Strong tech employment figures counter layoffs narrative, CompTIA analysis shows

DOWNERS GROVE - Technology companies added workers for the 24th consecutive month and tech occupations expanded throughout the economy in November, the latest "Tech Jobs Report" from CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the technology industry and workforce, reveals.

CompTIA's analysis of today's U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics #JobsReport reveals that tech companies added 14,400 workers last month. Tech sector employment has increased by 207,200 this year.

"The hotter-than-anticipated tech jobs report confirms there are still many more employers hiring tech talent than shedding it," said Tim Herbert. "It's certainly premature to dismiss concerns over the health of the economy, but this should be a reassuring sign for the tech workforce."

Tech occupations in all industry sectors grew by 137,000 positions, pushing the unemployment rate for tech workers down to 2%, from 2.2% in October.

November hiring by technology companies was broad-based across occupation categories, led by IT services and custom software development (+8,100). Employment growth also occurred in data processing, hosting and related services (+4,100), other information services, including search engines (+2,100) and computer and electronic products manufacturing (+1,900).

Employer job postings for future tech hiring fell back in November, but still totaled nearly 270,000. Openings for software developers and engineers accounted for about 28% of all tech jobs postings. Demand for IT support specialists, systems engineers, IT project managers and network engineers was also solid.