Tech jobs numbers are a victim of the shutdown—here’s what we know

Well, it’s time for the latest tech jobs numbers…but with the US government shutdown, it’s unclear when the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release its data.

However, we can rely on some new data from tech trade association CompTIA to give us some insight—however imperfect—into the current state of IT jobs.

Post, secret. According to CompTIA’s analysis of data from analytics firm Lightcast, tech job postings increased in September. Positions benefitting most from this rise included software developers and engineers (which increased by 3,459 MOM), cybersecurity engineers and analysts (up 1,676), AI engineers (up 1,233), network engineers and architects (up 725), and technical sales representatives (up 617).

Regionally, the states that saw the highest increase in postings were California (up 1,475), New York (up 1,122), Mississippi (up 837), Ohio (up 580), and Washington (up 538). The metro areas with the highest bumps were New York (up 645), Los Angeles (up 605), San Francisco (up 480), Columbus (up 439), and Atlanta (up 384).

Without clear data, it’s hard to have a sense of where tech jobs numbers actually are. But the postings information suggests that companies are looking for tech talent after a drop in postings the previous month.

Zooming out. As Morning Brew reported, the private sector lost 32,000 jobs in September, according to payroll processor ADP.

“This month’s release further validates what we’ve been seeing in the labor market, that US employers have been cautious with hiring,” ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson told CNBC.

As IT Brew has noted in the past, the tech sector regularly outperforms the economy as a whole. An analysis by hiring firm Experis indicated that US tech hiring remained strong (albeit with some cooling) in Q4 2025.

Global approach. Experis’s survey is global, which helps to put US tech hiring in perspective. Of the countries companies the firms polled were located in, the US was fourth-highest in net employment outlook, or an indication of employers’ hiring intentions, placing it behind Belgium, India, and Canada.

Internationally mobile tech workers still see the US as a favorable working destination, a new Indeed report found, despite the political turmoil around immigration. These workers made up 37% of data and analytics job applicants, the report found, along with 31.6% of software development applicants and 27.4% of industrial engineers.