Hiring of IT Pros Slows - 23,000 jobs lost in first two quarters of 2023
IT job market shrank by 23,000 jobs YTD versus growing by 117,700 jobs in 2022
BLS adjusts down the number of IT Pros hired in March and April by 9,300
(Park City UT – Janco Associates Inc. (https://e-janco.com) – Janco reports that YTD, the IT job markets shrank by 23,000 jobs in the first two quarters of 2023. That is in contrast with 117,700 jobs that were created in the same period of 2022. The number of unfilled jobs for IT Pros shrank from 200K plus in December to just over 120K at the end of June.
Janco has revised its forecast for the IT Job market down by over 40K to 20K-30K from 60K-70K for the calendar year 2023.
The growth of the IT job market stopped in January with a loss of 2,600. For five of the six months of 2023, the IT job market has shrunk. On the plus side, there is an excess of 120K unfilled jobs for IT Pros due to a lack of qualified candidates.
The CEO of Janco, M. Victor Janulaitis said, “Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals are poor at best. In the 2nd Quarter of 2023, the big losers were computer system design losing 10,500 jobs, telecommunication losing 5,500 jobs, content providers losing 4,700 jobs and other information service providers losing 6,600 jobs The only gains were for cloud and hosting providers adding 3,800 jobs. Some roles, especially in telecommunications and data center operations are being automated and eliminated. Driving this is, CIOs and CFOs who are looking to improve the productivity of IT by automating processes and reporting where possible. They are focusing on eliminating “non-essential” managers and staff. Experienced coders and developers still have opportunities. The highest demand continues to be for security professionals, programmers, and blockchain processing IT Pros. Currently, there are over 120K unfilled jobs.”
(note - Charts have been updated with the latest data. If you want to see the original charts please contact support at e-janco.com. Text is the original text. Specify which charts and dates you desire and they are available for free to paid subscribers of the CIO - IT Manager Newsletter)
IT Job Market Size Adjustments - Prior Two Months
BLS reduced the number of jobs for IT Pros by 17,900 jobs for the prior two months - Note last month the BLS had adjusted the same number by an additional 3,000 for a total adjustment of 20,900 - that means the current month reported IT job market growth is overstated.
Before adjustments
After Adjustments
September initially showed that only 1,200 jobs had been lost with the prior adjustments. With the current adjustments 20,700 jobs were lost. Over the last 3 years, adjustments of this magnitude have been common.
Updated
IT Pros Hiring Plummets
Layoffs abound and there no longer is robust hiring trend for IT Professionals - the economy is slowing. However, there are a number of jobs unfilled by IT Pros. The primary culprit is the lack of qualified individuals to fill the open positions. In our opinion, the IT Job Market is currently at no growth!
The number of unfilled jobs trend line is down as the economy softens and CIOs and CFOs look to control costs and eliminate requisitions for positions that cannot be filled. There was a major pullback of the number of excess jobs for IT Pros - layoffs have impact on number of unfilled jobs available for IT Professionals.
Subscribe to our Newsletter to get this information delivered to your inbox as soon as it is released. SUBSCRIBE
He said, “There continues to be a general belief there will be an economic downturn by many CIOs and CFOs. This is impacting all decisions around hiring new IP Pros and increasing technology-related expenditures. This has impacted the salaries of IT Pros (2023 Mid-Year Salary Survey) with a major impact on the compensation of IT Executives.
Updated with the latest data
The CEO added, “According to the latest BLS data analyzed, there are now just under 4.19 million jobs for IT Professionals in the US. Layoffs at big tech companies hurt overall IT hiring. CIOs are looking at a troubling economic climate and are evaluating the need for increased headcounts based on the technological requirements of their specific business operations.”
IT Job Market will have shrunk by an average of 4,900 jobs in CY 2024
There are approximately 71K unemployed IT Professionals. The IT job market shrank by over 48,600 jobs in CY 2023. Overall that is a flattening of the long-term growth rate pattern of the IT job market. Based on our data and forecast models, there will be no growth in the IT Job Market in the calendar year 2024.
Data complied and forecast updated by Janco Associates with data as of October 2024
With this as a background, Janco revised its forecasts for the growth of the IT Job Market in 2023 by 20K to 30K range. That will be less growth than in 2021 and 2022, but still with some growth in the latter half of this year. To assist in managing these troubled times, Janco has just released the 2023 edition CIO Management Tool Kit. See https://e-janco.com/it-management-toolkit.html. This tool kit has been updated to reflect changes to the IT Infrastructure caused by compliance mandates and the current economic environment - including WFH and Cloud processing. It meets all the mandated security requirements and best practices.
Janulaitis said, “Many of the issues faced by the economy continue to be due to ongoing supply chain problems. If China opens fully, overall supply chains should improve but will take several months to completely recover. That should lessen the recessionary pressures that are driving companies to reduce staff.”
Janco is an international consulting firm that follows issues that concern CIOs and CFOs. The firm publishes a series of IT and business Infrastructure HandiGuides® and Templates including IT Infrastructure Policies and Procedures, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Template, Security Template, IT Job Descriptions, and its semi-annual IT Salary Survey.
Read on Salary Survey Order Salary Survey Download Summary
