories. Software and application developers led with 82,800 job postings. Other in-demand occupations included IT support specialists, systems engineers and architects, systems analysts and IT project managers.

Also, there were more than 67,000 postings in June citing emerging technology as a role or skill. That’s an increase of 11,000 from the previous month. Among all IT job postings, approximately one in four referenced emerging technology in some capacity.

The top industries for IT job postings in June included professional, scientific and technical services, finance and insurance, manufacturing and information.

California, Texas, Colorado, New York and Pennsylvania were the states with the highest month-over-month increases in IT job postings.

The unemployment rate for IT occupations stood at 4.3% for June, compared to the national rate of 11.1%.

Pandemic Tough on IT Pros

More than 123,700 IT pros have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 shutdown since April, according to Janco Associates. For the year, that reduced the IT job market by 104,400 jobs.

Janco now expects 30,000 net-new IT jobs this year, down from its earlier forecast of 35,000.

Many of the CIOs and CFOs Janco interviewed said with the existing pace of reopening, secondary shutdowns, civil unrest and the election, normal IT hiring won’t resume until late in the fourth quarter. However, IT pro job losses could continue if companies need to shut down a second time and/or not reopen.

Janco’s Victor Janulaitis

“Some SMBs are not going to be able to survive the COVID-19 shutdowns,” said Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis. “As a result, IT professionals working for those companies will need to find new employment opportunities. The H1-B directive will not be of much help for those professionals as the 2020 visas have already been granted. Also, until the public feels they can go back to a normal life and all companies open their doors, hiring for new positions in IT will be limited at best.”

IT pro salaries remained flat for the first two quarters of 2020. The median salary for all IT professionals rose from $91,587 to $91,762, an increase of 0.19%.