Computerworld.com [Hacking News]

The Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit organization behind the Firefox open-source browser, said it has laid off about 30% of its employees as part of a reorganization to increase its “agility.”

As of 2023, the foundation had between 80 and 300 employees, according to varying reports. A spokesperson declined to say how many employees the company has now.

Established in 2003, the group is best known for its development of the Firefox web browser, as well as its advocacy for internet privacy, digital rights, and freely-available, open-source software.

A Mozilla Foundation spokesman said the non-profit is reorganizing teams to boost agility and impact as it accelerates efforts for “a more open and equitable technical future. That unfortunately means ending some of the work we have historically pursued and eliminating associated roles to bring more focus going forward,” Brandon Borrman, vice president of Mozilla’s communications, said in a statement to Computerworld.

The non-profit arm is distinct from the Mozilla Corporation, which is the for-profit company responsible for generating revenue through products like the web browser. The corporation employs a much larger number of people, likely 700 or more.

The Mozilla Foundation’s executive director, Nabiha Syed, said in an email last week that two of the foundation’s major divisions — advocacy and global programs — are “no longer a part of our structure,” according to a TechCrunch report.

Contrary to reports, however, Borrman said the restructuring will not impact its goal of open-source and free internet advocacy. “On the contrary, advocacy is still a central tenet of Mozilla Foundation’s work,” he said. “Fighting for a free and open internet will always be core to our mission, and advocacy continues to be a critical tool in that work. We are in the process of revisiting our approach to it.”

Along with the Mozilla Foundation, Mozilla currently consists of five organizations: the Mozilla Corporation, which leads consumer product-based work; Mozilla Ventures, a “tech-for-good” investment fund; Mozilla.ai, an AI R&D lab; and MZLA, which makes Thunderbird.

In 2020, the Mozilla Corporation cut about 25% of its 1,000-person global workforce, saying that the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on economies “significantly impacted our revenue.”

Borrman said the layoffs did not affect any of the other Mozilla entities.

Let’s face it: For many people, web browser performance could well be more important than general PC performance.

Browser makers are wising up to this, too. Google Chrome just introduced new performance controls, while Microsoft Edge has attempted to stand out with its own browser performance options. And every web browser out there has long fought over the title of fastest in the land.

So let’s talk browser performance — and how you can get more of it, specifically when working within Windows. In a world where websites feel like they’re getting heavier and heavier, upgraded browser performance means everything from faster load times and a better all-around browsing experience to more reliable all-around PC performance and longer laptop battery life.

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Windows web browsing boost #1: Cull your extensions

Does your browser feel inexplicably slow? Before you do anything else, I’d recommend pruning any installed browser extensions. Add-ons can be useful, but they can also add some serious overhead to your browsing. They may be always running in the background, or they may run some code on each web page you load.

In Google Chrome, you can click the main three-dot menu icon > Extensions > Manage Extensions to see a list of what’s installed. From there, you can disable or remove them. Other browsers have a similar menu and mechanism, potentially with slightly different placement and phrasing.

You might want to try disabling a few browser extensions first to see if your browser feels faster. If not, you can easily re-activate them by flipping their switches back on in that same area of your browser’s settings.

Windows web browsing boost #2: Put those tabs to sleep (or keep them awake)

Modern web browsers — including Chrome, Edge, and Mozilla Firefox — all have features that put tabs to “sleep.” If you don’t use a tab for a while, your browser will stop it from running. It won’t be able to use resources in the background. When you click back to the tab, your browser will reactivate it.

This saves memory, and it also stops pages in background tabs from using CPU resources. Overall, it will boost your browsing speed.

However, in some cases, it could slow things down. Perhaps you often find that you switch back to a tab and your web browser quickly reloads it. If that’s a problem, you’ll want to make your browser stop putting tabs to sleep — especially if you have a powerful computer with a lot of RAM and a fast CPU. (You can also tell your browser to stop putting specific websites to sleep if it causes a problem with a website.)

To control tab suspending:

• In Google Chrome, click menu > Settings and select “Performance” in the left pane. Look under “Memory Saver” and choose an option: Moderate, Balanced, or Maximum. You can also disable Memory Saver entirely — or add websites you never want Chrome to suspend to the “Always keep these sites active” list there.
• In Microsoft Edge, click menu > Settings and select “System and performance” in the left pane. Use the “Save resources with sleeping tabs,” “Put inactive tabs to sleep after the specified amount of time,” and “Never put these sites to sleep” options to control this behavior.
• In Mozilla Firefox, this feature is always activated — unless you dig deep into Firefox’s settings to turn off tab unloading.

Modern browsers can suspend, sleep, or unload tabs to save system resources. These are all names for the same trick.

Chris Hoffman, IDG

Windows web browsing boost #3: Preload more pages

Your web browser of choice can “preload” some pages. In other words, it might load them in the background if it thinks you’ll visit them. If you do, the page loads very quickly — because by the time you’re looking at it, it’s already loaded in the background and ready to go!

Most browsers offer different preloading options, some of which are more aggressive than others. And preloading has some potential privacy implications, as your browser might load links you wouldn’t have clicked. But, for maximum speed, you’ll probably want the most aggressive preloading options available.

To control preloading:

• In Google Chrome, click menu > Settings and select “Performance” in the left pane. Scroll down to the “Preload pages” option. For maximum speed, ensure “Preload pages” is active and that it’s set to “Extended preloading.”
• In Microsoft Edge, click menu > Settings and select “Cookies and site permissions” in the left pane. Click “Manage and delete cookies and site data,” and ensure “Preload pages for faster browsing and searching” is activated.
• In Mozilla Firefox, prefetching is always active — unless you’ve gone out of your way to dig into about:config and disable it.

Windows web browsing boost #4: Check your browser’s task manager

Want to see what’s actually using CPU and memory? Modern Chromium-based web browsers — including Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc Browser, and more — have task managers that will show you. (Firefox has something similar, too.)

In a Chromium-based browser, just right-click an empty spot on the tab bar and select “Task Manager” or press Shift+Esc to open it.

You will see a list of processes — including open web pages, browser extensions, and browser components — along with how much CPU and memory they’re using. If your web browser is mysteriously slow, this is a good place to check: You might spot an open web page that’s dragging everything down, and you can close it from here. You can also click the “CPU” heading to sort processes by CPU and see the most CPU-hungry items at the top of the list.

In Firefox, you can access something similar by plugging about:processes into Firefox’s address bar and pressing Enter. (The Shift+Esc shortcut will work, too!)

Your browser’s task manager will show you if a web page or browser extension is hogging system resources.

Chris Hoffman, IDG

Windows web browsing boost #5: Clear your browser cache (or stop clearing it)

Ah, the browser cache. As you browse, your web browser remembers the pages you visit and the things you type in a history, it stores images and other bits of downloaded pages in a cache, and it keeps cookies with information from websites — like your sign-in status.

Many people frequently clear this browser cache. If your browser is slow, you can try clearing browsing data. In fact, Microsoft’s official Edge browser documentation says “Clearing your browser data on a regular basis will improve the performance of your browser” — and who am I to argue with Microsoft? Surely, it understands how its own browser works.

Clearing that data is worth a shot. But, conversely, if you’re clearing your browsing data too regularly, you might want to stop doing that. The browser cache is there to speed things up: Your browser can pick images and other bits of web pages out of its cache rather than redownloading them, which improves load times when you revisit a page.

You’ll find options for clearing browsing data in your browser’s menu, but you can also just press Ctrl+Shift+Delete to quickly open the browser-history-clearing tool.

Clearing your browser data can speed things up — but clearing your browser cache too aggressively can also slow down page-load times.

Chris Hoffman, IDG

Windows web browsing boost #6: Scan for malware

We have to talk about malware for a minute. Whenever a PC is running mysteriously slow, malware is always one of the first things you should check for.

Be sure to run a scan with your installed antivirus tool of choice if you’re concerned about questionable performance drops. If you haven’t installed anything special, your PC is using Microsoft’s Windows Defender antivirus. You could also get a second opinion with a different antivirus tool, if you’re not too confident in your current security solution. (Our friends over at PCWorld have a list of highly recommended free antivirus tools.)

Windows web browsing boost #7: Switch up your ad-blocker

When it comes to ad-blockers, one thing people don’t often talk about is the fact that such systems can both speed up and slow down your browsing. The speed-up part is obvious: By refusing to load advertising resources on web pages, ad-blocking plugins reduce download size and produce a lighter page that opens more quickly.

But there’s also a slow-down factor: Ad-blockers might also run extra code on the pages you visit, increasing memory use and making them take longer to load.

Different ad-blockers will have different effects on performance. There’s been a lot of controversy about Google Chrome’s switch to Manifest V3 and how it stops the popular “classic” uBlock Origin ad-blocker from functioning. But here’s the thing: While the new way Chrome blocks ads with Manifest V3 is less powerful, it’s also faster. So if you happen to be using uBlock Origin and install the new uBlock Origin Lite, you could see improved page load speeds.

That’s because those new Manifest V3-compatible ad-blocker extensions work by providing a list of resources they want to block. The Chrome browser engine then blocks those resources. That means the ad-blocking browser extension itself doesn’t have to get involved and run a bunch of code on the pages you access.

If you want a speed boost, it’s something worth chewing over. If you’re not yet using any ad-blocker, consider installing one. If you are using an ad-blocker, consider switching — for example, to something like uBlock Origin Lite.

Just bear in mind that you might occasionally break a page; you might need to turn it off for a page if you run into issues. 

Windows web browsing boost #8: Try a fresh browser profile

If a device isn’t working properly, factory-resetting it is a good tip. You might reset a Windows PC to its default settings or factory-reset an Android phone to get it to a nice fresh state if you can’t pin down a performance problem. The same is true for browsers.

To be clear: I’m not recommending you run out and factory-reset your PC! But popular browsers have built-in “fresh start” tools that will clean up your browser profile and its settings, wiping away any configuration changes, disabling extensions, and erasing cached files to give you a like-new browser. It’s worth a shot.

Here’s how to do it:

• In Google Chrome, click menu > Settings and select “Reset Settings” in the left pane. Use the “Restore settings to their original defaults” option.
• In Microsoft Edge, click menu > Settings and select “Reset Settings” in the left pane. Click the “Restore settings to their default values” option.
• In Mozilla Firefox, click menu > Help > Troubleshoot Mode. You can then click “Refresh Firefox” in the dialog box that opens.

It’s a good way to start over. And hey — if you’re experiencing any kind of PC performance issue, browser-related or otherwise, the old standby advice is always good: Try turning it off and on again.

There’s more where this came from! My free Windows Intelligence newsletter delivers all the best Windows tips straight to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get free copies of Paul Thurrott’s Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (a $10 value) just for subscribing.

Zooming out, will Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential race give Apple more bargaining power when negotiating with European regulators — and to what extent will the ongoing US anti-trust investigation of the company (shaky as it is) gain presidential support? 

Those could be the kind of questions Apple CEO Tim Cook is asking himself this morning as the former President inches toward a new administration in 2025. We can surmise this based on what Trump said during the campaign, when he explained how Cook rang him up to complain about the fines levied against the company by Europe.

What Trump told Cook

Speaking on a podcast, the incoming President alleged that he told Cook he would not let the EU “take advantage of our companies.” If he keeps that promise, this suggests we may have a new entrant in the Europe versus Apple (and hence, Big Tech) ring.  With more regulatory investigation — including the first-ever potentially $38 billion fine under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) — headed Apple’s way in Europe, could the former and future president intervene some how? 

It’s hard to tell; after all, most people have become cynical about politicians and the promises they make (and later break) on the campaign trail. We don’t know yet whether the next Trump administration will keep promises made on the way to the White House, or just cherry pick those it wants to keep and ignore the rest.

If the new government does choose to support American tech business against what Republicans might see as overreach by the EU “deep state,” then the next time Europe decides to take a few billion from Cupertino things might not go quite so easy.

When the gloves are off, what happens?

While it is understandable that Europe desperately wants to blunt foreign behemoths in the tech sector in a strategic attempt to support the growth of its own players in that space, it is possible that plan may fail. After all, as events in Valencia, Spain, suggest, Europe has other problems. 

The thing is, given the inherent nativism of so much of Project Trump, can European regulators afford to play hardball here? Future history will tell. But there is no doubt the answer to these questions does matter to many in the US tech sector, and also, inevitably, to supply chain partners elsewhere. 

One thing that does seem likely is that Apple’s investment in manufacturing in India will continue to accelerate, as the new administration seems set to continue the policies toward China it maintained last time it held power. Cook’s strategic vision to set up shop in India seems likely to pay long-term dividends, as does the considerable work the company has already done and continues to do to repatriate jobs to the US — an ongoing effort on which it has spent hundreds of billions of dollars so far.

(TSMC’s move to begin manufacturing Apple processors in America is another facet of this attempt.)

On the telephone

Cook, meanwhile, will continue to follow his own approach toward engaging with others who hold opinions he perhaps does not share. “Personally, I’ve never found being on the sideline a successful place to be,” he told employees in 2019. 

That approach led him to become one of Trump’s top tech advisors during the first administration. 

Cook’s way of doing things also seems to have won some support from Trump, who recently said he thought that if Cook didn’t run Apple it wouldn’t be nearly as successful as it is now. “I think Tim Cook’s done an amazing job,” he said. “And I’m not knocking Steve Jobs.”  

Trump also seemed impressed at the eye-watering size of Europe’s fines levied against Apple, which he characterized as “a lot.” With all of this in mind, it is perhaps important to note that Trump in 2019 said Cook has a direct line to the (now) newly-re-elected President. 

The art of the deal

Might this contribute to the art of some kind of new EU deal? We don’t know that, either, but as America — and the world — digests the election results, it might yet prove an important moment for Apple’s business, too. European regulators need to think about it.

Please follow me on Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.

Sometimes a Windows installation simply goes off the rails. Menus don’t open properly, icons start moving around the desktop, File Explorer acts up, apps get weird, and so forth. Enough things can go wrong, or turn strange, that it’s important to understand various basic Windows repair strategies.

Over the past decade, one of the chief techniques in my own repair arsenal for Windows 10 and 11 has been what’s sometimes called an “in-place upgrade install” or an “upgrade repair install.” (Spoiler alert! This is absurdly easy to do in Windows 11 version 23H2 and later.)

Before going into the details of how to perform such a maneuver, let’s start with a definition and some explanation.

What is an in-place upgrade install?

An in-place upgrade install involves using the Windows OS installer to replace all the operating system files for Windows 10 or 11 on a PC. Basically, you’re using the installer’s setup.exe program to reinstall the same OS back over itself. This leaves user files entirely alone, retains many settings and preferences and, best of all, leaves already-installed apps and applications unchanged. It does, however, overwrite operating system files more or less completely. And in so doing, it often repairs a balky or misbehaving OS and returns it to normal, working condition.

It can take as little as 15 minutes to perform an in-place upgrade install. This maneuver doesn’t require much post-installation cleanup, tweaking, or follow-up activity, either.

Sounds too good to be true — what’s the catch?

Indeed, an in-place upgrade install can provide a quick and effective fix for many, many Windows problems and issues. I use this technique regularly, particularly when I notice that a system is starting to misbehave yet proves resistant to basic repair techniques, such as running the system file checker (SFC) or using the deployment image servicing and management (DISM) image cleanup capabilities.

But an in-place upgrade install is not a universal panacea, and it doesn’t work to cure all Windows ills, either. It is particularly powerless to reverse changes to the Windows registry. (That’s one reason why Microsoft advises users to steer clear or take a registry snapshot they can restore later if they must go where angels fear to tread.)

Here are some additional key considerations that determine the suitability of an in-place upgrade install for a Windows installation.

Requirements for an in-place upgrade install

• You must be logged into an administrative account to perform an in-place upgrade install.
• Windows 10 or 11 must be running (and keep running) so that you can run the setup.exe installer from inside Windows itself. You cannot run an in-place upgrade install using a bootable Windows installer or when Windows is booted into Safe Mode. (This is what’s called a “clean install,” and if you take this route, it does not save apps, applications, or any settings or preferences.)
• You will need at least 9GB plus whatever disk space Windows is using on the drive where it’s running to perform an in-place upgrade install. That’s because the installer renames the running version to Windows.old and lays down a whole new Windows folder for the upgrade it copies to disk. That extra ~9GB or so is needed for work space during the install process.
• The Windows installer you use must be the same edition (Home, Pro, Education, or Enterprise), the same language (for example, en-US for United States English, en-GB for British English), the same “bittedness” (32- or 64-bit for Windows 10; Windows 11 is 64-bit only), and the same build (or newer) as the Windows image it upgrades and repairs.

Post-installation checklist

Please note further that some cleanup or customization may be required once the in-place upgrade install has completed. You should check all these things, some of which may require some additional time and effort to complete:

• Custom fonts and customized system icons will be absent following an in-place upgrade install. If you want them back, you’ll have to restore them manually.
• Wi-Fi connections may need to be re-established (including providing SSIDs and passwords). Occasionally, networks may change from Private to Public and will have to be reset properly.
• Windows Update will only be current as of the date of the image file used for the in-place upgrade install. All subsequent updates must then be applied from Windows Update to make the new installation completely current.
• By default, Windows turns System Protection off. After an in-place upgrade install, System Protection must be turned on to enable capture and use of restore points if you want them.
• The previous installation’s OS files in the Windows.old folder consume substantial disk space. Once things are working properly, run Disk Cleanup as Administrator to clear out those old files and recover the up to 35GB of disk space they typically consume. (You can see that folder represented in the WizTree disk space analyzer in Figure 1.)

Figure 1: On a Windows 11 test PC, the Windows.old folder (outlined in white at top center) comes in at 34.7GB after an in-place repair install.

