NC high-tech job market stable; more openings expected this fall

The latest high-tech job openings report for North Carolina shows a slight gain in the daily average of vacant IT positions in August. But the better news is that the IT Job Trends report forecasts an expected improvement in hiring this fall.

The prediction made in the N.C. Technology Association report about more jobs mirrors recent surveys from chief final officers and Manpower.

However, North Carolina’s 1.1 percent improvement in openings for August to 3,790 from July pales in comparison to the national average, which jumped 4.6 percent.

“With the economy growing we expect the job market to do better this fall,” say the authors of the new NCTA report, which was issued Friday. The IT Job Trends report is based on information from SkillProof and The Select Group.

But that prediction comes with a caveat:

“If the job market begins to grow during the fall this would be a break compared with the pattern of the past two years. “

The IT jobs situation in N.C. was slightly better (0.5 percent) than a year earlier, and demand increased in most skills categories.

“Only demand for professionals in Systems Engineering declined during the past 30 day period,” the report says. “If the job market begins to grow during the fall this would be a break compared with the pattern of the past two years.”

IT openings also remain far below two years ago when the daily average was 4,660.

Specific data on demand and openings from the report:

Job openings by category (2013 in parenthesis)