Dive Brief:
- The U.S. gained a modest 5,800 tech jobs in May, the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) reported, citing the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' May jobs figures. Although job gains in the tech industry were lower than expected, the jobless rate dropped to 1.3% — the lowest since January 2000 — according to the association, with the previous low of 1.4% occurring in March 2018 and April 2007.
- According to CompTIA, the entire U.S. economy gained 133,000 IT jobs in May, reversing a two-month decline. While hiring was up in technology services, custom software development and computer systems design, gains in other segments of the industry slowed in computer and electronic products manufacturing and remained unchanged in data processing, hosting and related services, CompTIA reported.
- In a new survey by the West Valley Staffing Group (WVSG), which publishes a quarterly economic survey on Silicon Valley companies, 89% of the 800 professionals polled said they expect their companies either to grow (43%) or remain on course (46%). More than 85% of respondents said they anticipate their organizations either hiring more temporary workers during the next quarter or maintaining the same staffing levels as in Q2 2019, WVSG reported.
Dive Insight:
Although job gains were lackluster across most industries, including normally strong sectors like construction, tech jobs continue to show growth in an uncertain economy, partly because nearly every industry has need for tech-minded personnel.
"The data confirms what employers have been saying for months and even years — the demand for tech talent has reached historic levels," commented Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA, in a media statement. "There is now the very real prospect of tech worker shortages affecting industry growth. Firms seeking to expand into new areas such as the Internet of Things, robotic process automation or artificial intelligence may be inhibited by a lack of workers with these advanced skills, not to mention shortages in the complementary areas of technology infrastructure and cybersecurity."
To compete, employers may need to examine their recruitment strategy, including their time-to-hire, to see where they may be falling flat. But even a deeply personalized and engaging recruitment phase could lead to losses if the company's culture does not provide similarly positive experiences for employees of all backgrounds. Workers in various surveys have said they would leave a job for one with a better culture — and unfortunately for the tech space, over half of employees surveyed by Blind said that their work environments are not healthy. Such statistics, however, make it clear that employers that enable a diverse group of people to perform their best work (including those outside the traditional tech industry) may have a leg up over the competition.