Ed Tittel / IDG

Once you’ve chewed through this list and pondered all the potential gotchas, performing an in-place upgrade install is easy — ridiculously so in Windows 11 and straightforward in Windows 10 with the right Windows ISO in hand.

Windows 11: Click one button to perform an in-place upgrade install

For versions 23H2 or later, you need only navigate to Settings > System > Recovery, then click the Reinstall now button next to “Fix problems using Windows Update,” as shown in Figure 2. It uses Windows Update for whatever version of Windows 11 you’ve got installed, matching the base version and installed updates exactly. It’s literally a one-button upgrade option.

Figure 2: Click “Reinstall now” and Windows Update does the rest.

Ed Tittel / IDG

That said, this does take some time: I’ve had it take anywhere from 35 to 110 minutes to complete on various test machines. (Newer PCs with fast CPUs finished faster than older PCs with slower ones.) For that reason, Windows 11 users might wish to use the speedier ISO installation method described next, which also works for Windows 11 versions prior to 23H2 and for Windows 10.

Windows 10 or 11: Perform an in-place upgrade install from an ISO or USB media

An ISO, also called an “ISO image,” is a large single file that originally represented the contents of an entire optical disk — a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray Disc. This format is well-suited for installing a large, complex operating system such as Windows because it can bundle up all the programs, files, configuration data and so forth that go into installing such an operating system on a PC.

Windows 10 users can visit Microsoft’s Download Windows 10 page to grab its Media Creation Tool (MCT) for Windows 10. Running the MCT offers an option to build a Windows 10 ISO file. This approach works only for current versions of Windows 10, though. If you need something older (or newer, like a Windows Insider ISO) you may want to turn to HeiDoc.net’s Windows ISO Downloader or UUP dump instead. If you want to grab an ISO for Windows 11, you can head to Microsoft’s Download Windows 11 page or UUP dump.

Remember: the ISO you use to perform the repair install must match the version you’re trying to repair. Your running OS can tell you everything you need to know to pick an ISO for an in-place upgrade repair install. See Windows 10 Forums and Windows 11 Forum for details on how to elicit that info.

Once you’ve got the right ISO, you’ll need to do a little prep work before beginning the in-place upgrade process:

• Be sure to log in to Windows with an administrative account.
• If Windows runs on a drive that’s encrypted, you’ll need to suspend or turn off encryption before performing the in-place upgrade install. After the install completes, you can turn it back on again.
• If the target PC runs UEFI (the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), turn off fast boot and secure boot before starting the in-place upgrade install. Again, you can turn it back on after it’s done.
• Disable or uninstall any third-party antivirus or security software that may be running (anything other than Windows Defender, in other words). Once again, you can reinstall or reenable it once the install is complete.

With that out of the way, running the repair install is dead simple:

1. Mount the ISO.
2. Navigate to the root of the virtual “CD Drive” into which the ISO’s contents get loaded.
3. Run the setup.exe file.

If you’ve got a bootable USB medium (normally a flash drive), you can skip step 1. Open the drive in File Explorer and run setup.exe.

When the Windows installer gets going, accept the license terms, select Upgrade this PC now, allow updates, and click Next. Windows grabs updates, switches over to the installer OS image, and gets itself ready to run. You must then accept the license terms and allow the OS to start the actual in-place upgrade.

By default, the installer keeps all personal files and apps on the target machine. This is what you want, so there’s no need to dig into the “Change what to keep” item on the “Ready to install” page. Just be sure that both “Install Windows 10” (or “Install Windows 11”) and “Keep personal files and apps” are checked on that screen.

As the in-place upgrade runs, the circular progress indicator shows that it’s upgrading Windows, from 1% to 100%. Figure 3 shows the corresponding Windows 10 screencaps; Windows 11 screens are similar but not identical.

Figure 3: The Windows 10 installer prepares to resinstall the OS (top) and then grinds through the initial installation phase prior to the first reboot (bottom).

Ed Tittel / IDG

After that completes, the installer takes you through some additional setup screens where you have the option to customize settings or take the express route to completion. Once that is complete, you’ll sit through a number of colored screens as the installer puts the finishing touches on your in-place Windows 10 or 11 upgrade.

For the vast majority of PCs, it will take less than 20 minutes for this process to complete. Older, slower PCs may take half an hour or more, but that has not been my experience. This means that when an ISO is available, this process goes much faster than the simpler one-button Windows 11 option described in the previous section. I tend to prefer this for my Windows 11 repairs for that reason and because I keep current ISOs around as a matter of habit and choice.

After the installation

Please remember to check the list of items in need of possible attention and effort when the install is finished, as outlined earlier in the story.

By default, Windows keeps the Windows.old folder around for 10 days after such an install. If you’re sure things are working, you can remove it sooner. On the test Windows 11 PC whose Windows.old folder weighed in at just under 35GB in Figure 1, running Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) returned nearly 25GB worth of disk space, as you can see in Figure 4. That process took about 5 minutes to complete.

Figure 4: Disk Cleanup offers to recover 24.4GB on the repaired Windows 11 PC.

Ed Tittel / IDG

A strategy for using Windows in-place upgrade installs

Knowing that I can perform an in-place upgrade install quickly and easily has really changed my outlook on Windows troubleshooting. Except for hardware problems (or driver issues, which tie directly into hardware as well), if I find myself spending half an hour troubleshooting a Windows problem, I’m already asking, “Is it time for an in-place upgrade install?” Once that time spent stretches past one hour, there has to be a compelling reason why it’s not a good idea to perform an in-place upgrade install to keep me laboring away at other things.

Simply put, an in-place upgrade install is a great solution for resolving trying or opaque issues with Windows — as long as the target OS is still running well and long enough to run setup.exe through the first of the three or four reboots typical during Windows 10 or 11 installation. If you can make it to the first reboot, the new OS takes over after that anyway, and most problems will be fixed.

Over the past year, I’ve either experienced directly or read about an in-place upgrade install fixing a lengthy laundry list of vexing problems, including these:

• Issues with system fonts, icons, thumbnails, and other presentation matters.
• Networking problems with Wi-Fi and Ethernet, and with misbehaving or absent network interfaces.
• Start and program menu issues, navigation and taskbar problems, and application window issues related to placement and sizing.
• Flaky or erratic behavior from File Explorer, Edge, and UWP apps. Ditto for general OS instability (slow performance, unreliable system utilities, or frequent OS errors).
• Otherwise intractable Windows Update issues (Windows 10 or 11 PCs can’t or won’t download or install updates or feature upgrades).

These days, if a Windows 10 or 11 problem proves hard to diagnose or fix, I’ll turn to an in-place upgrade install as a next or inevitable step in the troubleshooting and repair process. Much of the time, it provides the fix that’s needed. Savvy admins and power users could do worse than give it a try. Cheers!

This article was originally published in March 2018 and updated in November 2024.

At this point, I think it’s safe to say the current wave of “AI everything” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Let’s not sugarcoat it: The vast majority of generative-AI gobbledegook is unreliable, impractical, and more about marketing than any manner of real-world benefit for us — the (alleged) humans meant to be benefiting from it. But here and there amidst all the overhyped hullaballoo, a genuinely useful possibility pops up and peeks its way through the metaphorical curtain.

For some folks, that’s absolutely been the case with the AI-powered summarizing options appearing in apps and services across the tech universe these days. One click, tap, or spoken request — and boom: In a matter of moments, your favorite neighborhood AI genie starts summing up mountains of text and distilling endless-seeming info down into a succinct summary for you.

And if there’s one place where such a feat could be especially intriguing, it’s in our ever-overloaded Android notification panels.

With Apple already embracing the idea in its recently rolled out Apple Intelligence suite (for better or, erm, maybe for worse, in that scenario) and Samsung now supposedly considering something similar for its Android-based Galaxy gadgets, I’ve heard more than a few questions from my fellow Android-appreciating animals about if and how it’d be possible to have notifications automatically summarized here in the land o’ Android.

My friend, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: On Android, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Lemme show ya the secret.

[Psst: Grant yourself even more noteworthy notification powers with my new Android Notification Power-Pack — six smart enhancements that’ll change how you use your phone.]

How to summarize notifications on Android — no waiting required

If you want your Android device’s notifications summarized as they stream in — without any waiting for Samsung, Google, or anyone else to make such a feature officially available — a clever little app called Sum Up AI Notification Summary is the little-known key to making it happen.

And yes, ironically, the app’s name could do with some summarization — or at the very least a visit from the Department of Redundancy Department. But that teensy bit of amusement aside, it really is an incredible tool.

And it’s pretty easy to get going on whatever Android device you’re using, no matter who made it or how old it might be.

In fact, you’ve got just three key steps to consider:

Android notification summary step 1: Install and connect

First things first, install the Sum Up app from the Play Store (obviously — right?!). It’ll cost you a whopping $1.65, up front and in a single one-time payment. And it doesn’t require any disconcerting permissions or collect any form of personal data, as per its Play Store privacy policy.

Now, before we go any further: The app uses Gemini to handle the heavy lifting, and you have to connect it to your Google account before it can access that resource. It sounds complicated on the surface, but I promise you: It really isn’t at all difficult to do — provided you’re in an area where access to Gemini is generally available.

Here’s all there is to it:

• Tap the box at the top of Sum Up’s main screen to get a Google Gemini API key. 
• On the screen that comes up next, tap the button labeled “Create API key,” then tap the search box and select “Gemini API” (or any other option, really — it doesn’t actually matter!) in the list that shows up.
• Tap “Create API key in existing project,” then tap the button to copy the key you’ve created.
• Now, head back to the Sum Up app. Tap the “Gemini API key” line there, paste the key you just copied into that field, and tap “OK” to save it.

See? Told ya it wasn’t bad.

And Google won’t charge you a single penny for this privilege, either, within any normal-use scenarios — going all the way up to 15 requests per minute and 1,500 requests per day. (If you’re dealing with more notifications than that, you’ve got bigger fish to fry!)

Android notification summary step 2: Authorize and configure

Now that that part’s out of the way, you’ve just got a handful of relatively simple settings to make your way through before sitting back and enjoying your newfound Android notification summarizing powers.

Ready?

• First, within that same main Sum Up setup screen, tap “Grant notification access,” then activate the toggle to allow the app to read and interact with your notifications (for what I hope are obvious reasons).
• Head back to the setup screen and tap “Allow posting notifications,” then tap “Allow” on the prompt that pops up (again, for reasons that should be pretty apparent).
• See the slider labeled “Messages threshold”? I’d slide that up to either two or three, to start. Otherwise, the system will summarize notifications even when there’s only a single message involved — and if you ask me, that isn’t really needed or helpful in any way.
• And last but not least, flip the toggle next to “Retain original notification actions” into the on and active position. That’ll allow options like replying directly to a message or marking something as read to be present and available even on your summarized notifications.

Setting up Sum Up to summarize your Android phone’s notifications is much easier than it looks at first glance.

JR Raphael, IDG

And that’s pretty much it! If you want, you can look through the “Per-app settings” option to see which specific apps Sum Up will watch and then summarize notifications from for you. It works with most email and messaging-oriented apps, including Slack, Google Messages, WhatsApp, and Gmail — but if there’s any particular app where you don’t want it to summarize, you can easily uncheck it in that area.

Sum Up lets you select exactly which apps you do — and don’t — want to see notifications summarized for.

JR Raphael, IDG

Take a deep breath and treat yourself to a quick crumpet break, if you’re feeling peckish. We’re almost done here — and your Android notification summary machine is basically now up and running.

Android notification summary step 3: Watch and adjust

At this point, all that’s left is to wait and watch as Sum Up works its magic.

I’d suggest keeping a close eye on the summaries for a few days and seeing what seems helpful vs. more annoying than valuable to you. You might find, for instance, that when it comes to regular texts, you prefer seeing every individual message from Google Messages by itself — but you might appreciate the summaries when it comes to notification-heavy work-related Slack conversations.

Each of these notifications took three incoming Slack messages and summarized them into a single skimmable sentence.

JR Raphael, IDG

Whatever you decide, the power to make it happen is now firmly in your hands. And that, m’dear, is the power of Android — summed up as succinctly as can be.

Keep the customization coming with my Android Notification Power-Pack — six powerful new enhancements for your phone’s notification panel. It’s completely free!

Extending the standard refresh cycle of laptops in a corporate environment can significantly reduce a workplace’s carbon footprint, according to new workplace sustainability research. However, challenges in ensuring the older laptops still meet Windows OS requirements, and other cost issues, could offset these environmental gains, experts said.

The Atos Sustainable Workplace report, published this week and aimed at providing insights to help improve corporate social responsibility, found that by refreshing laptops every four years rather than three, organizations achieve up to a 25% reduction in carbon and related emissions without downgrading device performance or user experience.

Moreover, by using what it called “data-driven, condition-based device refresh combined with remanufacturing,” organizations can even extend the life of laptops within an organization for eight to 10 years, according to the report.

Most (79%) of a laptop’s carbon footprint is produced during manufacturing, with each new device creating roughly 338kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) before use, according to Atos. This means that extending the lifecycle of corporate laptops can have a huge impact on how sustainable a corporate environment is.

Atos research also found that 76% of large organizations’ laptops can be remanufactured — that is, stripped down and updated with newer parts where needed, and then sent back into the workforce — with the remaining 24% of devices available for refurbishment or recycling to contribute to the circular economy.

Moreover, the study found that employees are more than willing to use their older laptops longer for the sake of environmental benefits, with 75% of them saying they would be willing to keep them longer if it meant a more sustainable workplace.

Real-world issues to consider

Improving sustainability in a workplace is certainly a noble and, in the current global environment, even necessary goal. However, the vision Atos presents for extending laptop lifecycles to achieve environmental gains may not make practical, economic, or even cultural sense for current corporate environments, analysts noted.

One issue with the idea of keeping older laptops for longer is that Microsoft’s support for Windows 10 ends in less than a year. Most organizations are likely in the middle of a migration to Windows 11, which is challenging, as many older PCs may not meet the minimum requirements for the new operating system.

If organizations choose not to migrate, they may soon have to start paying for extended Windows 10 support, which starts at $61 per device in the first year, doubling to $122 per Windows 10 device in year two, and $244 per device for the third and final year.

Indeed, organizations are currently facing an important choice as the end of Windows 10 support looms: how do they want to approach either migration to Windows 11, or staying with older Windows 10 devices, noted Everest Group senior analyst Prabhneet Kaur.

“While component upgrades, like increasing RAM, can help meet Windows requirements, or informal workarounds may bypass them, maintaining robust security and a quality user experience will be tricky,” she said.

‘A lot of work for IT departments’

According recent Neowin numbers, overall share of Windows 10 users is currently at 60.95%, while the overall share of Windows 11 users is at 35.55%. These are consumer numbers; corporate environments often lag behind consumer adoption of new versions of Windows.

If an IT department wants to keep older laptops and migrate them to Windows 11, it will take both time and financial investment to maintain the older devices — neither of which corporate IT departments or budgets historically tend to have much of, another analyst noted.

“TCO [total cost of ownership] increases as the device gets older,” observed Ranjit Atwal, research director in Gartner’s Quantitative Innovation team, adding that remanufacturing laptops “sounds expensive to do every few years.” Overall, the idea of keeping older laptops in corporate circulation for a longer period of time “sounds like a lot of work for IT departments that don’t like change,” he noted.

Sebastien Vibert, solution manager at Atos, said his company’s analysis found that of tens of millions of devices observed, 96% of devices in large organizations are already compatible with Windows 11. This indicates that “a majority of corporate organizations have taken the necessary steps to refresh their devices, ensuring they meet the requirements for Windows 11” and thus support Trusted Platform Module 2.0, a critical hardware component of Windows 11 security.

Even if this is the case, there still remain “many challenges” to Atos’ vision of sustainability through laptop lifecycle extension, Atwal observed.

“There are lots of different parts of the organization to persuade to make the move to this type of sustainable path,” he noted. “However, sustainability is a major factor on the CIO agenda and these considerations are being discussed.”

Smartphone deliveries worldwide increased by 5% during the third quarter of 2024 compared to the same period a year ago, according to a new survey from analysis firm Canalys. That equates to about 310 million units and is the best performing third quarter for the smartphone market since 2021.

Canalys traces the growth to increased demand and an aggressive launch of several new products, including Samsung’s latest smartphone series and Apple’s iPhone 16 series.

During the quarter, Samsung maintained its lead in the market, taking 19% of sales, followed closely by Apple with 18% and Xiaomi with 14%. In fourth and fifth place were Oppo and Vivo, with 9% of the market each.

Canalys expects continued growth for the market through the end of the year.

Apple Intelligence has been available for a couple of weeks now, but the work continues. Apple recently pushed out the second iOS 18.2 developer beta, which reveals more about how ChatGPT integration will work with iPhones running Apple Intelligence.

As we’ve discussed, Apple has a three-strand approach to generative AI (genAI): The first strand consists of its own Apple Intelligence LLM models working on the device itself; the second is when it runs the same self-made models using secure servers in data centers; the third element is to offload to ChatGPT any requests Apple’s own technologies cannot handle. 

For users, the approach is quite seamless, though they can expect some kind of warning in the event an Apple Intelligence request must be handed to ChatGPT for completion. If they’re uncomfortable sharing the request with a third party — as some users in some industries should be — they can terminate the query before it’s passed along. The basic idea is that Siri will use ChatGPT to handle queries it lacks the ability or information to handle, particularly what Apple calls “world knowledge, such as recipes or information about locations. Siri handles the personal stuff.

But this much we already knew, so what’s new in iOS 18.2?

Free, but with limits

The arrangement Apple has made for using OpenAI means users can access ChatGPT for free, though if they already pay for the service, they can login with their own account.

