Dive Brief:
- Tech-sector hiring was the lowest in December for all of 2019, according to CompTIA data. Only 3,500 tech jobs were added to the labor market last month, CompTIA said, and the U.S. economy only gained 3,000 IT jobs overall, as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly jobs report revealed.
- While IT job postings were down by 7,200 from November, employers still listed more than 313,000 IT openings, largely for software and application developers, said CompTIA.
- Hiring in specific occupations, such as IT services, computer systems design and custom software development, added up to just 700 new jobs last month, association figures showed.
Dive Insight:
IT jobs remain difficult to fill for many employers, even as openings decline. In response, some recruiting platforms, including Indeed, developed tools meant to focus on those jobs specifically. Indeed's software, "Seen," was designed to match applicants with various levels of expertise and at different stages in their careers with employers of all sizes. Such tools matter when even non-tech companies are seeking out tech talent, heightening competition for an already scarce pool of candidates.
One of the core challenges regarding that scarcity may be internal, however. Women and people of color tend to face tougher hiring biases in the tech field than white male counterparts, some studies have shown; one study from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School found that tech employers ranked female and nonwhite applicants with 4.0 GPAs the same as male applicants with 3.75 GPAs.
But as more women enter the STEM fields, according to a study by Handshake, a career site for college students, recruiters have an opportunity to expand their usual nets. According to the 2019 study, 72% more women applied for jobs as software developers and engineers than in 2018, and some applied without any requisite STEM degree — reflecting the field's growing reliance on proof of skills over old signals of candidate quality.
