September 7, 2022
The unemployment rate for technology occupations rose to 2.3% in August from 1.7% in July, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce. The change follows the direction of the national unemployment rate, which rose to 3.7% in August, from 3.5% in July.
Despite the rise in the unemployment rate, companies across the economy added 21,000 tech workers to their payrolls in August, according to a CompTIA review of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Total job advertisements by employers for technology positions fell to just under 320,000 in August from 372,000 in July. 31% of the jobs advertised in August were for emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and IoT, or roles requiring new technological skills such as data analytics and automation software.
According to Tim Herbert, chief research office at CompTIA, the rise in the unemployment rate in the technology sector is due to two factors, including the rise in the overall U.S. unemployment rate and the fact that some major technology companies have announced layoffs.
Between January and August 2022, tech job openings, where employers list remote work as an option, were 56% higher than the previous year and 281% higher than the pre-pandemic year of 2019 according to CompTIA.
The sources for this piece include an article in ComputerWorld.