There are, however, some limits to that free usage, as revealed in iOS 18.2 beta 2. The beta shows you can enable or disable the service completely if you choose. You’ll also find a new Advanced Capabilities section where you’ll be able to monitor use and check whether you are within the daily limit for access to its advanced tools. You might need to do so, as Siri could use ChatGPT when composing text or creating images. If you need more access, you can subscribe to ChatGPT’s premium service from the Advanced Capabilities item.

We don’t know if Apple takes a cut of that sale, but I imagine it must; if not, others selling services on the company’s platform would want the same deal. ChatGPT Plus ($19.99/month) benefits include access to more advanced LLM models and higher limits for photo and file uploads, image generation, web browsing, and more.

Also coming with iOS 18.2

The update will also see additional Apple Intelligence features, including Genmoji and Image Playground. The latter is visible in different parts of the system; when you highlight text in the Notes app, a new Create Image option appears that lets you use Image Playground to generate an image based on that text. Mail now categorizes incoming messages for you into different sections, including important “Primary” messages, a Transactions section, and Updates for newsletters and similar things. The Promotions category will capture all the special offer emails you just can’t get rid of.

You will be able to share Find My Location information with others. This could be useful if you are tracking down lost luggage, for example, or in the event you need to share the location of your stolen Apple device with law enforcement. The update also enables use of iPhone Mirroring when your device is connected to a shared hotspot with a Mac and an improvement to Camera Control which adds new auto-exposure and focus lock options for that button. But for many iPhone users, the big news will be support for use of the service in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Canada and the U.K.

If you are using an iPhone 16 you’ll gain a new Visual Intelligence tool, so that the iPhone can get information about whatever you point the camera at. The big AI highlight on Apple’s platforms for next year is currently the addition of contextual intelligence and on-screen awareness to Siri. Intimations of how this could work are visible in the current developer beta which lets Siri react to spoken commands that relate to in-app contents.

When will iPhones gain ChatGPT access?

Apple expects to enable ChatGPT integration via Siri in early December (Dec. 2?) when iOS 18.2 is expected to ship. Apple Intelligence is not expected to reach Europe until next year. But users in the EU will be able to console themselves with another new feature in iOS 18.2, which will allow them to select a different default browser on iPads and iPhones. EU users will also be able to define third-party default apps in a new section in Settings.

Please follow me on Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.

Think fast: How many times a day do you pick up your phone to look at something? Unless you live in the tundra or have far more self-control than most, the answer probably falls somewhere between “quite a few” and “more than any sane person could count.” Assuming you keep your device properly secured, that means you’re doing an awful lot of unlocking — be it with your face, your fingerprint, or the code you tap or swipe onto your screen.

And that’s to say nothing of the number of times you type your password into your laptop or enter your credentials into an app or website during the day. Security’s important, but goodness gracious, it can sure be a hassle.

Thankfully, there’s a better way. Google Smart Lock/Extend Unlock provides a variety of options for making it easier to access both your Android phone and your Chromebook in secure but simplified ways. It’s an easily overlooked but incredibly useful feature that lets you create a sensible balance between security and convenience.

What is Google Smart Lock? And what is Google Extend Unlock?

Google Smart Lock was an unlocking feature for Android devices and Chromebooks. Google has now, for no apparent reason, mostly changed its sensible Smart Lock name to the awkward and confusing “Extend Unlock.”

For clarity’s sake, we’ll use both terms in this story — partly because at this point nobody knows what Extend Unlock is, partly because Google itself can’t entirely seem to decide which name it wants to use where, and partly because Google has a long history of changing product and feature names willy nilly, so we wouldn’t be surprised if the company changes it back entirely to Smart Lock at some point.

In Android, Smart Lock/Extend Unlock allows you to keep your phone unlocked in certain preapproved, known-to-be-safe circumstances. In ChromeOS, it empowers your Android phone to keep your computer unlocked.

And best of all? Once you set it up in either environment, it couldn’t be much easier to use.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to activating Google Smart Lock/Extend Unlock and taking full advantage of everything it has to offer across both Android and ChromeOS.

Google Smart Lock/Extend Unlock for Android

On any reasonably recent Android device, you can set up Google Smart Lock/Extend Unlock to keep your phone unlocked in certain trusted situations but to require your PIN, pattern, password, or biometric authentication at all other times. It’s the best of both worlds, in other words: effective Android security without unnecessary annoyances.

To activate Google Smart Lock/Extend Unlock on Android, you’ll first need to have a PIN, pattern, or password set for your phone (which you should already have, regardless!). Then, in the standard Google Android setup — the setup you see on Pixel phones and certain other devices:

• Open the Security & Privacy section of your phone’s settings.
• On older Android versions, tap “Smart Lock.”
• On more current and up-to-date devices, tap either “Advanced settings” or “More security & privacy” and then tap “Extend Unlock.”

On Android phones where the manufacturer has made modifications to the operating system, the Smart Lock/Extend Unlock section may be located in a different area of the device’s settings. On recent Samsung phones, for instance:

• Open the Lock Screen and AOD section of your phone’s settings.
• Tap “Extend Unlock.”

If you aren’t seeing the Extend Unlock option anywhere in your system settings, try tapping the search box or icon at the top of the main settings screen and then searching for that same term.

However you get there, once you’ve opened the Smart Lock/Extend Unlock section, you’ll be prompted to put in your PIN, pattern, or password — and you’ll then see a list of available choices:

On-body detection: Fire up this option, and your phone will remain unlocked whenever you’re holding or carrying it — so long as you’ve already unlocked it once. That way, if you unlock your phone to use it and then put it back into your bag or pocket while walking around, you won’t have to unlock it again the next time you pick it up. Anytime your phone is set down or not in motion for more than a moment, it’ll require authentication again.

Trusted places: Perhaps the most useful Google Smart Lock/Extend Unlock element, this option allows you to set specific locations — by business name, street address, or manual map placement — at which your phone will never put up a lock screen or require authentication (in theory, at least; the function can sometimes be a bit finicky and require occasional fine-tuning). You’ll obviously want to be selective about what places you choose, but configuring this to recognize somewhere like your home can be a helpful way to avoid authentication where it’s generally not needed but keep your phone secured in all other areas.

Trusted devices: If you’d rather have Google Smart Lock/Extend Unlock recognize a Bluetooth pairing, this next option’s for you. It empowers you to tell your phone to skip the lock screen anytime it’s connected to a specific Bluetooth device — say, your car’s audio system or your gym headphones — when you know the phone will always be in your control.

You can add any Bluetooth device that’s been paired to your phone as a trusted device and then let it keep your phone unlocked whenever it’s  connected.

JR Raphael / IDG

Google Smart Lock/Extend Unlock for Chromebooks

When it comes to ChromeOS, Google Smart Lock/Extend Unlock can keep you from having to type in your password every time your computer wakes from hibernation. It does this by turning your Android phone into a wireless key: Whenever your Android phone is nearby and unlocked, ChromeOS will skip the standard password entry screen and instead let you click a little arrow icon to sign in and get going.

Any reasonably recent Android phone will work for the purpose, though administrators do have the ability to disable the function in managed environments at businesses, schools, and other organizations. So if you’re in a company-oriented scenario and can’t find the option, that may be why. Your best bet is to ask your IT staff if it’s possible to enable it.

That asterisk aside, to get started with Google Smart Lock/Extend Unlock on ChromeOS, all you’ve gotta do is open up your Chromebook’s settings — by clicking the time in the lower-right corner of the taskbar area and then clicking the gear-shaped icon in the upper-right corner of the panel that pops up.

Next, click “Connected devices” in the main left-of-screen settings menu — and if you haven’t yet connected your Android phone to your Chromebook, click the “Set up” option within the “Android phone” section. Follow the steps to select and connect your device.

After a moment, you should see your phone’s name appear at the top of that same settings section. Click the right-facing arrow next to it and confirm that “Smart Lock” — which, for the moment at least, inexplicably still appears as Smart Lock and not Extend Unlock in this context (?!) — has its toggle in the on and active position.

Smart Lock, Extend Unlock, whatever you want to call it — once you connect your Android phone to your Chromebook, the option will appear.

JR Raphael / IDG

And that’s it: As long as Bluetooth is active on both devices, the next time your Chromebook is locked, you should be able to get into it quickly and effortlessly — without any of the usual patience-testing headaches.

Figure out which of these Google Smart Lock/Extend Unlock options make the most sense for you, and you’ll be able to achieve a sensible balance of security and convenience — and be well on your way to keeping your information safe while keeping your sanity intact.

This story was originally published in December 2018 and most recently updated in November 2024.

It’s been a few weeks since EU regulators put pressure on Apple, but that brief reprieve is over as they begin an investigation that might affect Apple’s iPad in Europe. 

On the surface, it’s relatively straightforward. Apple’s iPad OS was declared to be a “gatekeeper” under Europe’s Digital Market Act earlier this year. The significance of this is that Apple is required to open up aspects of its operating system in order to foster the chimera of open competition, which might or might not benefit users.

“Apple must, among others, allow users to set the default web browser of their choice on iPadOS, allow alternative app stores on its operating system, and allow accessory devices, like headphones and smart pens, to effectively access iPadOS features,” the Commission said. 

Failure to meet those DMA requirements means the European Commission can fine Apple up to 10% of its annual global revenue (or 20% for repeat infringements), so the company is under serious pressure to get its response right.

What Apple has done is explained in a document

With that in mind, Apple has made or is making multiple changes to its tablet operating system, just as it has with iOS. The company has explained those changes in a compliance report it was forced to publish under European law. That 12-page document was released Nov. 1 and is available for review here.

In it, Apple stresses that some of the changes to the system bring greater risks to customers. Those risks include exposure to potential malware, fraud, malicious apps, and lack of support if a user is impacted by issues with apps downloaded outside of the App Store.

The company has attempted to protect against such problems by insisting that developers, including those selling apps outside the store, notarize their apps to provide some degree of protection. The report explains how it supports third-party stores, some of the limitations in that support, the tools it provides, and more, including some discussion around cost.

The report also confirms upcoming changes, some of which may be less well known, for example (most verbatim from Apple’s report):

• In an update later in 2024, iOS and iPadOS will include the following updates to app deletion: the App Store, Messages, Camera, Photos, and Safari apps will be deletable for users in the EU. Only Settings and (on iOS) Phone will not be deletable. 
• By the end of the year, Apple intends to introduce a secure solution for users to authorize developers to access data related to their users’ personal data (to the extent it is available to Apple and users have consented to their personal data being shared with the developer). 
• Also scheduled for introduction by the end of the year, Apple is building a browser switching solution for exporting and importing relevant browser data into another browser on the same device. 
• Apple is also developing a solution that helps mobile operating system providers develop more user-friendly solutions to transfer data from an iPhone or iPad to a non-Apple phone or tablet. Apple aims to make this solution available by fall 2025.
• The company also suggests it will allow users in the EU to set default navigation and translation apps beginning in the spring of 2025.

Apple’s report confirms it has put a DMA Compliance team together to help maintain compliance with European law, and created a mediation process that’s independent and free of charge to developers following the company’s newly introduced appeals process for DMA compliance.

Now, Europe plans to check Apple’s homework

Now that Apple has shared its approach to compliance, EU antitrust regulators will take a look to make sure that approach meets the demands of the Digital Markets Act. While it sounds alarming, this also feels like a relatively normal step — Apple published its approach, and regulators will now assess it

In a statement, the European Commission said: “The Commission will now carefully assess whether the measures adopted for iPad OS are effective in complying with the DMA obligations.”  It will also consider input from third parties about Apple’s approach.

Hopefully during the review, regulators will work with Apple to rectify any identified lacks, but the Commission does warn that if it decides the solutions Apple has put forward are not compliant it will take “formal enforcement action as foreseen in the DMA.”

The way that is articulated somewhat suggests that the time for negotiation may be over, but, as Apple’s own report observes, “Apple has already announced changes to its compliance plan to address stated concerns which are being implemented across iOS and iPadOS.”

Apple has also hinted that Apple Intelligence will be introduced in Europe next year, which itself suggests some ongoing dialog. All the same, the kiss of death will be if Europe’s regulators choose to use the power they have to reduce the value of Apple’s platforms to end users, who already have a choice of platform to use.

Unfortunately, it seems the Apple-versus-regulation game will run and run.

Please follow me on LinkedIn, Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill group on MeWe.

Attackers are exploiting a recently disclosed remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint to gain initial access to corporate networks.

SharePoint’s main role in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem is for building intranets and dedicated web applications to support organizational processes. It is also used to build websites, and to gather together files in SharePoint teams connected to the Microsoft Teams communicator.

CVE-2024-38094 is a high-severity remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability that affects Microsoft SharePoint. Microsoft fixed the vulnerability on July 9, 2024 as part of July’s Patch Tuesday package, marking it as “important”.

The Biden Administration plans to spend about $825 million to create a flagship national semiconductor R&D center in upstate New York, where the government-funded NanoTech Complex already exists.

The new R&D facility in Albany, NY will be home to the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Accelerator project, which is being funded to advance leading-edge lithography research and adoption in the US.

EUV Lithography is essential for manufacturing smaller, faster, and more efficient integrated circuits and microchips. It involves transferring intricate patterns onto a semiconductor silicon wafer, which eventually forms the circuits that power all electronic devices.

As the semiconductor industry pushes the limits of Moore’s Law, EUV lithography has emerged as a critical technology to enable the high-volume production of transistors beyond 7 nanometers (nm), something that was previously unattainable. By comparison, a typical human hair is roughly 80,000nm to 100,000nm thick, and a DNA molecule is around 2.5nm.

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) said access to EUV lithography R&D is essential to meet three primary goals: 1) extend US technology leadership, 2) reduce the time and cost to prototype, and 3) build and sustain a semiconductor workforce ecosystem.

The new R&D center represents a key milestone “in ensuring the United States remains a global leader in innovation and semiconductor research and development,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

Anish Koshy, a Parthenon Principal at consultancy Ernst & Young LLP, said the center represents a strategic investment in both technology and talent.

“At the heart of this facility is advanced EUV technology, a cornerstone in producing the next generation of high-performance microchips essential for applications from AI to advanced computing,” Koshy said. “EUV technology has been largely concentrated outside of the US and the hope is that having this technology on US soil, combined with the collaborative research environment, will help American companies maintain their edge in designing next-generation chips.”

The US EUV effort is a political response to China making a concerted effort to be the world leader in the chip design and manufacturing space, even though the US and Europe have put restrictions on the one primary supplier of EUV technology — ASML, according to Jack Gold, principal analyst for J. Gold Associates.

ASML Holding N.V. is a Dutch multinational corporation that develops and manufactures of photolithography machines which are used to produce computer chips. As of 2023, it is the largest supplier for the semiconductor industry and the sole supplier in the world of EUV photolithography machines.

“Even with the export controls, its expected China will be able to create a competitive system in the next few years,” Gold said. “So, it’s critical that the US have a competitive R&D program in place to stimulate local production and stay ahead in this critical technology, while also potentially creating US suppliers that can produce these machines that can sell for hundreds of millions of dollars each.”

Another semiconductor expert, who asked not to be named, said EUV technology only affects a small number of companies, such as TSMC, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron. “That’s really it,” he said.

Many more companies, however, will benefit indirectly, including fabless chip makers such as NVIDIA and AMD; networking providers such as Broadcom; wireless providers such as Qualcomm and Mediatek; and cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

Even Internet service and equipment providers such as Meta and Oracle, and enterprise hardware makers such as Cisco and Juniper, could benefit from the new R&D center’s potential innovations, the expert said.

“There is an entire ecosystem that we expect will get excited about having the Accelerator onshore — and very little of this ecosystem exists in the USA today, so much of this will be net new job creation,” he said. “There are obvious national security implications in getting more Americans working on EUV challenges, with benefits to [the Department of Defense] from a resiliency perspective.”

Funded by the CHIPS Act to reshore semiconductor manufacturing, the new research center’s aim is to unite researchers nationwide to accelerate innovation in the field. The Department of Commerce and the National Center for the Advancement of Semiconductor Technology (Natcast), will oversee the facility. Natcast was created under the CHIPS Act as a non-profit entity designated to operate the NSTC.

The new center will provide access to “cutting-edge research and tools” to the NSTC, which was just opened in Albany’s NY CREATES’ NanoTech Complex; that complex opened last year.

NY CREATES’ NanoTech Center in Albany

NY CREATES

Through public-private partnerships, mega corporations from the semiconductor industry and others such as IBM, Micron, Applied Materials, and Tokyo Electron helped establish the facilities at the NanoTech Complex. 

In August 2022, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act, allocating $52.7 billion to the Department of Commerce for the CHIPS for America program to enhance U.S. semiconductor research, development, and manufacturing. About $11 billion of that CHIPS funding went toward establishing several research centers, including the NSTC and the Nanotech complex in Albany.

With the CHIPS Act spurring them on, chip makers such as Intel, Samsung, Micron, TSMC, and Texas Instruments are already building or planning a number of new US chip fabrication plants. (Qualcomm, in partnership with GlobalFoundries, also said it would invest $4.2 billion to double chip production in its Malta, NY facility.)

To date, however, CHIPS Act funding has only been allocated, not distributed. There have also been setbacks on fabrication plant construction as workers to build and staff the plants are in short supply.

NY CREATES operates a complex with 150,000 square feet of cleanroom space (and another 50,000 square feet of space under construction) staffed by 2,750 scientists, engineers and other staffers. The R&D facility is in partnership with more than 200 industry, academic and international development facilities around the globe.

Raimondo said the CHIPS Act is building “a resilient ecosystem that will power everything from smartphones to advanced AI, safeguarding US national security and keeping America competitive for decades to come.”

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted critical gaps in the semiconductor supply chain as imports to the US and other nations ground to a halt, affecting the production of everything with electronics, from smart phones to cars.

