Tech unemployment falls to 1.3%
Unemployment in the technology industry fell slightly to 1.3% in July, according to an industry association monthly j obs report, signaling solid growth in the sector.
CompTIA reported that the t echnology s ector grew by an estimated 11,400 jobs last month, even as telecom companies shed 5,100 positions.
Nearly all of the new tech hires were at services and software companies, according to data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. July employment gains in the tech sector also included computer and electronic products manufacturing, information services and data processing, hosting and related services.
“Despite the telecom losses and some softness in job posting data, it was a reasonably solid month for tech,” said Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at Comp T IA. “Digital transformation is an ongoing process, where the mix of investment, skills requirements and business alignment are never static.”
The hardest-hit sector in the tech silo represents telecommunications companies, which have experienced nine consecutive months of employment declines. Nearly 23,000 jobs were eliminated so far this year. The cuts have hit Oklahoma, including the 43 technician jobs that AT&T announced in June it planned to eliminate.
June's unemployment rate in the tech industry was 1.5%, and according to the latest figures it dropped 0.2% in July. That is at or near the historic low for tech jobs according to CompTIA. The earliest occupation-level statistics began in 2000.
The national unemployment rate for all industries remained unchanged at 3.7%.
Comp TIA also reported Friday that software and application developer positions continue to be the most in-demand occupation that companies are hiring for, with 78,300 job postings in July.
Computer user support specialists (20,100), computer systems engineers and architects (16,800), computer systems analysts (15,000) and web developers (13,500) rounded out the Top 5 list of IT occupation job postings last month.