Is the tech jobs market really as stable as it seems?
That’s the question raised by CompTIA’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers for May where the tech unemployment rate was virtually unchanged at 3.4% as opposed to April’s 3.5%. Job postings increased to 470,000 from the previous month’s 450,000; tech companies added only 1,571 net new employees.
Static jobs numbers were apparent in a breakdown of major sectors. While telecommunications dropped 3,900 positions, “cloud infrastructure, data processing, and hosting” increased by 3,200. “Other information services, search, and platforms” added 1,800, and IT and custom software services went up by 700. In a comment accompanying the CompTIA report, Chief Research Officer Tim Herbert acknowledged the up and down nature of the current job market.
“It is undoubtedly a challenging time for employers and job-seekers facing uncertainty on multiple fronts,” Herbert said. “At the same time, it requires taking a measured approach given the data continues to hold up reasonably well.”
Regionally, Arkansas saw the highest job postings increase, at 1,075; the top five was rounded out by Virginia with 522, Washington with 348, Maryland at 243, and Connecticut at 216.
Rip that mainframe. Despite the uncertainty, and the role of new technologies in how developers work, there are some stable areas of the sector. Steven Perva, expert mainframe innovation engineer at Ensono, told IT Brew that AI has been something of a force multiplier for developers and that fears over its impact are overstated.
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“In the mainframe space, we’re largely not seeing in terms of job removals or replacements,” Perva said. “We’re not seeing AI tackle the mainframe space quite the way that people seem to be predicting all over the other spheres of technology.”
Nonetheless, according to Perva, the nervousness is understandable. Larger firms are laying off workers and naming AI as a major factor in the decisions. As June began, Microsoft slashed just over 300 jobs in Washington State. The cuts added to an existing layoff total of close to 2,300 over the past month, part of a larger 3% reduction in staffing at the tech giant, or around 6,000 positions.
AI is likely driving a lot of the churn, S&P Global Market Intelligence analyst Jean Atelsek told the Seattle Times.
“People are talking about the AI transition as being as significant as the server to cloud transition,” Atelsek said. “So, realigning teams for that seems like a justified reason.”
Perva isn’t that concerned, he said. Part of the current churn is a market correction for the influx of workers the sector took on with the early AI explosion. That’s cold comfort to those who are experiencing the cuts, he said.
“It’s tough out there for tech right now,” Perva said.