NY CREATES is an Albany-based, non-profit semiconductor R&D facility that works with the National Institute for Industry and Career Advancement (NIICA). NIICA’s focus is on building the nation’s talent pipeline in semiconductor and advanced manufacturing industries. It also created the Semiconductor and Advanced Manufacturing Technician Apprenticeship Program (SAM-TAP).

NY CREATES has been operating an apprenticeship program: apprentices get hands-on training while also attending courses at local colleges to advance their careers.

“By supporting breakthrough EUV research and fostering a collaborative ecosystem, this facility will not only drive semiconductor innovation, but also address key challenges in supply chain resilience and workforce development, while maintaining U.S. technological leadership,” EY’s Koshy said.

Market distortions caused by hurricanes and labor strikes slowed the pace of hiring to the lowest point since December 2020, according to the latest government jobs report.

An analysis of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report also revealed the tech unemployment rate for the October was essentially unchanged at 2.6%, up from 2.5% in September. Nationally, the overall unemployment rate also held steady at 4.1%.

The US economy added just 12,000 jobs in October, compared to 254,000 jobs added in September; the number of job openings remained static at 7.4 million.

With more than 113,000 tech businesses in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, the states hardest hit by two hurricanes that caused widespread damage, disruptions may have affected hiring, according to the BLS and other reports.

That said, BLS data over the last few years has been re-adjusted more than any time in the past, according to IT jobs research firm Janco Associates. In August, for example, the BLS revised its count for the total number of jobs created this year down by 818,000.

Ger Doyle, head of tech recruitment firm Experis North America, said the October jobs report “may seem like a house of horrors,” but it is more than likely a temporary slowdown due to weather disruptions and labor strikes.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Experis’ data shows a more nuanced picture of a labor market facing both short-term challenges and long-term resilience, according to Doyle. Month-over-month, there have been declines in hiring across manufacturing, legal and engineering industries. And, businesses continue to be cautious about expanding their workforce, likely due to economic uncertainties or cost-control measures, Doyle said.

“However, we’re still seeing growth above 2023 levels, which provides moderate optimism for the market as economic conditions stabilize,” Doyle said. “Sectors like science and R&D are seeing substantial growth, reflecting strategic investments in innovation.”

U.S. employers listed 528,402 active employer job postings for tech positions last month, including almost 223,000 new listings, according to CompTIA, a non-profit tech industry association. Positions for database architects (up 10%) and network and computer system administrators (up 6%) represented the biggest percent change increases from September, CompTIA data showed.

The most postings were for software development, engineering, IT project management, data analysis, emerging tech, data science, and tech support specialists, according to CompTIA.

“Despite the higher than usual noise in this month’s labor market data, there are a number of positives to point to on the tech employment front,“ said Tim Herbert, chief research officer for CompTIA. “The data indicates employers continue a balanced approach to hiring across core tech job roles and innovation enabling roles.”

Overall, the outlook for the labor market remains positive, and with a soft landing for the economy appearing likely as inflation continues to cool, cautious employers might soon begin to hire more broadly in other sectors.

Tech professions throughout the economy increased by 70,000 in October, to nearly 6.5 million workers in the aggregate. Employer job posting data indicates broad-based hiring across software, cybersecurity, support, data and infrastructure, according to CompTIA.

Job data over the past two years has been a mixed bag of good times and bad; 260,000 tech workers were laid off in 2023, with another 142,000 getting pink slips so far this year, according to Layoffs.fyi. At the same time, US unemployment data released last month showed unexpected growth overall for tech job listings and hiring, along with a marked shift in the kind of workers organizations need — AI talent is no longer at the top of the list.

So what’s going on?

“While the labor market overall is performing well and unemployment is low, some sectors are doing much better than others,” said Allison Shrivastava, an economic research associate at Indeed’s Hiring Lab.

September 2024

Unemployment data released today showed surprising growth overall for technology job listings and hiring, but also marked shift in the kind of workers organizations need — with AI talent no longer at the top.

Employer job postings for future technologists climbed for the second consecutive month to more than 516,000 active listings, including 225,000 new listings added in September.

While the overall US unemployment rate shifted little, the unemployment rate for tech jobs plummeted from 3.4% in August to 2.5% in September, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the tech industry and workforce. 

It was the steepest month-over-month decrease in tech unemployment in four years, according to CompTIA. The last time the unemployment rate in tech was even close to being as low as it was last month was in October 2020, when it was 2.8%.

“It was never really a question of if, but when employers were going to resume hiring,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer for CompTIA. “A broad mix of companies viewed recent economic developments as the green light to move forward in addressing their tech talent needs.”

Job postings were dispersed across industries, reflecting the universal nature of technology in the global economy. Companies in automotive (General Motors, Ford), financial services (JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo), healthcare (Cardinal Health, CVS Health, Humana, Intermountain Health), hospitality (Marriott International), and technology (Apple, Google, Meta, Oracle, TEKsystems) were among employers with the highest volumes of tech job postings last month. 

Overall, US employment increased by 254,000 in September, which dropped the unemployment rate from 4.2% in August to 4.1% in September, according to a US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report released today. 

Across the entire economy, tech occupation employment increased by 118,000 new positions in all sectors. Tech companies in September specifically added 8,583 new positions, which includes both technical and non-technical (business) jobs, according to CompTIA. 

“We always caution that this number from the [BLS] tends to experience higher levels of variance and volatility, so you can see big swings from month to month,” a CompTIA spokesman said.

The number of unemployed people in the US, at 6.8 million, changed little in September, according to BLS data. These measures are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.8%, and the number of unemployed people was 6.3 million.

A closer look at the data for tech hires showed companies are pulling back on their need for AI pros and are instead seeking and hiring data researchers who can help businesses make better decisions – whether to advance AI or business strategy.

Job openings for tech support specialists and database administrators were up 14%, the largest percent change for the month.

After nine consecutive months of growth, the total number of job postings for AI and machine learning engineers declined by 3.7% in September. And new job postings declined by 13.7% during the same period, according to Ger Doyle, head of Experis North America, a ManpowerGroup tech recruiting subsidiary. 

“This is mainly due to shifting demands. While there is less demand for software developers, there is increasing demand for roles such as solutions architects and data scientists to build robust data foundations,” Doyle said.

Lightcast

Demand is also up for science and R&D jobs, where there’s a significant need for statisticians, data scientists and database architects. Those roles saw growth across several sectors including retail, government, life sciences, and tech.

“Employers may be talking about AI, yet they’re hiring for data,” said Becky Frankiewicz, president of ManpowerGroup’s North America Region.

A rise in statisticians and mathematicians is the result of companies taking a step back “and saying, okay, AI is coming for sure,” she said.

“There’s a lot of hype around it,” Frankiewicz said. “What do I need to do now versus getting ahead of myself with AI? I need to get foundational data. I need data that I can organize and aggregate and pull from in a way that helps me make informed decisions. And that’s a very foundational move for the labor market, and a good one for the future.”

While interest in AI jobs may be waning, that’s almost certain to change once companies organize and clean their data lakes.

“The first step is making sure your data is stable, and even before AI, you can do a lot of analysis on data, which is what we’re seeing hires like Amazon, Walmart, start to do,” Frankiewicz said.

CompTIA’s analysis of data from labor market analysis company Lightcast also revealed 46% of tech job postings in September did not specify that candidates require a four-year degree for hiring consideration.

Over the past two years, organizations — including the federal government — have steadily dropped college degree requirements on job postings, opting instead to focus on skills-based hiring.

Doing so helps companies find and attract a broader pool of candidates who are better suited to fill positions in the long term, and it opens up opportunities to non-traditional candidates, including women and minorities, according to McKinsey & Co.

At Google, for example, a four-year degree is not required for almost any role at the company — and a computer science degree isn’t required for most software engineering or product manager positions. “Our focus is on demonstrated skills and experience, and this can come through degrees, or it can come through relevant experience,” Tom Dewaele, Google’s vice president of people experience, said in an earlier interview.

Jobs for statisticians are up for 400%, equating to 37,000 jobs that were posted in the overall economy in September, according to Frankiewicz. 

As the holiday season approaches, jobs in both logistics and data are expected to increase.

“This is set to be another brick and click season. When we look at click, Amazon is hiring more statisticians to better understand consumer demand and purchasing behaviors, allowing them to plan their workforce and supply chains more effectively,” Frankiewicz said.

Martha Heller, CEO of Heller Search, a tech executive headhunter firm, said  of the $600 billion that has already been invested in AI technologies by organizations, a significant portion is going to talent, and not just AI talent. 

“To get ROI from AI, most companies need to hire more data engineers, cybersecurity leaders, and developers, in addition to modelers and prompt engineers,” Heller said. 

One thing is clear, Heller said: technology innovation drives investment, which fuels job growth. But even after today’s positive figures, questions remain unanswered.

For example, Heller said, will the demand for bleeding-edge talent like AI professionals outpace the supply?  Will the ROI from AI allow for continued innovation, or will companies over invest and then need to make cuts?  

“Today’s report shows that we are a long way from AI having a negative impact on employment,” she said.

August 2024

The unemployment rate for tech occupations inched up to 3.4% in August from 3.2% in July, according to analysis of today’s US Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report by tech industry group CompTIA.

Overall, the US economy added 142,000 jobs in August, indicating a cooling of the job market, while the national unemployment rate changed slightly, ticking down from 4.3% in July, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

While the job gains were better than those in July, forecasters had expected about 161,000 new jobs, so August’s gains fell short of expectations. Most of those job gains occurred in construction and healthcare, according to the BLS.

“Both the unemployment rate, at 4.2%, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.1 million, changed little in August,” the BLS said. “These measures are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.8%, and the number of unemployed people was 6.3 million.”

Across the entire economy, tech occupation employment declined by 28,000 positions in August. About 6.3 million people are employed in core tech occupations by companies of all types, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit organization that provides IT certifications and training.

CompTIA

Active employer job postings for tech positions increased modestly to just over 500,000 last month. That includes nearly 211,000 new job postings added in August. Positions for software developers and engineers and data scientists saw the largest month over month increase. Demand also remains solid for tech support specialists, data analysts, IT project managers, and network analysts.

“The bumpy stretch of tech labor market data requires the usual balancing of shorter-term and longer-term perspectives,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer.

Job posting data suggests that many employers remain focused on skills-based hiring and are considering candidates who traveled alternate pathways to the technology workforce.

In August, 45% of active tech job postings did not specify a four-year degree requirement among candidates. Several key occupations recorded even higher percentages, including network support specialists (86%), IT support specialists (72%), network and systems administrators (51%), web and UI/UX designers (48%), and database administrators (47%).

Ger Doyle, senior vice president of Experis, a ManpowerGroup-owned IT staffing firm, said the BLS’s August jobs report shows the labor market overall is continuing to soften and level off.

“However, our real-time data reveals encouraging signs in the IT sector. New job postings across IT roles increased by 13% this past month, while the total job postings only saw a more modest 3% increase,” Doyle said. “Meanwhile, demand for AI and machine learning engineers remains strong as open job postings rose by 9% in August compared to July.”

At the same time hiring is looking positive for IT job seekers, there is also a “counterbalancing” trend due to increased competition for IT roles, and people are not leaving their jobs at the same rate as they were when the economy was hotter, according to Doyle.

This year is shaping up to be a less painful one for people working in tech, as layoffs are expected to be somewhat less prevalent but still significant.

Seeking Alpha, a crowd-sourced content service that publishes news on financial markets, noted in a report last month that firings in the tech space had accelerated, with Cisco and Intel announcing the elimination of close to 21,000 jobs.

Layoffs.fyi, a tracker that monitors job cuts in the tech sector, shows that — as of today — the industry has cut more than 135,000 jobs at 429 companies this year.

The Seeking Alpha report noted that at this rate, layoffs should exceed the 165,269 job cuts in the tech sector in 2022, while falling short of last year’s total of 264,220.

Becky Frankiewicz, president of ManpowerGroup’s North America operations, said today’s jobs report demonstrates that the “summer’s Great Waiting Game has continued,” with both employers and employees holding out for proof of improvement versus speculation of forecasts.

ManpowerGroup’s real-time data showed there was an uptick in job postings by organizations following a slower July. Overall, there has been “year-over-year stability.”

That stability, however, has yet to translate into more positive numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Frankiewicz said some of that has to do with typical summer slowdowns in hiring, but she expects employers will begin hiring in earnest in the weeks ahead as they look to shore up their talent needs for the fall.

“We’re seeing gains in government and military, business, finance, and in healthcare,” Frankiewicz said. “As consumers start to prioritize health and wellness, we are seeing the summer of the cost-conscious consumer end with declines in the retail sector.”

Victor Janulaitis, CEO of industry consulting firm Janco Associates, painted a far less optimistic picture in a research note he published earlier this week.

“The latest release of employment data from the BLS shows a continuing trend of fewer open positions than the number of unemployed IT Pros,” Janulaitus said in his research note.

Janco’s numbers are calculated differently from CompTIA’s and the firm’s report showed the overall unemployment rate for IT pros in August soared from 5.6% to 6.0%. High unemployment is defined by the BLS as being 5.5% or greater. Janulaitis said IT unemployment has surpassed the national unemployment rates for seven of the last eight months.

Janco Associates

“The job market for IT Pros is the worst it has been since the dot com bust,” Janulaitis said. “There now are more unemployed IT Pros than positions that are available. The available positions are not for legacy skills, rather they are for AI, LLM, and blockchain technology. Unemployed IT Pros are having more difficulties finding positions at their prior compensation levels in most regions of the country.

“Currently, it can take several months for unemployed IT Pros to complete the interview process and receive a job offer,” he continued. “This is driven by CIOs and CEOs who have pulled back many open requisitions and halted and/or slowed non-critical IT Initiatives.”

CompTIA also publishes a list of the top skills to learn in 2024. The number one skill to learn is artificial intelligence, regardless of your job title. Technical support, networking, cloud computing, and Linux rounded out the top five skills to learn.

“Modern artificial intelligence (AI), especially the most recent addition of generative AI, is poised to change the way work is done,” CompTIA said. “All technology professionals will have to understand the way AI works, from the data used for input to the probability-based output.”

CompTIA

July 2024

Hiring in the technology sector and the broader tech workforce took a step back in July with an overall slowdown in job growth, according to a US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report today and an analysis of that data.

The tech industry shed an estimated 9,162 jobs last month, according to CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the tech industry and workforce.

“Although disappointing, the slowdown in hiring is about in line with expectations,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer. “Employers continue to weigh a range of factors in shorter-term tech hiring while eyeing longer-term growth strategies.”

Active employer job postings for tech positions totaled more than 471,000, including 176,324 categorized as new postings added in July. Demand was strongest for software developers and engineers, IT project managers, data analysts and scientists, and tech support specialists, though totals in all occupation categories were down for the month.

That said, the unemployment rate for the tech industry actually dropped significantly — from 3.7% in June to 3.2% in July, according to CompTIA. That compares to the nation’s overall national unemployment rate, which rose to 4.3% in July, according to BLS data.

Only 114,000 jobs were added over all in the US last month; economists had expected around 175,000 new jobs and said the unemployment rate should have remained 4.1%.

CompTIA

Employment continued to trend up in healthcare,  construction, and in transportation and warehousing, though information fields lost jobs, according to the BLS.  Information employment declined by 20,000 in July, but has changed little over the year, according to the agency. (The Information sector includes workers who produce and distribute information and products; those who provide the means to transmit or distribute those products as well as data or communications; and those that process data.)

In June, the tech industry had more workers than any previous month this year, but overall job postings were down month-over-month, just as they were in July.

“Temperatures might be hot around the country, but there’s no summer heatwave for the job market. With across-the-board cooling, we have lost most of the gains we saw from the first quarter of the year,” said Becky Frankiewicz, president of workforce consultancy ManpowerGroup North America.

With the number of new jobs and overall open jobs contracting, the market continues to soften, meaning employers and employees should “sit tight,” according to Frankiewicz.

“We are seeing both sides play the Great Waiting Game — changing roles won’t offer workers the pay gains they saw post-pandemic, and employers are holding onto their talent,” she said. “The loosening in demand we have been waiting for is beginning to emerge — all job functions are showing declines, and we may have hit the peak of the post-pandemic IT hiring surge.”

Realtime data shows hiring remains concentrated in healthcare, logistics and IT, Frankiewicz said.

CompTIA

An analysis of employment data indicates organizations continue to focus on skills-based hiring, according to CompTIA.

In July, for example, 46% of active tech job postings did not specify a four-year degree requirement among candidates. Several key occupations recorded even higher percentages, the group said. Those occupations include network support specialists (87%), IT support specialists (72%), network and systems administrators (52%) and database administrators (50%).

Along with hard skills, soft skills are becoming a key focus of hiring managers in many cases. For example, the ability to get along with co-workers, adapt quickly, critically think and consider strategic vision are all skills highly prized by employers.

Tina Wang, division vice president of human resources at ADP, said there are a few ways for job seekers to bring attention to their behavioral skills. It goes beyond just listing “strong work ethic” or “problem solving” on a resume, “though it’s good to add it there too,” she said.

Job seekers can incorporate behavior skills in a track record of job experiences. “For example, what was an example of ‘ability to work on a team’ at your previous job? Did you manage or actively participate in a long-term project with multiple internal teams and bring together various ideas from these teams into one cohesive strategy,” Wang said.

June 2024

The technology industry added more workers in June than any previous month this year; however, overall job postings were down month-over-month.

New employer job postings for tech positions totaled nearly 200,000 in June, down slightly month-over-month. In total there were more than 444,600 active tech job postings for the month and 2.5 million for the year, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit trade group.

Other measurements, however, were down in June. IT occupations throughout the economy decline by 22,000 positions last month, and the unemployment rate for tech occupations rose to 3.7%, according to CompTIA’s estimates based on an analysis of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report released today.

