US IT job growth jumps in August; 2021 on track for record hiring levels

The job growth in the US IT industry accelerated in August, adding 25,400 positions, according to figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported in the latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. That growth in IT positions comes when the highly infectious delta variant of the novel coronavirus slowed overall job growth, largely due to slowdowns in the restaurant and entertainment sectors.

The August surge in US IT jobs follows job growth of about 18,500 in June and 10,100 in July (both are revised figures), reflecting continuing business recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. In fact, IT job growth has occurred every month this year, though it was uneven in the first five months of the year.

The US IT jobs situation continues to look very much like the pre-pandemic state: more positions than candidates. In fact, businesses would have hired more IT positions in August had they found enough qualified candidates to fill them, Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. Finding web developers and cybersecurity and compliance pros remains the toughest task for CIOs, he said — and is causing HR to focus more on IT staff retention.

That talent shortage has put even greater pressure on businesses to increase salaries, Janulaitis said — US IT salaries had already been trending up in 2021.

Janco expects 2021 to have greater IT job growth — 132,000 to 152,000 new positions — than in any year since 2015, when 112,500 new positions were created. The year 2018 saw 104,600 new IT positions; 2019 saw 90,200; and 2020 saw a loss of 33,200 positions.

There are now 3.7 million IT pro jobs in the US, Janco estimates.

The monthly tech jobs report released by the CompTIA industry association also showed a surge in August hiring. CompTIA calculated that there were 26,800 new US tech-sector jobs in August, a jump over both July’s gain of 10,700 and June’s gain of 10,500 jobs; the tech sector has seen gains the entire year. The US tech sector’s job numbers have now exceeded their March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions, reaching 4.79 million in August 2021, according to the CompTIA data.

CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, with roughly 44% being technical and 56% being nontechnical, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.

CompTIA calculated the estimated unemployment rate for the tech sector as 1.5% in August, the same as in July and down from 2.2% in June. The current tech unemployment rate is approaching its 2018-19 lows, where it ranged from 1.2% to 2.4%. The national unemployment rate in August was 5.2%, according to the BLS.