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Net employment gain of 11,400 positions even as telecom sheds 5,100 jobs

Washington, D.C. – U.S. technology sector employment grew by an estimated 11,400 jobs in July even as telecom companies eliminated some 5,100 positions, according to an analysis by CompTIA, the leading technology industry association.

The job losses in telecom were offset by a solid month of hiring in the employment category of technology services, custom software development and computer systems design, CompTIA’s examination of today’s U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation report finds. Employers added an estimated 10,600 new hires in the services and software category.

“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 CompTIA. “Digital transformation is an ongoing process, where the mix of investment, skills requirements and business alignment are never static.”

Telecom has experienced nine consecutive months of employment declines. So far in 2019, an estimated 22,800 jobs have been eliminated.

Without the telecom losses, IT industry employment growth for the year would be approximately 98,000 positions.

July employment gains in the tech sector were also recorded in computer and electronic products manufacturing (+ 2,600), other information services, including search portals (+ 2,000) and data processing, hosting and related services (+ 1,300).

Across the entire U.S. economy last month, tech occupations expanded by an estimated 135,000 positions. There tends to be a higher degree of variance with the monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics data at the occupation level, so the monthly occupation figures should be viewed as directional. 

The unemployment rate for IT occupations inched down in July to 1.3 percent, continuing to be at or near historic lows. By comparison, the overall national unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7 percent.

Looking ahead toward potential future hiring, software and application developer positions continue to be the most in-demand occupation companies are looking to hire 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 five list of IT occupation job postings last month.

The CompTIA IT Employment Tracker report is available at https://www.slideshare.net/comptia/comptia-it-employment-tracker-august-2019.

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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. Visit www.comptia.org to learn more.

Contact:
Steven Ostrowski
CompTIA
630-678-8468
sostrowski@comptia.org