“It’s another month of mixed signals in the labor data we look at. The tech industry added more workers in June (+ 7,540) than any month so far in 2024,” a CompTIA spokesperson said. “It’s also the first time this year that the industry added workers in consecutive months (+ 3,500 in May).

New employer job postings for open positions declined by about 8,600 from May to June, but there were still 446,000 active postings listed by employers.

The national unemployment rate ticked up a tenth of a percentage point from 4% in May to 4.1% in June, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, which released its monthly jobs report today.

Nevertheless, the June BLS report slightly beat expectations and showed remarkable resiliency, even as inflation (at 3.3%) and interest rates remain higher than the Federal Reserve Board had hoped.

Technology services and software development occupations continue to lead new hiring, a positive sign for the small- and medium-size segment of the sector. The total base of US tech industry employment stands at approximately 5.6 million workers, according to CompTIA.

CompTIA

Overall, wages were up 0.3% from May and up 3.9% compared to the same time last year, further assuaging concerns that inflation could flare up again. Earlier this week, Fed Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the labor market is “cooling off slowly.”

“What we’d like to see is more data like we’ve been seeing recently,” Powell said.

When it came to remote tech job postings in June, software developers saw the greatest uptick in numbers. Postings increased by more than 1,100, bringing the total number of job postings for software developers in June to 11,487, according to CompTIA.

Postings for other IT positions, such as project managers, data scientists, and support specialists were down slightly last month, but not significantly.

Over the past several years, organizations — including the US government — have been removing four-year college degree requirements from job postings. CompTIA’s report showed that 46% of all active tech job postings in June did not specify that candidates have a four-year degree. The percentage was higher for several key tech positions, including network support specialists (90%), IT support specialists (73%), network and systems administrators (54%), network architects (50%), and database administrators (50%).

As is traditional, the BLS revised its previous months’ employment figures; Employment for April was revised down by 57,000, from 165,000 to 108,000 additional jobs, and the May figure was revised down by 54,000, from 272,000 to 218,000 jobs. With those revisions, employment in April and May combined was 111,000 lower than previously reported.

The number of unemployed people, at 6.8 million, changed little in June, while they remained higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.6% and the number of unemployed people was 6 million.

Ger Doyle, ManpowerGroup senior vice president and head of its recruiting subsidiary Experis North America, said that although last month’s numbers were revised down, this month’s unemployment numbers are “a solid uptick.”

“So, we continue to see stabilization and rebalancing,” Doyle said. “This is another proof point for a steady-as-she-goes labor market where demand is shifting in some key sectors and employers and employees are staying put.”

While BLS is a look back in the rear-view mirror, Doyle said, ManpowerGroup’s “real-time data” shows a more significant decline in June vs. May, but stabilization overall in Q2 2024 and this year compared to last year.

“The demand we’re seeing is driven by sectors including legal, sales, marketing, and creative and we’ve seen an uptick in demand for managers, demonstrating the need for leadership to help businesses and employees navigate the recovery,” he said.

May 2024

The hiring of technology professionals is at its highest levels since last year and the unemployment rate for IT workers dropped significantly last month, according to an analysis of data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report today.

Employer tech job posting volumes have not been this high since last June, according to a report by industry group CompTIA. The unemployment rate for tech occupations dropped three-tenths of a percentage point from 2.8% in April to 2.5% in May, well below the national rate of 4%.

Overall, the US economy added more jobs than expected in May, demonstrating a resilient post-pandemic labor market, even as the economy recalibrates in the face of the growing adoption of artificial intelligence. Employers added 272,000 jobs, though the overall unemployment rate ticked up, ending a 27-month streak of unemployment below 4%, according to the BLS.

Tech hiring intent is at its highest point since last year, according to CompTIA, with technology companies adding staff in May — though at a slower pace than recent months. The tech sector added 2,181 jobs last month, increasing employment to nearly 5.6 million workers.

“The jump in tech job postings is an encouraging indicator more employers are coming off the sidelines,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer. “It may reflect pent up demand for the tech talent companies will need to support digital growth initiatives.”

Several tech occupation categories saw double-digit increases in job postings, including data scientists (+24%), database administrators (18%), software developers (+17%), web developers (15%), network architects (12%) and tech support specialists (+10%).

Janco Associates

“In real time, we’re seeing a ‘steady as they go’ job market, where demand remains strong but softening in some sectors,” said Becky Frankiewicz, president ManpowerGroup North America. “There are 8.1 million job openings, but job postings are down 8% month over month, according to our real-time data.”

Gains in pay also stabilized at 3.9%, down from almost 6% in 2022, approaching the pre-pandemic levels of 3.1%, according to ManpowerGroup’s data. “This post-pandemic rebalancing is likely to continue throughout the year,” Frankeiwicz said. “While tech hiring isn’t as robust as it used to be, demand remains strong. Software developers and IT generalists are the most in-demand roles in the US today, right behind registered nurses.” 

The IT Job market grew by 10,300 positions over the past three months and by 25,700 in the last 12 months, according to IT consultancy Janco Associates. That compares to 2023, when the IT job market shrank by over 48,600 jobs, according to Janco. (It now estimates there are 119,000 unemployed IT professionals.)

CompTIA

Inflation, which is running at 3.4% annually, actually drove up tech salaries. The median salary for IT professionals rose to more than $103,000, according a mid-year IT salary survey by Janco, with continuing high demand for workers with AI and machine learning skills.

Janco Associates CEO Victor Janulaitis, painted a less sunny picture of the job market for IT pros, with an unemployment rate at 4.5%. “The picture is poor at best and not likely to improve in the short term,” he said. “Companies are continuing to cut back on staff in order to improve productivity. With median compensation for IT Pros at $103K, IT Pros are the focus of many organizations and will continue to see a very soft job market for IT Pros.

Shifting job requirements

CompTIA’s latest report shows that 45% of all active tech job postings in May did not require candidates have a four-year degree, signaling that employers are widening their search for talent. Some essential tech positions had even higher percentages, such as network support specialists (86%), IT support specialists (72%), network and systems administrators (54%) and programmers (50%).

CompTIA’s analysis aligns with hiring trends in many organizations, including the federal government. Studies have shown that employers are ending college degree requirements for many openings, focusing instead on skills, experience, and personality traits. The sea change opens up tech jobs to a more diverse pool of candidates.

And companies (regardless of size) value soft skills over traditional, industry-specific traits for current and potential hires, according to a new MarketPulse survey by pay check company ADP.

The highest ranked skills or traits prioritized in new hires were factors like a strong work ethic, problem solving skills and being detail oriented:

Small Orgs (1 – 49 Employees)

• Strong Work Ethic: 53%
• Problem Solving: 40%
• Detail Oriented: 34%

Medium Orgs (50 – 999 Employees)

• Strong Work Ethic: 40%
• Problem Solving: 39%
• Detail Oriented: 27%

Large Orgs (1,000+ Employees)

• Strong Work Ethic: 42%
• Problem Solving: 37%
• Detail Oriented: 23%

In the workplace, employees are staying put, with quit rates holding steady at 2.2%, according to ManpowerGroup’s data. “As a result, employers are finding ways to incentivize and upskill their current workforce for new roles, as pay gains for job-changers have dipped for the second consecutive month,” Frankienwicz said.

April 2024

The unemployment rate for technology jobs in the US ticked down for the second month in a row in April, as the number of job listings for AI-related positions leaped to 11% of all postings, according to new employment data. And, 26% of all tech job postings in April were for positions in emerging tech or that require emerging tech skills, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit tech trade association. 

Emerging skills include AI, blockchain, IoT, augmented & virtual reality. “None of these individually are generating huge volumes of job openings today, but we feel it’s worth paying attention to,” a CompTIA spokesperson said.

Employers listed nearly 179,000 new postings for tech positions last month. In total, there were an estimated 415,000 active tech job postings.

The unemployment rate for tech jobs inched down from 4% in March to 3.8% in April. That compares to the February figure of 4.5%. according to CompTIA data, which is based on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) latest jobs report.

The BLS on Friday reported that the overall US unemployment rate (3.9%) remained largely unchanged from March, when it was 3.8%. Overall unemployment has ranged between 3.7% and 3.9% since August 2023, according to the BLS. The agency said 175,000 jobs were added in April.

Ger Doyle, head of recruitment service Experis North America, said his organization is seeing “a cooling effect” in the job market. “Our real-time data paints a picture of a job market that is balancing out. We see increased demand in April in medical/health (16%), IT (11%) and executive management (7%), and all have shown growth from Q4 2023,” Doyle said.

Within tech, AI Safety and Compliance roles have seen a sizable increase (129%) since July 2023. “Employers are also raising expectations around IT skill sets for executives and legal functions, and AI/ML engineers are now expected to showcase a blend of technical and soft skills to remain competitive in the job market,” Doyle said.

CompTIA

 
For college graduates, the road is tougher, according to Doyle; they’re dealing with an unemployment rate of 6.2%. That trend coincides with employees holding onto their current positions for longer durations, which aligns with a dip in consumer confidence — now at its lowest since July 2022, according to Experis’ data.  

In April, skills-based hiring in the tech marketplace was up sharply. CompTIA reported that 46% of all active tech job postings in the last month did not specify that candidates have a four-year degree. More employers, including the federal government, are leaving behind college degree requirements and embracing a skills-based hiring approach that emphasizes strong work backgrounds, certifications, assessments, and endorsements. And soft skills are becoming a key focus of hiring managers, even over hard skills.

Goldman Sachs

The percentage of postings that did not require a college degree rose markedly for five tech jobs in particular: network support specialists (86%), IT support specialists (73%), network and systems administrators (55%), web and UI/UX designers (51%) and database administrators (48%).

Even though tech unemployment again dipped, the layoffs that began in 2022 have continued this year, indicating a shift in desirable job positions. This year is expected to be a year of recovery for the IT industry. 

“Employers and job seekers continue to navigate a shifting labor market,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “Skills-first approaches to hiring and talent development are even more important against this backdrop.” 

Technology companies added an estimated 4,280 workers in April, CompTIA’s analysis of BLS data revealed. Growth was led by hiring in technology services and software development (+5,600) and cloud infrastructure (+900). Cloud infrastructure and data processing and hosting jobs have seen gains in nine of the past 12 months, while positions in tech and software services have risen in 10 of the past 12 months.

CompTIA

Technology occupations throughout the economy, however, fell by 20,000 in April, a decline of 0.3%, according to CompTIA.

Martha Heller, CEO of executive tech talent search firm Heller Search, said her data shows a softening in the IT job market.

“But the IT sector layoffs are mainly due to IT service providers, such as Microsoft and Salesforce, which are replacing those teams with AI developers and data scientists,” Heller said. “For IT sector business owners, this means they must re-platform all their products with AI integrations.  But for business leaders in every other sector, they have a very big pool of IT talent to choose from now.”

The real job growth story in technology hiring will continue to be AI, according to Heller, as companies race to implement the fast-evolving tech in support of digital transformation projects and to boost productivity and efficiency. Whether companies are ready to hire their own AI developers or need to modernize their legacy tech first, they will all need to continue to grow their technology teams or be left out of the AI boom, according to Heller.

Craig Crisler, CEO of IT talent outsourcing firm SupportNinja, agreed with Heller, adding that “generative AI is white hot and in demand” and so is the job market for it. “While many companies are on a hiring spree for AI, we’re also seeing a shortage in talent for folks with AI PhDs and data scientists, making them very expensive and difficult to find,” he said.

Companies, Crisler said, now have to walk a fine line between finding the talent they need and finding the revenue to pay for that new talent. “Some might get one or two really expensive hires and fill the rest of the team with cheaper talent, while some might fill out their entire team with mid-range salaries and go with a more balanced approach,” he said.

March 2024

After a lengthy spat of layoffs spiked unemployment rates in recent months, the tech industry is poised to return to growth, according to analyses of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report released today.

Employers accelerated their hiring of technology workers and expanded their search for new tech talent in March, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.

Tech companies added an estimated 6,000 workers last month, according to CompTIA’s analysis of BLS data. Job growth was led by new hiring in technology services, software development, cloud infrastructure and related positions.

Technology occupations throughout the economy rose by 203,000 for the month. That pushed the unemployment rate for tech occupations in March back down a full half a point from 3.5% in February to 3.0%, according to CompTIA.

CompTIA

Employers added 191,000 new job postings for tech positions, an increase of 8,000 from the previous month and the highest volume since August 2023. In total, there were an estimated 438,000 active tech job postings in March.

“With all four key tracking metrics in the positive for the month, it’s a welcome return to stability in the tech employment data,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA.

By occupation category, software developers and IT support specialists saw the largest increases in openings from February to March. The job posting data also affirms that there are a variety of paths to a job in technology. CompTIA’s report shows that 46% of all tech jobs postings in March did not specify that candidates have a four-year degree.

Percentages were higher in certain job categories, such as IT support specialists (78%), network support specialists (66%) and web UI/UX designers (62%). Jobs in artificial intelligence (AI) or for occupations that require AI skills accounted for 41% of March postings in the emerging technologies sub-category.

Becky Frankiewicz, president of Manpower Group North America, took a more subdued view of the current tech market. “Our real-time data shows signs of a goldilocks labor market — hiring is slightly hotter than last year at this time, cooler than last month and warmer than pre-pandemic,” she said “This demonstrates remarkable resilience given the economic uncertainty we’re experiencing right now.”

Both the overall US unemployment rate, at 3.8%, and the number of unemployed people, at 6.4 million, changed little in March. The unemployment rate dropped one-tenth of a percent from February’s 3.9%.

Overall US unemployment has remained in a narrow range of 3.7% to 3.9% since August 2023, according to BLS data. While the unemployment rate changed little, the U.S. labor market added 303,000 jobs in March, which far exceeding the roughly 200,000 economists had predicted.

According to Janco Associates, a management consulting firm for the IT industry, the number of unfilled IT jobs fell from 202,000 in January to 117,000 in February — a drop of more than 42%.

CompTIA

Tech demand remains stronger than last year at this time and was stronger in Q1 2024 than during the final three months of 2023.

“Demand for AI and machine learning engineers has continued to grow for the last few years, and we’re recognizing that with increased tech demand comes increased training and upskilling,” said Ger Doyle, senior vice president at ManpowerGroup and Head of Experis North America — a ManpowerGroup focused on recruitment of US tech talent.

“Humanizing tech roles is the key to continuing this growth, making the ladder for tech roles in reach and bringing attainable skills to employers and employees alike,” Doyle said.

In its “State of the Tech Workforce 2024,” CompTIA forecasts tech employment growth of 3.1% this year — a net gain of more than 300,000 new jobs. That compares to the 1.2% growth rate of 2023, which yielded about 117,000 net new hires.

Top projected occupations for this year, and their growth rates, include: data scientists and data analysts, up 5.5%; cybersecurity analysts and engineers, up 5.1%; software developers and engineers up 4.8%; software QA and testers, up 4.3%; computer and information research scientists, also up 4.3%; CIOs and IT Directors, up 3.6%; web developers, also up 3.6%; and web and digital interface designers, up 3.6%.

According to projections from the BLS statistics and job market analytics firm Lightcast, the tech workforce will grow twice as fast in the next 10 years as the overall US workforce. The replacement rate for tech occupations during the 2024-2034 period is expected to average about 6% annually, or approximately 350,000 workers each year, totaling several million through 2034.

Growth in so-called “driver occupations” will expand even faster. Positions in the data science and data analyst, cybersecurity, software development, UI/UX and emerging tech categories, including artificial intelligence, will grow at the fastest rates on a percentage basis, according to CompTIA. “On a volume basis, core infrastructure positions in networking and cloud engineering, along with tech support positions, will continue to serve as the on ramp for many starting a career in technology,” the report stated.

Projections from CompTIA’s report indicate that 20 states and 14 metropolitan areas will exceed the average growth rate this year. Twenty-six metro markets are expected to at least double last year’s job growth rate, reflecting the diversity of tech hub concentrations across the US.

February 2024

US unemployment in the technology sector increased by 0.2% to 3.5% last month, following an upward trend in joblessness in all sectors.

Technology occupations across the economy declined by an estimated 133,000 positions, according to a new report from IT industry group CompTIA.

Overall, the US unemployment rate among all job markets rose by 0.2% to 3.9% in February, and the number of unemployed people increased by 334,000 to 6.5 million. A year earlier, the jobless rate was 3.6%, and the number of unemployed people was 6 million. While unemployment did tick up, February’s rate continued the longest stretch of unemployment below 4% in decades.

There were 275,000 jobs added to the US market last month, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report today. The data shows a significant uptick over January’s 229,000 jobs added to the workforce, but lower than December’s numbers, when 290,000 jobs were added.

“New hiring of tech services and software development personnel is the lone bright spot in February’s lackluster technology employment data,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at IT industry group CompTIA.

Overall tech industry employment increased modestly, employer job postings for future tech hiring were flat, tech occupations throughout the economy declined, according to CompTIA’s latest jobs report.

“We continue to see the lag effect of market developments working their way into government employment data,” Hebert said. “While employers across every sector of the economy demand tech talent spanning the continuum of tech job roles, there are pockets of employers recalibrating their staffing levels.”

IT business consultancy Janco Associates had a similar take on the lackluster IT job market performance in February. It said in its report today that hiring of IT Pros is hindered by the lack of qualified individuals and a slowing economic picture, which “will have a dampening impact on the growth of the IT job market size.

According to Janco’s data, there are currently 4.18 million US workers employed as IT professionals. The rate of growth in the number of new IT jobs has slowed, the firm said.

“There now are just over 121,000 unemployed IT professionals. The IT job market shrank by over 48,600 jobs in calendar year 2023, Janco’s report stated. “Overall that is a flattening of the long term growth rate pattern of IT job market,” the firm said.

