The unemployment fee for tech occupations hit 1.7 p.c in April, a slight uptick from 1.4 p.c in March, in accordance with a brand new CompTIA evaluation of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) information.
Regardless of that uptick, tech unemployment stays traditionally low. Employer job postings for expertise occupations surpassed 443,000 in April, totaling 1.6 million in 2020 up to now—a 40 p.c enhance year-over-year, CompTIA added.
“Regardless of the rising chatter round financial headwinds, it was one other strong month of tech employment good points and hiring exercise momentum,” Tim Herbert, chief analysis officer at CompTIA, wrote in an announcement. Demand was significantly sturdy for software program builders and engineers (which accounted for 30 p.c of all job postings), together with IT undertaking managers, IT help specialists, methods engineers and designers, and community engineers and designers.
Demand for tech expertise has spiked compensation over the previous few years; the typical tech wage now stands at $104,566, in accordance with the most up-to-date Nesta Tech Wage Report, having risen 6.9 p.c between 2020 and 2021. For specialised occupations similar to machine-learning specialist or information scientist, compensation can climb to a a lot greater peak, significantly at firms with the budgets to supply large blocks of inventory choices and different advantages.
The newest unemployment fee can be a wholesome reminder that, although some well-known firms could be instituting hiring freezes or pay cuts in response to enterprise slowdowns, many organizations proceed to rent aggressively. In some ways, these organizations haven’t any selection; no matter’s occurring within the bigger world, they nonetheless want apps constructed, tech infrastructure maintained and guarded, and information analyzed for essential strategic insights.
Nonetheless, simply because there’s extraordinary demand for technologists doesn’t imply firms will rent simply anybody—they need technologists who’ve mastered very important abilities similar to software program improvement and undertaking administration, in addition to programming languages and instruments similar to SQL, Python, and Java. Everytime you apply to a brand new place, be sure to have all the abilities the employer desires—and ensure to focus on these abilities on your resume and utility supplies.