RALEIGH – Information technology jobs surged in January nearly 40 percent year-over-year to more than 26,000 as demand for talent continues to surge across North Carolina.

That’s according to the latest data from the North Carolina Technology Association’s latest Tech Talent Trends Alert.

The increase in North Carolina tops demand across the U.S. where openings climbed some 27 percent to more than 878,000.

Competition for talent is intense across most categories with the state’s jobless rate in December standing at 3.6 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. January data will be released on March 11.

Job openings climbed from 24,736 in December to their third highest level over the past year. October 2018 was the hottest month with more than 27,000 jobs available followed by more than 26,000 in November.

Demand for software developers led the way with job openings at company and related sites surging 69 percent from Jan. 2018 to more than 6,000.

Across the 10 top occupations cited in the report, demand climbed at least 30 percent.

Hottest skills in demand were Java at more than 5,000 and software development, also topping 5,000.

Details from the report include:

TOP 10 Occupations

Occupations, Jan 19 openings,  growth from Jan 18 

Software Developers 6,064 +69.0%

  • Network + Computer Systems Administrators: 2,797, +36.5%
  • Computer User Support Specialists: 2,474, +38.7%
  • Computer Systems Analysts: 2,399, +32.4%
  • Information Technology Project Managers: 2,397, +51.6%
  • Computer Systems Engineers/Architects: 1,913, +56.7%
  • Information Security Analysts: 1,785, +25.6%
  • Web Developers: 1,590, +43.2%
  • Computer + Information Systems Managers: 1,406, +67.4%
  • Software Quality Assurance Engineers: 911, +38.4%
  • TOTALS Including All Others: 26,438, +38.8%
TOP 10 Hard Skills/Certifications

Skill, Jan 19 openings

  1. Java 5,499
  2. Software Development 5,064
  3. Structured Query Language 4,171
  4. Linux 4,138
  5. Python 3,784
  6. JavaScript 3,651
  7. Systems Development Life Cycle 3,342
  8. Application Development 3,314
  9. Agile Software Development 2,845
  10. Microsoft Office 2,634

The monthly report includes data produced by talent firm Green Resources as well as information from Kubernetes, a jobs related site.

The full report can be viewed online.