One of the more surprising results of the BLS report, however, was that the agency drastically revised its January job gains, which had previously been reported as a leap of 353,000 new jobs. The revised numbers dropped that by more 124,000 jobs.

Tech employers added 185,000 new job postings for positions in February, raising the total number of active tech job postings to more than 436,000, according to CompTIA’s data. California, Texas and Virginia had the largest volumes of tech job postings among the states. At the metro level, Washington, New York, Dallas, Chicago and Boston were the most active markets. 

Open positions in artificial intelligence or jobs requiring AI skills continue to hover near the 10% threshold, while positions offering hybrid, remote or work from home options account for about 20% of all tech job postings, CompTIA’s report showed.

Technology companies added an estimated 2,340 workers last month, CompTIA’s analysis of BLS data showed. The technology services and software development sub-sector saw employment increase by 4,200 positions, but those gains were offset by staffing reductions in telecommunications and manufacturing.

Net tech employment spanning tech industry and tech occupation employment totaled more than 9.6 million workers, according to CompTIA’s data.

Over the next quarter — from April through June — the US is expected to lead all other nations in IT hiring, according to IT staffing firm Experis, a subsidiary of ManpowerGroup.

Ger Doyle, head of IT staffing at Experis North America, said while hiring data shows worker demand will remain strong, it will be “more balanced and concentrated.”

Nurses, software developers and front-line retail workers are the three most sought after roles in the U.S. today, according to Doyle.

“In the tech space, AI and machine learning engineers are seeing good growth since last year, with finance and consulting companies as some of the top employers of this specialist tech talent,” Doyle said.

While tech sector layoffs have made headlines over the past year Experis’s data shows the same companies laying people off are also hiring, including top tech companies such as Google, META, Amazon and Apple. However, consuntancies and financial services companies are also hiring – firms such as KPMG, Booz Allen Hamilton, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Slalom Consulting, according to Doyle.

While artificial intelligence and machine learning engineer hiring decreased by 1% in February, the demand for the roles has been trending upward since May 2023, Doyle said.

Wages are following suit, and have remained steady overall, with month-over-month increases in some sectors where remote and hybrid roles have increased, such as IT and business operations.

Hybrid job roles are strongest in the IT (38%) and finance (40%) sectors, according to Experis data.

January 2024

The US added twice as many jobs in January as analysts had expected, though the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7% and tech layoffs continued to plague the IT industry.

In January, the US added 353,000 jobs, according to data published today by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). And for tech workers, the latest employment data suggests 2024 is off to a promising start, according to an analysis by IT trade association CompTIA.

Tech companies added nearly 18,000 workers last month, the second consecutive month of job growth. The unemployment rate for tech occupations remained at 3.3%, well below the overall national rate, according to CompTIA. Yet, overall, tech occupations, which span all industries, were down in January.

Tech companies added jobs in several primary sub-sectors:

• Technology services and software development (+14,500)
• Cloud infrastructure (+2,100)
• Tech manufacturing (most notably semiconductors) (+1,400)

Also, on the rise – job openings in artificial intelligence (AI) and positions that offer hybrid, remote, or work from home options. AI job postings or jobs requiring AI skills increased by about 2,000 positions from December to 17,479 last month, CompTIA said.

Tech occupations across all markets and the broader economy, however, declined by an estimated 117,000 positions. “This month’s data is a helpful reminder of the many moving parts in assessing tech workforce gains or losses,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “The expansive tech workforce will simultaneously experience gains and losses reflecting employer short-term and longer-term staffing needs.”

Employers listed more than 392,000 active tech job postings, with nearly 178,000 added last month alone. January’s total of active postings was 33,727 more than the December 2023 figure, the largest month-to-month increase in a year.

There was significant employer interest in filling positions in software development, IT project management, data analysis and science, IT support and systems analysis and engineering. And after several months of decline, the number of job postings offering hybrid, remote or work-from-home options exceeded 30,000 in January, up about 5,000 from December.

“Looking at the bigger picture, we continue to see a post-pandemic rebalancing,” said Becky Frankiewicz, president of staffing firm ManpowerGroup NA. “While hiring isn’t as strong as a year ago, it is better than pre-pandemic and has improved month-over-month.

“We’re also seeing an expected post-holiday hangover in retail and logistics, balanced by increases in IT, finance, accounting and engineering,” she continued. “Overall, more jobs are available now for each unemployed worker than there were before the pandemic, creating a stable environment for employers and employees.” 

Layoffs in the tech sector have been a thorn in the side of an otherwise healthy industry. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft collectively laid off tens of thousands of workers last year and were among a number of companies that announced planned layoffs for this year. Meta and Google and AWS are cutting back on more ambitious “moonshot” projects, as enterprises are still hesitant to spend big on large software buildouts, etc.

This week, iRobot announced it would lay off about 31% of its 1,250 employees after a deal to be acquired by Amazon fell through.

The number of employees laid off at tech companies more than tripled between December and January, according to industry tracker Layoff.fyi. So far this year, 115 tech firms have laid off 30,375 employees, according to the site.

Though layoffs remain below pre-pandemic levels, the number of US employees filing for jobless benefits last week reached an 11-week high. And while the stock market continues to soar, tech companies appear worried.

Many segments of the market remain soft, according to Jack Gold, principal analyst with business consultancy J. Gold Associates. That is likely to continue for at least the next two quarters, he said.

“Tech layoffs might make the headlines, but our real-time data shows a more nuanced story. In many cases, the same companies that are laying people off are also still hiring — they’re just laser focused on hiring to meet demand,” said Ger Doyle, senior vice president of tech employment service Experis.

As an example, Microsoft and Amazon, which recently cut jobs in gaming and streaming, respectively, are simultaneously planning huge investments in AI, according to Doyle. 

Experis’s data shows tech demand rebounded in January (up 26% compared to  December), with demand for AI/ML engineers growing 19% last month.

“AI hiring is through the roof due to betting on the future next big thing,” Gold said. “But that leaves many more mature industries vulnerable to scaling back. The thinking in many companies is, let’s cut back on ‘fringe’ stuff until we can determine if we’re going to be OK.”

Doyle said it’s important for employess to keep a focus on internal mobility. “We’re also seeing small and mid-size companies have their moment, scooping up tech talent that may have let go by the big hitters. It’s also important to remember that today every company is a tech company — Capital One, Doordash and Reddit are among the top hirers of AI and machine learning talent in the country today.

“Those with tech skills will still find themselves in high demand and able to call the shots on remote working, too…,” Doyle said.

December 2023

Unemployment in the IT industry ticked up from 2% in November to 2.3% in December, according to an analysis of the latest jobs data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Tech occupations throughout the US economy declined by 79,000 positions last month, though the unemployment rate for tech occupations was still well below the overall national unemployment rate of 3.7%.

The up-and-down pattern in tech employment seen over the past few months continued in December, according to CompTIA, an IT trade association.

Tech companies added the largest number of workers since April, but tech occupations throughout the economy declined, according to CompTIA’s analysis of data from the BLS.

Job postings for tech occupations also fell. Active postings totaled nearly 364,000, including 142,295 newly added by employers in December, according to CompTIA.

There’s still strong demand for tech workers; US employers advertised 3.13 million IT job postings during 2023 for a wide range of positions including support, infrastructure, software, data, cybersecurity, and technology enablement.

In December, the top tech job postings by job openings in the US were:

• Software Developers and Engineers — 40,490;
• IT Project Management, Data Analysts, Emerging, Other — 27,853;
• IT Support Specialists — 16,526;
• Systems Analysts and Engineers — 12,513;
• Data Scientists — 10,293.

(Not every “help wanted” ad results in a new hire; generally, the ratio is one new hire for every eight job postings, according to CompTIA.)

One area that saw marked hiring involved artificial intelligence (AI) roles. Employer hiring for AI and other specialized skills continued to exceed 10% of all tech job postings, CompTIA said.

The push for AI and generative AI hires might be having an adverse effect on entry-level IT positions, especially in customer service, telecommunications, and hosting automation, according to Victor Janulaitis, CEO of IT consultancy Janco Associates, Inc.

“CIOs and CFOs are looking to improve the productivity of IT by automating processes and reporting where possible,” Janulaitis said. “They are focusing on eliminating ‘non-essential’ managers, staff, and services. Experienced coders and developers still have opportunities.”

The highest demand continues to be for AI specialists, security professionals, programmers, and blockchain processing experts, according to Janulaitis.

Ger Doyle, senior vice president of IT staffing firm Experis, said he still sees “very strong demand” for full stack developers, data scientists, and AI experts. “Seventy-six percent of IT employers say they are facing difficulty finding the talent they need,” Doyle said.

“Supporting people to gain experience and develop new skills will be key to alleviating talent shortages and helping people build employability for the long term,” IT staffing firm ManpowerGroup said in a statement.

Overall, US employers anticipate measured hiring in the first quarter of 2024, while persistent talent shortages continue to impede hiring, according to the latest Employment Outlook Survey from staffing firm ManpowerGroup. With seasonal variations removed from the data, the Net Employment Outlook (NEO) for the U.S. is +35%. 

(The NEO is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating an increase in hiring activity and subtracting the percentage of employers who expect a decrease in employment at their location in the next quarter.)

Globally, the US ties for second place in the world (+35%), outpaced by first-place ties, India and The Netherlands (+37%).

“Tech employment remains on solid footing,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement. “Despite the ongoing pattern of mixed signals in the labor market tracking data, the optimistic outlook continues to hold.”

Janulaitis saw it differently, however: “Layoffs at big tech companies continued to hurt overall IT hiring in 2023. CIOs are looking at a troubling economic climate and are evaluating the need for increased headcounts based on the technological requirements of their specific business operations. At the same time, with a mean total compensation of $100,000 for ITpPros, IT will continue to be a target for budget cutting.”

Talent mobility is set to be the key trend of the new year — employers need to look for potential vs past performance and help people make lateral moves within their organization, according to ManpowerGroup.

In December, overall US employment rose by 216,000 people, according to the BLS . The overall unemployment rate remained unchanged from the previous month, with the number of unemployed workers was essentially unchanged at 6.3 million.

Employment in professional, scientific, and technical services continued to trend up, adding 25,000 jobs; the industry added an average of 22,000 jobs per month in 2023, about half the average monthly gain of 41,000 in 2022, according to the BLS report.

For all of 2023, the US added 2.7 million jobs. While the overall unemployment rate has remained under 4% over the past two years, last year ended with a higher unemployment rate (3.7%) than in 2022 (3.5%). Employment continued to trend up in government, healthcare, social assistance, and construction, while transportation and warehousing lost jobs.

“The 2024 labor market is all about balance and moderation — restoring equilibrium after four years of pandemic related swings,” said Becky Frankiewicz, president of the North America Region for staffing firm ManpowerGroup. “Today’s report…shows continued stabilization and an optimistic start to the New Year for employers and workers. Employers are holding onto their people and hiring where the demand exists.”  

Average hourly wage growth accelerated slightly in December, rising by 4.1% over the previous 12 months to $34.27 an hour and continued to beat inflation, boosting workers’ spending power, according to BLS data.

November 2023

The number of new IT jobs being added to the US economy has continued to shrink over the past three months, even as the unemployment rate for tech workers has remained near historical lows.

The unemployment rate for tech workers dropped from 2.2% in October to about 2% in November, according to new data based on US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Overall, US employment increased by 199,000 in November, and the national unemployment rate edged down to 3.7%, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. That tracks with October, when employment increased by about 150,000 jobs and the unemployment rate was 3.9%.

While there have been a plethora of big employers announcing tech layoffs, there has also been a redistribution of tech talent to midsize and small companies that “finally got their shot at hiring talent post-pandemic,” according to Becky Frankiewicz, president of ManpowerGroup, North America.

“This talent was scooped up almost in real time by smaller size businesses, so it remains quite difficult to fill tech roles in the country,” Frankiewicz said. “Now that every company is a tech company, we also saw tech talent absorbed into other sectors outside of tech — like retail and hospitality.

“We continue to see strong demand in business analyst roles and software developers as companies continue to work on readying projects for the new year and building out their apps for more clicks this season,” she added.

According to a report from business consultancy Janco Associates, the IT job market shrank by 12,000 open positions in the last three months, leaving 101,000 unemployed IT professionals. At the same time, close to the same number of tech positions remain unfilled.

“CIOs have started to halt hiring IT pros. Demand for contractors and consultants is slow due to economic uncertainty,” Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis said in the report. “On a bright side, there are still over 120K unfilled jobs for IT professionals.”

Year to date, the IT job market has shrunk by 24,900 positions, according to Janco’s report. Currently, about 4.18 million people are employed as IT professionals in the US, according to Janco.

Janco’s figures show a year-to-date loss of nearly 25,000 IT jobs.

In the past 18 months, the number of IT pros hired each month has moved from 105,00 to 57,000 in October 2023.

“2023 was not a good year for the size of the IT job market,” Janulaitis said. “We currently do not see any change in that trend. In our professional opinion, in 2024 the size of the IT job market will remain at about the same levels as the fourth quarter of 2023, with growth in size limited to minimal levels.”

The number of unfilled positions for IT pros has fallen from 148,000 to 101,000 in the past 18 months. “There still is demand; however, not at the peak of the post-pandemic hiring frenzy,” Janulaitis said.

Not all IT job reports were doom and gloom, however. CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and its workers, echoed ManpowerGroup’s findings, saying that hiring among SMBs is up — way up. And employer demand for AI talent boosted the share of job postings to 12%, the company stated.

Meanwhile, CompTIA’s numbers showed tech unemployment to be at 1.7%, well below ManpowerGroup’s figures, even as it estimated that tech occupations throughout the economy declined by 210,000 last month.

Tech occupations across the economy increased by an estimated 483,000 jobs, according to CompTIA. Tech firms added an estimated 2,159 workers, mainly in IT services and custom software development, CompTIA’s Tech Jobs Report showed.

“With the gains in employer hiring intent for AI talent, the job posting data is finally catching up to the hype,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer. “As an enabling technology, companies hiring for AI skills inevitably need to boost adjacencies in areas such as data infrastructure, cybersecurity, and business process automation.” 

Employer hiring activity as measured by job postings for tech positions totaled 155,621 for November. Jobs associated with artificial intelligence (AI) made up 12% of the total, more than 18,000 postings. It’s the first time AI positions have surpassed the 10% threshold. Positions in emerging technologies or jobs that require emerging tech skills accounted for 26% of tech job postings last month.

Tech job postings continue to fall. (Click image to enlarge it.)

ManpowerGroup’s Frankiewicz said her company’s analysts anticipated a stabilization of the IT job market with real-time data showing impacts to all sectors, including “always-hot healthcare” and retail.

“In real time, we’re seeing double-digit declines in job postings month over month and year over year that we haven’t seen since 2020. This moderation is welcome for many employers — who are finding it easier to fill vacancies,” Frankiewicz said.

“Time to fill roles has dropped to 49 days in November, from an average of 122 days in 2023 to date. For highly skilled roles like software developer, the time to fill has dropped by more than half, from 106 days to 29,” she added.

“We’re also seeing signs of the heavy hitter big companies taking a back seat and midsize employers with 50-249 employees having their moment — a trend that began with tech talent and is now impacting across the board,” Frankiewicz said.

October 2023

The national job rate for technology workers remained little changed in October, according to an analysis of data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The unemployment rate for tech workers in October dropped from 2.2% in September to 2.1% last month, even as there has been a cooling in the broader US job market. Technology companies and employers throughout the economy added workers to their payrolls in October, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and its workers.

Tech occupations across the economy increased by an estimated 483,000 jobs, according to CompTIA. Tech firms added an estimated 2,159 workers, mainly in IT services and custom software development, CompTIA’s Tech Jobs Report showed.

It was the second consecutive month of job growth in the sector — albeit at a modest pace.

“It’s fair to say tech employment gains for the month exceeded expectations, given the recent labor market swings,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement. “Companies continue to focus on the technologies and skills that deliver meaningful business value.”

California, Texas, Virginia, Florida and New York had the highest volumes of tech job postings among the states, CompTIA indicated. The Charlotte, Boston, San Diego, Cleveland and Phoenix markets were also active in October, with month-over-month increases in employer postings for tech jobs.

While the US market added 150,000 jobs in October, the overall unemployment rate rose from 3.8% to 3.9%, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of unemployed persons — 6.5 million — changed little in October. However, since their recent lows in April, those numbers are up by 0.5% and 849,000, respectively.

The uptick in unemployment and the slower pace of hiring pointed to a cooling of the employment market. In September, for example, 279,000 jobs were added to the US economy.

Becky Frankiewicz, president of staffing firm ManpowerGroup’s North America region, credited the slowdown for employees being less likely to leave for new roles than they were at the height of the pandemic. Hiring, she said, is solid but settling down.

“Our real-time data shows that in many sectors, especially blue-collar and tech, the market is finding balance,” she said. “The post-pandemic hiring frenzy and summer hiring warmth has cooled and companies are now holding onto employees.”

The tech sector is also cooling from its torrid growth over the past two or more years, but there’s still demand for highly skilled positions including app developers, cyber security experts and data analysts, Frankiewicz said.

“The most in-demand functions remain steady — with most new roles posted in medical and healthcare, sales and IT,” she said.

After a spike in the number of openings for IT professionals in the early summer, the number of unfilled openings for IT professionals fell from 201,000 in August to 160,000 in September. That reflects a pullback from the peak of 254,000 opening in July, according to Frankiewicz.

About 20% of job postings offered work from home or remote work as an option, according to CompTIA. One-quarter were for positions in emerging technologies or jobs that require emerging tech skills, including 16,000 associated with artificial intelligence (AI) jobs and skills. Employer hiring for AI positions and skills continues to trend upward, although it’s still a relatively small share of overall tech hiring activity.

