That’s what we call an upsetting uptick.
The tech unemployment rate jumped to 3.5% in April, an increase from last month’s 3.1%. The national rate stayed at 4.2%.
Total tech occupations dropped by around 214,000 positions, CompTIA reported, a decline led by economic uncertainty and fears of recession.
Job talk. Regarding the report, CompTIA Chief Research Officer Tim Herbert said that the rocky forecast was somewhat tempered by posting data—but that didn’t mean the picture wasn’t unsettling.
“It was not a great month of data—but expected, given the circumstances,” Herbert said.
In the tech industry proper, positions decreased by about 7,000, led by PC, semiconductor, and components manufacturing, which lost 4,000 jobs; cloud infrastructure, data processing, and hosting, which dropped 3,200 positions; and telecommunications, which saw a decline of 1,800. IT and custom software services and system design, on the other hand, saw a rise of 1,300 jobs.
Post secret. Job postings also went down in the month, with 203,000 new listings, enough to put the total number at almost 450,000, a drop from 478,000 in March. Software developer and engineer listings led the decline, dropping 2,072 postings, while system engineers and architects offset some of the drop with an increase of 1,012.
Despite the overall decline, postings did increase in some regions—California saw a jump of 1,037 postings, Arizona of 678, and Maryland of 328. On the other side, Virginia dropped 708 listings, North Carolina declined 654, and Illinois 530.
One bright spot CompTIA highlighted was in AI. Job postings for the subsector, at 55,726, marked a year over year increase of 184%.
Top insights for IT pros
From cybersecurity and big data to cloud computing, IT Brew covers the latest trends shaping business tech in our 4x weekly newsletter, virtual events with industry experts, and digital guides.