IT job market grows slows to 4,200 jobs in December versus 8,700 in November according BLS data says Janco


IT hiring is driven by the overall economy and signs of near term prospects for improvement are few. National participation remains at to 63.6% - 615,000 more people are looking for jobs in December 2012 than December 2011.

Labor Participation Rate in the low 60's

Inflation is pushing more people back into the active labor market

Labor Force Participation rate stabilized at lowest level in the last 50 years

101.3 million people in the U.S. are not counted in the labor force - see reasons why not working.

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Security ManualIT job market growth slowed to 4,200 new jobs in December versus 8,700 added jobs in November. For the year 2012 there was a gain of 62,500 IT jobs. The CEO of Janco Associates, Victor Janulaitis said, “The slowing of growth in the IT job market is a cause for concern. If a robust recovery does not occur, as some predict, it will not be a good time to be looking for a new job. Granted there were 21,800 IT jobs added in the last three month, however that number of new jobs is not enough to ease our concerns. ”

The CEO added, “According to BLS data, the overall unemployment rate rose to 7.8% from the originally report 7.7% in November (BLS revised November to 7.8%). The total number of individuals (civilian non-institutional) looking for a job in December 2011 was 6,135,000 versus 6,750,000 in December 2012 - an increase of 615,000. Not a good omen for the economy in general and with the recent re-instatement of the payroll taxes a definite worry. ”

Janco continues to be concerned that the data shows the labor market participation rate is at a record low level and recovery may not be around the corner. The macro trend for labor participation since 2008 is down by 1.4% which translates to approximately 3.8 million people who are excluded from the labor force calculation. The CEO of Janco Associates said, “The year to year comparison of workforce participation shows how deep a hole we are in. Until those percentages turn around the recovery will be weak at best, IT demand will be dampened, and overall IT employment opportunities will remain at very low levels. ”