Along with AI-skilled workers, software developers, IT support specialists, systems analysts, and data scientists are among the job roles in greatest demand, according to CompTIA.

Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Utah-based research firm Janco Associates, agreed AI and machine learning skills are in demand, though the number of coder openings is falling. At the same time, hiring of IT professionals is hindered by the lack of qualified individuals and a slowing economic picture.

“This will have a dampening impact on the growth of the IT Job Market size,” Janco stated in its latest tech market jobs report.

September 2023

The US unemployment rate remained at 3.8% in September, but the market added 336,000 jobs, far surpassing analyst expectations, according to today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers.

Tech employment, however, was a laggard in the generally upbeat US employment report released today, according to analysis by the nonprofit trade association CompTIA. Key metrics of tech hiring activity all slipped in September, its report showed.

Tech jobs among all sectors across the economy fell by an estimated 20,000. The technology sector unemployment rate ticked up from 2.1% in August to 2.2% in September, but it remains well below the national rate of 3.8%, according to CompTIA.

Tech salaries also appeared to be on a downslope, according to an analysis by job matching site Hired, which notes that US inflation-adjusted salaries have plummeted to a five-year low.

Meanwhile, tech sector companies reduced staffing by a net 2,632 positions last month, according to CompTIA’s analysis of BLS data.

Employer job postings for future tech hiring also fell to 184,077 in September, down from nearly 208,000 in August. (Future tech hiring is defined by CompTIA as expected open requisitions.)

“Demand for software positions continues to drive the largest volume of hiring activity. In the aggregate, volumes are equally large in positions spanning IT project management, IT support, data analytics, and systems/cloud infrastructure,” CompTIA’s report stated.

Positions in emerging technologies or jobs requiring emerging tech skills accounted for 26.5% of all tech jobs postings last month, up from 22% in August. Within emerging tech job postings, 36% were associated with artificial intelligence (AI).

“There is no sugar-coating the off month of tech employment data,” Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer, said in a statement. “Despite the persistently high demand for tech skills on many fronts and positive forward-looking projections, there is a lag in hiring at the moment.”

Jim McCoy, senior vice president of staffing firm ManpowerGroup, echoed Hebert’s sentiments on tech employment, but he said one bright sector has been smaller firms that are still dealing with a skills gap.

“To be sure, large companies have pulled back hiring and even cut workers, especially in technology, as borrowing costs have spiraled higher,” McCoy said. “But many small and midsized businesses that struggled to attract workers are snapping up those laid off and drawing from a more plentiful labor supply as Americans sidelined by COVID return to the workforce.”

The BLS jobs report showed the average hourly earnings for all employees rose by 7 cents, or 0.2%, to $33.88. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings  have increased by 4.2%, the report stated. In September, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 6 cents, or 0.2%, to $29.06.

While hiring may be up overall, real wages in the technology sector appeared to be declining, according to a recent report from job matching site Hired.

In its annual State of Tech Salaries Report, released in late September, Hired said the tech talent market has seen dramatic shifts from 2022 to the first half of 2023, fueling tension and misalignment between recruiter and job candidate expectations.

Following a year of record-breaking inflation and market turbulence, local salaries in the US, including those for fully in-person or hybrid roles, have experienced their most significant year-over-year decline, dropping by 3% from $161,000 to $156,000. In contrast, salaries in the UK have seen a 4% increase, rising from £82,000 to £86,000, according to Hired.

When adjusted for inflation, local salaries decreased 9% from $141K in 2022 to $129K by mid-2023, while remote salaries decreased 6% from $143K in 2022 to $134K by mid-2023.

Amid the rise of generative AI and a tightening of corporate budgets, junior talent (workers with less than four years of experience) have experienced the most significant decrease in salaries — nearly 5% year-over-year — and demand, with posted roles on the platform lowering from 45% in 2019 to 25% in the first half of 2023, according to Hired’s report.

“Compared to last year, we are witnessing a seismic shift in tech employee and employer preferences. The surging demand for experienced tech talent on our platform and employers’ increasing reliance on AI tools point to an ever-growing skills gap. This challenge will only heighten as companies reduce their hiring locations amid their return to the office and limit their access to qualified talent,” said Josh Brenner, CEO at Hired.

“With the future talent pipeline at risk of a deficit, companies cannot afford to disregard high-quality talent at any level. Instead, they must embrace diverse candidates with transferable skills who can adeptly address industry challenges, especially amid rapid advancements driven by emerging technologies like AI,” Brenner added.

The highest paid tech workers were engineering managers, particularly with the introduction of AI tools and increased cybersecurity challenges. Engineering managers earn on average $202,000 in the US and £118,000 in the UK — a notable 10% increase from £107,000 at the end of 2022. 

Specialized engineers are the most in demand in 2023: Employers on Hired’s marketplace have a higher demand for specialized engineers, especially for AI applications such as ML, as well as cybersecurity, data, and back-end engineers.

AI isn’t an immediate threat to job security, but it could present challenges for job seekers in the coming years: While the majority of surveyed candidates (87%) currently do not view AI as the primary threat to their roles, a significant portion of employers (47%) project they will leverage AI to reduce headcounts by 2029.

Overall, there were job gains in leisure and hospitality, government, healthcare, professional services, scientific and technical services, and social assistance.

Employment in professional, scientific, and technical services increased by 29,000 jobs in September, in line with the average monthly gain of 27,000 over the prior 12 months, BLS data showed.

Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates, identified the 10 AI skills listed most often on client open job requisitions for IT professionals. The one AI skill that was included in more than 60% of those requisitions: ChatGPT.

“Since its launch in November of 2022, ChatGPT has been implemented by the greatest number of organizations,” Janulaitis said in a blog post. “As a result, companies are recruiting IT professionals who have the skills to help them with using ChatGPT for content generation, task automation and scripting… and more.”

Other skills listed in open IT job requisitions: Natural Language Processing, TensorFlow, Image Processing, PyTorch, Generative AI content creation, Midjourney, AI Chatbot, Model Tuning, and Stable Diffusion.

PricewaterhouseCooper’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey found sizeable pockets of the global workforce eager to learn new skills, embrace artificial intelligence (AI), and tackle new challenges — even as many companies fail to tolerate debate and dissenting ideas, or even small-scale failures. Meanwhile, many workers are restless: fully 26% say they plan to quit their job in the next 12 months, up from 19% last year.

August 2023

Though they remain low, unemployment figures have seesawed over the past six months, a phenomenon that has some tech industry experts scratching their heads trying to make sense of what may be the new norm.

Last month, unemployment in technology fields increased along with the overall US unemployment rate, which rose from 3.5% in July to 3.8% in August, according to new data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). At the same time, total nonfarm employment across all markets increased by 187,000 jobs in August.

The mixed messages in last Friday’s employment report carried over to the tech industry and workforce, according an analysis by industry group CompTIA.

Tech unemployment had dropped from 2.3% in June to 1.8% in July, as tech firms and employers in other industries added workers after a spate of high-profile layoffs in the tech industry.

The latest BLS report, however, found that employers across the US economy reduced tech occupations by an estimated 189,000 positions, pushing the unemployment rate for tech jobs up to 2.1% — almost where it was in June, CompTIA said.

“The usual caveats of monthly fluctuations in labor market data apply,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “The seesawing between strong and lagging tech jobs reports is undoubtedly confusing, but the overall macro trend of growth in the depth and breadth of the tech workforce remains steady.”

Employer job postings for future tech hiring (a separate category tracked by CompTIA) totaled nearly 208,000 in August, a slight decline of 1.4% from the previous month. But job postings for information security analysts increased 19% from July to August to more than 12,000 postings. Other in-demand occupations include software developers, tech support specialists, computer systems analysts, and data scientists.

“With ‘pandemic paranoia’ about hiring lingering, companies are continuing to hold onto their workers, remembering how hard it was to rehire,” said Becky Frankiewicz, president of global staffing firm ManpowerGroup’s North America Region. “Essential workers we valued through the pandemic may not be feeling so essential, as real-time job postings for blue collar roles like operations and logistics/maintenance and repair are down 43% month over month” based on ManpowerGroup’s real-time data.

“This Labor Day is a great occasion to celebrate the resilience of the American worker,” she said. “Although we are seeing a slowdown, the labor market remains healthy, and we are optimistic about the future.”

Positions in emerging technologies or jobs requiring emerging tech skills, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and data science, accounted for 23% of all tech jobs postings in August. Among emerging tech job postings, 37% were associated with AI, with California, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and Virginia showing the highest numbers of AI-related job postings.

New data from IT staffing firm Experis found that an increasing number of companies surveyed are either adopting or planning to adopt emerging technologies in their recruiting processes. That comes as more than three quarters (78%) of IT organizations report difficulty finding talent with the right skills — a 17-year high.

According to Experis, 58% of employers believe AI and virtual reality will create jobs, not kill them. Additionally, cybersecurity, technical support, and customer experience remain high-priority IT staffing areas. Half of employers say they are training and upskilling their current workforce to address staffing challenges.

“The integration of AI, machine learning, VR/AR, and other emerging technologies is rapidly transforming industries and driving the need for an adaptable workforce,” said Experis Senior Vice President Ger Doyle. “We are seeing companies embrace these new technologies with many seeking to hire or upskill existing talent to take advantage of potential productivity gains. Smart employers know that embracing digitization and nurturing human talent will enhance their readiness to succeed in this era of rapid technological advancement.”

July 2023

The unemployment rate for tech jobs dropped from 2.3% to 1.8% in July, as technology companies and employers in other industry sectors added workers, according to analysis of US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.

It was the lowest tech-sector unemployment rate since January, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.

The overall US unemployment rate also dropped slightly last month from 3.6% in June to 3.5%, according to BLS data. About 187,000 non-farm jobs were added, less than the average monthly gain of 312,000 over the prior 12 months. In July, jobs grew in healthcare, social assistance, financial activities, and wholesale trade, according to the BLS.

The overall unemployment rate has ranged from 3.4% to 3.7% since March 2022.

According to BLS data, employment in professional, scientific, and technical services continued to trend up in July with 24,000 positions filled.

Tech sector companies increased their staffing by 5,432 employees, according to CompTIA’s analysis of BLS data. Leading the way in new IT hires were custom software services and systems design;and PC, semiconductor and components manufacturing.

IT salaries were on the rise, too, according to a mid-year analysis by business consultancy Janco Associates, as more companies invested in IT. The emphasis in recent years has been on both e-commerce and mobile computing. And with growing numbers of cyberattacks and data breaches, CIOs are looking to harden their sites and lock down data access to protect all of their electronic assets, according to Janco Associates.

The lone drag on the July data was in employer job postings for tech occupations, which slipped to from 236,000 in June to 204,400 for the month of July.

“Given the pace of tech hiring, it remains a fairly tight market for tech talent,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer for CompTIA, said in a statement. “It continues to be an environment where employers must supplement recruiting efforts with proactive talent development strategies.”

While the drop in tech sector unemployment is notable, it’s not uncommon for rates to fluctuate, according to Herbert. Over the past 5.5 years dating back t0 January 2018, the tech unemployment rate saw a 1/2-point or higher rise or fall from the previous month 27 times, which translates to 40% of the time, he said in an email to Computerworld.

In comparison, the national unemployment saw the same kind of variation 22 times, or 33% of the time. Herbert said.

“Unfortunately, the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not provide data at a granular enough level to pinpoint the exact tech occupation categories driving changes in the unemployment rate,” Herbert said. “The employer job posting data indicates hiring activity is broad-based spanning all the major job families within tech.”

The way the BLS tracks job seekers also matters; it only keeps tabs on people actively looking for employment, Herbert noted.

“There could be scenarios whereby certain segments of workers go uncounted in the unemployment rate because they put their job search on pause — perhaps to re-evaluate their job search strategy, to pursue additional training, to recharge their batteries, etc.,” he said. “This could have the effect of artificially lowering the unemployment rate.”

There is a difference, however, between the long-term unemployed who might lack skills demanded in the labor market and those who voluntarily put a job search on hold. “My sense is tech workers in this position tend to fall in the latter category given most have in demand skills,” Herbert added.

Janco Associates painted a somewhat gloomier picture of the IT jobs landscape: it said that year to date, IT jobs shrank by 5,500 positions. That’s in contrast to 125,900 jobs created during the same period of 2022.

The number of unfilled jobs for IT pros shrank from more than 200,000 in December to just over 120,000 at the end of July, Janco’s latest report showed. It argued that the growth of the IT job market stopped in January, with a loss of 2,600 positions, with other losses piling up in succeeding months.

“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals are poor at best,” Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis said in a statement.

In the second quarter of 2023, the “big losers” were computer system design jobs (down 10,500); telecommunications (down 5,500);  content providers (down 4,700); and other information service providers (down 6,600). Janulaitis said.

Many roles, especially in telecommunications and cloud providers are being automated and eliminated, he said. CIOs and CFOs are looking to improve the productivity of IT by automating processes and reporting where possible and focusing on eliminating “non-essential” managers, staff, and services.

“Experienced coders and developers still have opportunities. The highest demand continues to be for security professionals, programmers, and blockchain processing IT Pros,” Janulaitis said.

As part of an effort to boost return on investment, CIOs are looking to consolidate the cloud service providers they support.

“This will impact the job prospects at those providers,” Janulaitis said. “There continues to be a general belief there will be an economic downturn by many CIOs and CFOs. This is impacting all decisions around hiring new IT pros and increasing technology-related expenditures. This has impacted the salaries of IT pros with a major impact on the compensation of IT executives.”

Meanwhile, according to CompTIA, the strongest demand was for software developers and engineers, IT project managers, data analysts, IT support specialists and emerging technologies. Positions in emerging technologies or jobs that require 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 (AI) work and skills, CompTIA said. 

June 2023

IT workers are well positioned to not only keep their jobs but to get big bumps in pay when looking for new opportunities, according to analysis of jobs data released today by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Overall, the US unemployment rate dropped slightly from 3.7% in May to 3.6% in June, with about 206,000 jobs added, according to the BLS. The number of jobs added last month was down 100,000 from May.

Wages also increased as employers continued to struggle to find workers. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees grew 4.4% in June over the same period last year to $28.83, according to the BLS.

Tech sector companies increased headcount by 5,348 jobs last month, according to an analysis of BLS data by industry group CompTIA. Among the six top tech occupation categories, three have shown positive gains through the first half of 2023: IT and custom software services and systems design; PC, semiconductor and components manufacturing; and cloud infrastructure, data processing and hosting.

Overall, however, tech occupations throughout the economy declined by an estimated 171,000, according to CompTIA. The unemployment rate for tech jobs edged up from 2% to 2.3%, still well below the national unemployment figure.

Software developers were in particularly in high demand, according to CompTIA. Job openings had dropped by more than 2,700 positions in May, but in June software development positions rose by more than 15,700 openings. Job openings for IT project managers and data scientists also lept in June, up by 8,633 and 3,929, respectively.

Other IT positions that saw marked increases included system analysts, IT support specialists, web developers, cybersecurity analysts and engineers, and database adminitrators, according to CompTIA.

Overall, tech-related employment mirrored June’s overall easing of the labor market nationally, CompTIA said. Tech occupations throughout the economy fell back and job postings for future hiring were down modestly, with jobs offering remote/hybrid work arrangements falling off even as opportunities to work with artificial intelligence rose in the emerging job market.

“The latest tech employment figures do lag some, but the underlying fundamentals remain unchanged. All signs point to a continuation of the growth trajectory for the tech workforce,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer, CompTIA, said in a statement.

Ahead of the BLS jobs report, HR software provider ADP released its own jobs report Thursday saying private sector jobs surged by 497,000 in June, well ahead of the 267,000 gain in May and much higher than the 220,000 analysts had estimated.

“According to the Department of Labor, [ADP’s] numbers were way off,” said Jamie Kohn, senior director of human resources research at Gartner. “I do think we’re seeing a slight slowdown in jobs at the moment, but there’s such a shortage of talent, companies are trying to keep up.”

Employment rates for prime age workers — 18- to 54-year-olds — is back to pre-Covid numbers and companies are reticent to make further cuts even as economists continue to chirp about a possible recession.

“We have data that shows on median, people are getting a 15% increase when they move from one job to another,” Kohn said. “They’re actually getting higher pay bumps than they thought they would.” On average, most job seekers expect an 8% increase in pay in a new job, according to a new Gartner survey.

Another trend putting pressure on the job market is an increasing number of Baby Boomer retirements, leaving management positions and other senior jobs unfilled.

“We’re about half way through Baby Boomer [generation] retirement. The market is likely to get tighter as the latter half of the Baby Boomer generation retires over the next decade or so. Some people also retired early during and coming out of the pandemic,” Kohn said. “I’m hearing from a lot of HR leaders who are trying to figure out how to convince people to delay retirement because they’re finding it hard to find people.”

IT workers in particular are in demand, Kohn said. The Gartner survey showed 78% of job market candidates have multiple offers on the table. That compares to overall job seekers, 72% of whom had multiple job offers.

While organizations across all US industries are expected to boost hiring in the third quarter, employers in the IT market have the most aggressive hiring plans, according to global staffing firm ManpowerGroup.

Unmet demand for talent is highest in IT-related fields, with 78% of employers in IT reporting challenges in hiring, according to an earlier report from ManpowerGroup. This suggests that tech workers who find themselves laid off will soon be reabsorbed into the market.

ManpowerGroup’s real-time data is showing plentiful opportunities in logistics, job openings grew 25% this quarter, sales and business development were up 10%, medical (up 9%) and finance (up 8%).

“We’re seeing the relationship between employers and workers continue to evolve, particularly for workers with in-demand skills,” Becky Frankiewicz, ManpowerGroup’s regional president and chief commercial officer, said. “As ‘pandemic paranoia’ about hiring lingers, companies are holding on to their workers as layoffs calm and permanent roles are more in demand than temporary.”

