new employment tech job jobs growth according

Telecommunications Holds Back Tech Sector Job GrowthU.S. tech sector hiring slowed for a second month in October, adding about5,400 new jobs compared to more than 11,000 in August.That’s according to CompTIA‘s analysis of Friday’s U.S. Bureau of LaborStatistics (BLS) “Employment Situation” report. Tech occupations throughoutthe U.S. economy declined, as did the number of employer job postings forfuture hiring.Telecommunications employment hindered overall tech employment numbers,declining by some 1,300 positions. Year-to-date industry job growth totals96,500 new positions, and if telecommunications occupations were excluded, thetotal number of new jobs would be 127,300, according to CompTIA.October’s employment numbers mirrored other recent economic indicators, whichhave shown marginal growth in some areas and slowdowns in others. But theunemployment rate for IT occupations is 2.2 percent, unchanged from theprevious month.CompTIA’s Tim Herbert“Despite the underwhelming jobs figures for the month, tech industryemployment year to date 2019 is tracking ahead of the same periods in 2018 and2017,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s executive vice president for research andmarket intelligence. “Big picture, enterprise demand for technologies tomodernize and move the business forward continue to be robust. The overalloutlook for tech employment remains positive.”New hiring in custom software development and computer systems designoccupations accounted for most of October’s job gains. The category grew byabout 4,500 new hires.October job growth was marginal in other technology employment categories:1,200 new hires in other information services, including search portals; 600in data processing, hosting and related services; and 400 in computer andelectronics product manufacturing.October also saw a drop off in the number of employer job postings for coretechnology positions, down nearly 28,000 from September. Still, employersadvertised to fill positions in several critical categories, includingsoftware and application development, IT user support, systems engineers andarchitects, and systems analysts, according to CompTIA.For the first time since the dot-com bust, there now are more open ITpositions than qualified individuals to fill them, according to JancoAssociates. It is taking IT functions longer to find candidates and salariesare moving up as a result.“We are now starting to interview CIOs for our January 2020 IT Salary Surveyand are finding that the time to hire new employees now is moving to be closerto three to four months from the time the position is approved and theindividual is on staff,” said Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis. “In 2018, the timefor the same process was closer to two to three months. As a result, we havereduced our forecast to just over 90,000 new IT jobs versus our earlierreported 100,000 forecast.”