Big Month for IT Occupation Growth in August, CompTIA Analysis Reveals

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Sept. 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Information technology (IT) jobs across the U.S. economy rebounded after several months of sluggishness.

According to an analysis by CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the technology industry, of today's Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation report, an additional 205,000 IT professionals reported employment during August. That brings the total base of core IT occupation employment to more than 4.6 million.

"Despite the limitations and volatility of monthly BLS data, the figures are useful in gauging net job growth for the year," said Tim Herbert, senior vice president, research and market intelligence. "Last year we had 3.1 percent job growth in IT occupations. Conditions suggest a growth rate on par with that in 2016."

Modest Gains in August for IT Sector Employment

The IT sector added 4,800 jobs last month, to approximately 4.4 million jobs at the end of August. IT sector employment has increased by 54,100 jobs for the year, with gains recorded in seven of the first eight months of 2016.

Employment in computer systems design and IT software and services experienced another strong month in August, with 6,100 jobs added. Other information services, including search portals, added 1,100 jobs in August. The data processing, hosting and related services category saw a gain of 900 jobs last month.

Offsetting those gains were August job losses in telecommunications (down 2,600) and computer and electronic products manufacturing (down 700).

The IT workforce includes two components: employment within the IT sector and IT occupations across all other industries. About 44 percent of IT sector positions are in IT; the remaining 56 percent are non-IT jobs.

For the overall economy, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 151,000 in August. The unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent for the third consecutive month, with the number of unemployed persons essentially unchanged at 7.8 million.

CompTIA's report on U.S. tech employment is based on an analysis of today's Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data for July and August is considered projected and subject to revision by the BLS. #jobsreport 

The CompTIA IT Employment Tracker report is available at http://www.slideshare.net/comptia/comptia-it-employment-tracker-september-2016.

For more CompTIA research on technology employment, skills and workforce trends visit https://www.comptia.org/insight-tools/business?tags=it%20workforce.

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SOURCE CompTIA