Unemployment rate for IT Pro is 3.8% versus 6% last month

Employment Picture for IT Pros Improves

There were 50,000 fewer unemployed IT Pros in September than in August

Park City - UT - e-janco.com - Janco reports the overall unemployment rate for IT pros in September dropped to 3.8% from 6.0% last month.  The number of unemployed IT pros dropped from 148K to 98K according to the latest BLS data.

Janco will be publishing its full set of findings on Substack (https://itmanager.substack.com/).

 

National Unemployment Rate versus IT Pros Unemployment Rate

In October the BLS reported the National Unemployment Rate was 4.1% and 3.8% for IT Professionals.

Information Technology Unemployment Rate

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The job market for IT Pros had a major shift last month.  From our interviews with several CFOs and CIOs, we believe two factors drove that movement.  First was the reduction of the Federal interest rate.  The second was the positions taken by the two candidates for President to continue on a track that would minimize the possibility of a major recession.

IT Pros who were unemployed last month found jobs more quickly than was anticipated as CIOs rushed to fill open positions.

Number unemployed Information individuals
CIOs and CFOs have stopped hiring IT Pros except for required replacements as a result the rate of hiring IT pros plummets.

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The unemployment rate for IT Professionals is 3.8% which is lower than the overall national unemployment rate of 4.1%. Over 78,000 IT Pros were hired last month cutting into the backlog of unemployed IT Pros. Our analysis predicts the same will be true for several months.

From our interviews, we have found hiring and job growth continue to be in small to mid-sized enterprises.  Many of the larger firms continue to focus on improving productivity and replacing lower-level skills with AI applications.  AI continues to halt the growth of entry-level positions within IT, especially in customer service, internal reporting, telecommunications, and hosting automation.  C-level executives continue to be focused on eliminating “non-essential” managers, staff, and services. Experienced coders and developers have limited opportunities with legacy applications. The highest demand continues to be for AI, security professionals, new technology programmers, and Internet processing IT Pros.

According to the latest BLS data analyzed, there are now approximately 4.18 million jobs for IT Professionals in the US. Layoffs at big tech companies continued to hurt overall IT hiring. Large high-tech firms continue to lay off to have better bottom lines. Included in that group of companies that have recently announced new layoffs are Intel, Microsoft, and Google.

Janco’s current forecast is that the IT job market may grow slightly, between 5K to 6K jobs, in CY 2024. The current forecast is that 5,400 jobs will be added to the IT Job Market in the calendar year 2024.  That will not be enough to absorb all the unemployed IT Pros.


IT Job Market - October 2024 Forecast for the CY 2024

 

The worst may be over as the unemployment rate improves dramatically

IT Job Market Forecast
There has been a major shift in the creation of new IT Jobs - AI and economic slowing are the drivers.

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IT Job Market Change - September 2024

IT Job Market grew by 4,400 jobs last month - lost 1,200 jobs YTD

YTD IT Job Market growth

Updated with the data from the BLS and Janco Associates Inc as of September 2024
Analysis shows that IT Job Market has shrunk by 48,600 jobs in 2023. In the first three (3) quarters of 2024, the IT job market shrank by 1,200 jobs.

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In a further analysis, Janco has found that the BLS could be over-projecting the number of jobs in the IT Job Market. BLS reduced the number of jobs for IT Pros by 3,000 jobs for the prior two months - Note last month the BLS had adjusted the same number by an additional 3,200 for a total adjustment of 6,200 - that means the increase in the reported IT job market growth was overstated.

Changes in the number of net IT Jobs created or lost

In the last three (3) month the IT Job market grew by 5,400 jobs. This chart is not the originally published one, rather it is updated with the current data based on the analysis by Janco Associates, Inc. For the latest IT Employment Data click here. Subscribe to our Newsletter to get this information delivered to your inbox as soon as it is released. SUBSCRIBE


We reviewed data on recent graduates from universities and found that most Masters and Doctoral degrees we for non-US nationals. This is a problem as there is a need to educate our existing (US nationals) IT pros on the new technologies that are being developed and deployed.  IT pros who want to get these new skills, are starting to look at technical trade schools and certification programs to acquire the new skills they need.

Janco’s analysis of the IT job market is based on current BLS data, hiring trends monitored by Janco, budgets for IT initiatives in companies Janco monitors, and its proprietary forecasting model.

Historic IT Job Market Size - 4.19 Million Employed as IT Pros

Historic IT Job Market Size

This is not the original data that was published.
It has been updated with data complied by Janco Associates with data as of September 2024.

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