IT Job Market Will Shrink for the Second Year in a Row
Employment Picture for IT Pros Grim - IT Job Market Shrinks
71K unemployed IT Professionals Nov 1 - Fewer jobs to choose from -
Park City - UT - e-janco.com - Janco reports the overall unemployment rate for IT pros in September dropped to 2.7% from 3.8% last month. The number of unemployed IT pros dropped from 98K to 71K according to the latest BLS data.
The CEO of Janco, M. Victor Janulaitis said, “The job market for IT Pros had a major shift losing an average of 4,983 job per month over the past 12 months. This is more than we had reported earlier. One of the drivers for this was the adjustments to the number of jobs defined by the BLS. BLS reduced the number of jobs for IT Pros by 17,900 jobs for the prior two months - Note last month the BLS 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 and the employment picture is grimmer than reported.“
In the last three (3) month the IT Job market shrank by 21,900 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
The CEO stated “From our interviews with several CFOs and CIOs, we believe additional factors drove that movement. First was the reduction of the Federal interest rate. The second was the positions taken by the two presidential candidates to continue a track that will minimize the possibility of a major recession.” He added, “IT Pros who were unemployed last month found jobs more quickly than was anticipated as CIOs rushed to fill open positions.”
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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Also, he said, “The unemployment rate for IT Professionals is 2.7% 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 the case for the next several months.”
Janulaitis stated, “From our interviews, we have found hiring and job growth continues to be in small to mid-sized enterprises. Many of the larger firms continue to be focused on improvements in 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.“
The CEO added, “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 will shrink for the second year in a row for CY 2024. The current forecast is that fewer than 1,000 new jobs will be added in the next two months. That will not be enough to absorb all the unemployed IT Pros.
IT Job Market - November 2024 Forecast for the CY 2024
BLS makes major adjustments to the job market data showing an average decrease in the number of jobs for IT pros.
There has been a major shift in the creation of new IT Jobs - AI and economic slowing are the drivers.
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National Unemployment Rate versus IT Pros Unemployment Rate
In October the BLS reported the National Unemployment Rate was 4.1% and 2.7% for IT Professionals.
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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.
CIOs and CFOs have stopped hiring IT Pros except for required replacements as a result the rate of hiring IT pros plummets.
Subscribe to our Newsletter to get this information delivered to your inbox as soon as it is released. SUBSCRIBE
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 Change - October 2024
IT Job Market shrank by 8,400 jobs last month - lost 29,100 jobs YTD
Updated with the data from the BLS and Janco Associates Inc as of October 2024 Analysis shows that IT Job Market has shrunk by 48,600 jobs in 2023. In the first ten months of 2024, the IT job market shrank by 29,100 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.
In the last three (3) month the IT Job market shrank by 21,900 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.
