RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Tech job openings in North Carolina dipped in July but the state ranks seventh in the nation for IT jobs, says a new report.
Overall, the tracking measures covering tech industry employment, tech occupation employment and the tech unemployment rate recorded positive gains for the month, according to analysis by CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the information technology (IT) industry and workforce.
What’s happening in North Carolina – the nation’s ninth largest state in terms of population – will become more clear in the near future when the NC TECH Association releases its monthly tech jobs report. But the CompTIA data shows 7,521 open spots – down 915 from June.
Tech sector companies increased their staffing by 5,432 employees in July, CompTIA’s analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics #JobsReport data reveals. New hiring in IT and custom software services and systems design; and PC, semiconductor and components manufacturing led the way.
CompTIA chart
Tech occupations among employers across all industry sectors of the economy increased by 65,000, reversing the negative growth of the previous month.
The tech occupation unemployment rate fell to 1.8%, the lowest rate since January 2023.
“Given the pace of tech hiring, it remains a fairly tight market for tech talent,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer, CompTIA. “It continues to be an environment where employers must supplement recruiting efforts with proactive talent development strategies.”
Employers eased back on job postings for tech occupations, which totaled approximately 204,400 for the month. Positions for software developers and engineers, IT project managers, data analysts, IT support specialists and emerging technologies saw the strongest demand. Positions in emerging technologies or requiring emerging tech skills accounted for about 23% of all tech job postings in July. Within the emerging tech category, 35% of job postings referenced artificial intelligence work and skills.
Among industries, the largest share of July tech job postings came from employers in the professional, scientific and technical services sector. Companies in administrative support, manufacturing and finance and insurance were also active in the search for tech talent.
While most metro markets saw a decline in tech job postings, several ‘under the radar’ regions experienced month-over-month growth, including St. Louis, Jacksonville, Sacramento and Las Vegas.
The “CompTIA Tech Jobs Report” is available at https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report.