Hybrid work is also on the uptick, with all industries offering more remote/hybrid roles month-over-month and tech remote work up 34%-40% in June, according to ManpowerGroup. And as the relentless advance of AI continues, employers are betting on people. Companies are investing in the talent and skills they have in house, with organizations re-skilling and up-skilling more than ever.

After some high-profile layoffs by tech companies this year and last, many IT workers are seeking employment in industries they consider more stable, such as financial services, according to Kohn.

Workforce participation by women remains lower than for men. A key reason for that is US employers are not as generous with flexible work, paid maternal leave and childcare assistance as their European counterparts.

“If you have to spend half or more of your income for childcare, no reason to go back to work,” Kohn said, adding that what’s needed is an overhaul of worker benefits rights by the federal government. Another wrinkle: US immigration has seen steep declines — even before the pandemic — further reducing the chance for a glut in job openings.

May 2023

Like April before it, the month of May showed mixed results for tech employment in the US.

Technology companies shed an estimated 4,725 jobs — a figure that includes nontechnical workers — in May, according to an analysis of the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures by IT industry group CompTIA. Job postings for open technology positions also eased off, down to about 234,000 from April’s 300,000, according to a new report from CompTIA.

At the same time, however, the number of technology jobs throughout the economy rose by 45,000, according to the report.

Those mixed results for the tech workforce reflect the unpredictability of the overall labor market. US employers added a stronger-than-expected 339,000 jobs in May, but the overall US unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points to hit 3.7%, while the number of unemployed people rose by 440,000 to reach 6.1 million, according to BLS data released today.

Responding to the BLS data, global staffing firm ManpowerGroup also commented on the mixed results for tech pros: “Our data shows cooling in IT, with posted roles down 12% compared to last month. Yet those let go are being quickly reabsorbed, often into midsize companies.”

Indeed, while the national unemployment rate has ranged between 3.4% and 3.7% since March 2022, the unemployment rate for tech occupations has hovered near 2% throughout that time frame. In fact, tech unemployment decreased slightly in May, from 2.1% to 2.0%, according to CompTIA’s analysis of the BLS data.

“Reassuringly, the positives for the month outweigh the negatives, confirming the tech workforce remains on solid footing,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA.

The most in-demand roles among tech job postings include software developers and engineers; IT project managers, data analysts, and other emerging tech roles; IT support specialists; systems analysts and engineers; and data scientists. Approximately 20% of job postings are in emerging tech fields or require emerging tech skills, including nearly 15,000 postings that mention AI skills, according to CompTIA.

April 2023

Technology companies added 18,795 workers in April, the largest number since August 2022, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures and an industry analysis of that information.

The data revealed a mixed bag of results for tech workers last month. Technology jobs throughout the economy declined by 99,000 positions even as employer job postingspassed 300,000 — a level last reached in October, according to a report from CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.

Both the overall US unemployment rate, at 3.4%, and the number of unemployed, at 5.7 million, changed little in April, according to BLS data released today. The national unemployment rate has ranged between 3.4% and 3.7% since March 2022.

The unemployment rate for tech occupations inched up to 2.3% in April from 2.2% in March, still well below the national unemployment rate, according to CompTIA’s evaluation.

“It was another all-too-familiar month of mixed labor market signals,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “The surprisingly strong tech sector employment gains were offset by the pause in tech hiring across the economy.”

Still, IT executives and managers are among the most highly paid workers in US corporations, according to a new report based on the latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

A BLS report published last last month — the Occupational Employment and Wages Summary for 2022 — showed computer and information research scientists earn on average about $155,880 a year. Database architects are the second-highest earners with just over $136,540 in annual compensation. Software developers followed at $132,000 a year.

Putting upward pressure on wages has been a combination of scarce tech talent and low unemployement rates.

Computer and IT managers are among the most highly paid positions in the US, earning an average $173,670 across all industries and occupations; that’s even more than the top executives in all industries and occupations ($129,050), according to business consultancy Janco Associate.

In terms of employment in the tech industry, software developers held just over 1.5 million positions in the US, more than double the 700,000 positions held by computer user support specialists. Computer systems analysts, with 500,000 jobs, were in third place, according to Janco’s report.

Late last month, job search website Lensa published a research study showing “computer occupations” are among the most in-demand jobs in the US, second only to “health diagnostic and treatment practitioners.” More than 3.1 million potential applicants clicked on open job positions in the IT arena, according to Lensa.

Overall, the number of workers not in the labor force who currently want a job increased by 346,000 over the month to 5.3 million, according to the BLS. “These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the four weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job,” the BLS said.

Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.6%, and the employment-population ratio, at 60.4%, were unchanged in April. These measures remain below their pre-pandemic February 2020 levels, 63.3%and 61.1%, respectively.

Global Staffing firm ManpowerGroup viewed the BLS data from April as a “promise of spring” for the job market, with a higher-than-expected 253,000 jobs added.

Employers continue to hire for in-demand skills while pulling back on non-essential headcount, the company said in a statement to Computerworld. The company also noted some negative trends that emerged with the BLS’s revisions to its March data showing 100,000 fewer jobs, “and the three-month average is tracking down.”

“Today, we’re seeing very concentrated demand with medical, IT, and sales representing 44% of all open positions,” Becky Frankiewicz. president of ManpowerGroup North America said. “That data includes all real-time available jobs across the country. [Job] openings are the lowest they’ve been in two years.”

Employers listed more than 300,000 job postings for tech positions in April, signaling demand for tech talent continues to hold up, according to CompTIA. In March, there were 316,000 tech job openings.

Within the tech sector, three occupation categories paced April hiring, led by IT services and custom software development (+12,700 additional jobs). Job gains were also reported in cloud infrastructure, data processing and hosting (+7,300 additional jobs) and PC, semiconductor and components manufacturing (+3,200 additional jobs).

Employer job postings for tech positions were widely dispersed geographically and by industry. Employers in administrative and support (32,861), finance and insurance (32,820) and manufacturing (31,959) were among the most active last month.

The number of tech job postings that specify remote work or hybrid work arrangements as an option continued to trend upward in April, with more than 65,000 positions across the country; software developers, IT project managers, data analysts and jobs in emerging technologies topped the list

Among metropolitan markets, Washington, DC, New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago had the highest volumes of tech job postings. And Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Boston and Seattle saw the largest month-over-month increases in postings, according to CompTIA.

March 2023

Tech sector employment, which includes all workers on the payrolls of tech companies, declined in March by an estimated 839 jobs, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and IT industry group CompTIA.

Employer job postings for tech positions for March, however, increased by 76,546 month-over-month, for a total of 316,000 openings; the tech unemployment rate remained unchanged from February at 2.2%.

Technology employment across all industry sectors increased by an estimated 197,000 positions for the month, according to CompTIA’s analysis of BLS data. “This represents the highest level of employer hiring activity as measured by job postings in seven months,” CompTIA said in its Tech Jobs Report.

More than 4.18 million people are now employed as IT professionals in the US, according to industry research firm Janco Associates.

“As a forward-looking indicator, the rebound in employer tech job postings is a notable positive,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer. “While caution is in order given the state of uncertainty, the data suggests segments of employers may be stepping back into the tech talent market.”

Overall, the US economy added 236,000 jobs in March, according to the BLS, a slight slowdown compared to recent months; that could mean the jobs market may be responding to recent interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.

At the same time the number of jobs being added to the economy dropped slightly, the overall unemployment rate dipped a tenth of a point to 3.5%, remaining near 50-year historic lows.

IT industry advocacy group CompTIA’s March Tech Jobs Report.

The total number of unemployed US workers, at 5.8 million, changed little in March; that measure has shown little net movement since early 2022, according to BLS data.

“The labor market posted solid if not spectacular gains,” Diane Swonk, chief economist and managing director at KPMG LLP, wrote in a blog post. “Hiring in both the public and the private sectors slowed. Hiring by firms with less than 250 workers continues to drive gains in the private sector. Those firms are the most vulnerable to the recent tightening of credit conditions,”

Even as unemployment remains low, there have been a number of high-profile layoffs in the technology industry and elsewhere during the past six or so months; industry experts have said many organizations over-hired during the COVID-19 pandemic and are now having to trim their workforces, a so-called “course correction.”

This year, more than 168,000 workers have been laid off at tech firms, according to industry tracker Layoffs.fyi.

Last month, job search site Indeed fired 15% of its workforce, or about 2,200 employees. The layoffs came from nearly every team and function within the company, CEO Chris Hyams said, and were in response to a job market that has cooled “after the recent post-COVID boom,” he said.

“US total job openings were down 3.5% year-over-year, while sponsored job volumes were down 33%,” Hyams said. “In the US, we are expecting job openings will likely decrease to pre-pandemic levels of about 7.5 million, or even lower over the next two to three years.”

While big tech firms such as Google and Microsoft may be letting workers go, the layoffs aren’t dominated by IT talent. Most of the layoffs are occurring on the business side of the corporate world. In fact, there are fewer IT workers than job openings — a lot fewer.

Positions for software developers and engineers accounted for the largest share of job postings in March, according to CompTIA. Employers are also in the market for IT support specialists, systems engineers and analysts, IT project managers, cybersecurity analysts, and engineers. About one in five tech job postings offer remote or hybrid work arrangements as an option.

A new report from global staffing firm ManpowerGroup found that 77% of employers report difficultly filling job roles, representing a 17-year talent shortage high.

James Neave, head of data science at job search site Adzuna, said despite the latest spate of layoffs, which include Apple and Walmart, job growth has exceeded expectations for 12 consecutive months, “the longest streak since 1998.

“Today’s closely watched jobs report gives another healthy reading on the job market and the strength of hiring,” he said invia email to Computerworld.

On Adzuna, advertised job vacancies in the U.S. totalled 8.3 million in March. As a result, organizations need to continue working to attract and retain highly qualified talent amid shortages and skills gaps, Neave said.

“To win workers, organizations are improving their benefits and providing care for the whole person in such a stressful economic time,” he said. “Boosting benefit offerings also helps to slow staff turnover and reduce the risk of burnout, improving morale as well as the bottom line.” 

February 2023

Tech sector employment fell by 11,184 positions in February, a modest reduction of 0.2% of the total tech industry workforce of more than 5.5 million.

Unemployment in the tech sector also jumped from 1.5% in January to 2.2%, in February, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.

The unemployment rate for tech occupations is still below the national rate of 3.6%, which saw a .1% increase from January.

The number of technology occupations in all industries declined by .6% or 38,000 positions, according to CompTIA’s report. Tech occupations in the US economy still total more than 6.4 million workers. Among all tech industries, tech manufacturing added a net new 2,800 jobs, the fifth consecutive month of positive gains.

Employer job postings for tech positions also declined by about 40,000, to just over 229,000 in February. Most metropolitan markets experienced fallbacks from January to February, with a few exceptions, according to CompTIA.

“As expected, the lag in labor market data means prior layoffs announcements are now appearing in BLS reporting,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer for  CompTIA. “Context is critical. The recent pullback represents a relatively small fraction of the massive tech workforce. The long-term outlook remains unchanged with demand for tech talent powering employment gains across the economy.”

While there have been hundreds of highly publicized layoffs among tech companies, the vast majority of employees being fired are not in IT positions, according to industry analysts. In fact, there remains a dearth in tech talent to fill more than 145,000 IT job openings. 

IT consultancy Janco Associates offered a somewhat more pessimistic view of the IT job market.

“Layoffs, for the most part, did not hit developers. Rather they were focused on data center operations, administrative and HR roles related to recruiting, and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). Some roles, especially in telecommunications and data center operations are being automated and eliminated,” Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. “Driving this is CIOs and CFOs who are looking to improve the productivity of IT by automating processes and reporting where possible. They are focusing on eliminating non-essential managers and staff. They will continue to hire coders and developers.”

The highest demand, Janulaitis said, continues to be for security professionals, programmers, and blockchain processing IT professionals. Other industry research shows data analysts and AI professionals are also in high demand. 

“The general belief there will be an economic downturn is high for many CIOs and CFOs. This is impacting all decisions around hiring new IP pros and increasing technology-related expenditures,” Janulaitis said.

In 2022, 267,000 new jobs were added to the IT market. Those new jobs were in addition to the 213,000 jobs created in 2021.

In 2023, while there are more jobs being added, that number is declining. In January, for example, for the first time in 25 months, there was a net loss in the number of jobs in the IT Job Market. That trend is continuing, Janco said. In the first two months of 2023, the IT job market shrank by 44,900 jobs.

“CIOs and CFOs have started to slow the rate of creating new IT jobs and hiring IT professionals,” Janco said in its report. “The three month moving average for IT job market growth trend for IT professionals shows a significant downward trend. Inflation and recessionary trends are driving this.”

Layoffs and economic uncertainty drove CIOs and CFOs to slow IT hiring in February, according to Janulaitis.

“Layoffs at big tech companies are having an adverse on overall IT hiring. More CIOs are looking at a troubling economic climate and are evaluating the need for increased headcounts based on the technological requirements of their specific business operations,”Janulaitis said.

The growth of the IT job market stopped with a decline of 10,000 jobs in January and 13,400 jobs in February, according to Janco. That was the first loss in the number of IT Pros employed in over 27 months. The three-month moving average of IT job market growth went negative with a trend line that shows a further decay in IT job market growth.”

Overall US employment rose by 311,000 jobs in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said. That was vastly higher than the 225,000 jobs predicted by economists polled by the Wall Street Journal. In January, about half a million jobs were added, according to BLS data.

The number of people quitting jobs (3.9 million) decreased, in February, while layoffs and other firings (1.7 million) increased. Even with the unemployment rate ticking up slightly, are still nearly two jobs (10.8 million) for every unemployed worker (5.9 million), according to a BLS data. In 2022, the annual average number of job openings was 11.2 million.

Last month, U.S. consumer spending also rose to its highest level in over nearly two years.

Across all industries, the number of people who were without jobs for a short period of time (less than 5 weeks) increased by 343,000 to 2.3 million in February, offsetting a decrease in the prior month. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more), changed little in February and accounted for 17.6% of the total unemployed or 1.1 million people.

Job postings for technology positions rose the most in scientific and tech services industry sector (35,257), finance and insurance (24,735) and manufacturing (20,246).

Overall, in the US job market, the average hourly earnings grew 4.6% year-over-year, which was down from last year but above the pre-pandemic pace, BLS data showed.

The ongoing tech talent shortage also lifted IT salaries, but future pay increases will be less than expected, according to Janco Associates.

On average, IT salaries rose by 5.61% in 2022 and were expected to increase by as much as 8% this year, according to earlier reports by Janco. 

“Many CIOs’ 2023 IT budgets planned to increase salaries for IT pros to address the inflationary pressures faced by employees are now being reviewed,” Janulaitis said. “Given these facts, we believe that median salaries for IT pros in 2023 will be 3% to 4% salary above 2022 levels, not the 7% to 8% that was budgeted.” 

The mean compensation for all IT pros in 2023 is now $101,323; for IT pros in large enterprises it tops $102,000; and for executives it averages $180,000.

“Companies that do not live up to employees’ expectations may find that even if they are able to get candidates in the door, those candidates leave as soon as a better offer comes along,” Gartner Research analyst Mbula Schoen wrote in a Q&A post this week.. “Additionally, there are increasingly opportunities for IT jobs outside traditional tech companies, so it’s important to look beyond just the tech provider community to truly grasp the state of the tech talent crunch.”

January 2023

The unemployment rate in the technology job market decreased for the second month in a row, dropping to 1.5% in January from 1.8% in December.

Even with the marked drop in unemployment, it was a mixed bag for the technology marketplace, after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issued its January jobs report on Friday. There was a decline in current employment and an increase in employer job postings for potential future hiring, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.

While the overall US unemployment rate dropped to a figure not seen since 1969 (to 3.4%, from 3.5% a month earlier), the number of technology workers hired in January fell into negative territory for the first time in more than two years. Technology occupations throughout the economy declined by 32,000 for the month, representing a reduction of -0.5%, according to CompTIA. Technology companies also shed 2,489 positions in January, according to CompTIA.

Overall, however, the US added 517,000 jobs in January, according to BLS numbers.

The BLS also said on Friday it had significantly revised its November data, describing it as a “major revision reflecting content and coding changes.”

In November 2022, the BLS indicated U.S. technology companies added approximately 2,500 net new jobs versus the mistakenly reported decrease of 151,900 jobs in earlier reporting.

“The change materially affects the sub-sector of tech companies providing search and platform services, while the revisions were a net positive for sub-sectors such as IT services and data,” CompTIA said.

ComTIA also uses employer online job posting data to predict the number of job postings for future tech hiring, and that number reversed last month’s dip and increased by 22,408 to 268,898 for 2023.

The fact that the unemployment rate in the tech market still dropped in January indicates many laid off workers were re-hired and absorbed back into the labor market, according to CompTIA. The tech unemployment rate is also an indication that many of the layoffs occurring within technology organizations are non-technical workers, such as sales, marketing or related business support positions.

Among industries, the highest volumes of job postings for tech positions were reported in the professional, scientific and technical services (40,712), finance and insurance (30,576) and manufacturing (24,269) sectors.

“Despite the unusual backward revision by the BLS and the routine fluctuations in monthly labor market data, much of the big picture tech employment picture remains the same,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA said in a statement. “Undoubtedly, some companies over- hired and are now scaling back. The low tech unemployment rate and steady hiring activity by employers confirms the long-term demand for tech talent across many sectors of the economy.”

While tech companies shed employees over the past few months in highly publicized reports, overall, 2022 saw an increase of about 264,500 new jobs to the IT job Market, according to IT industry consultancy Janco Associates.  Those new jobs were in addition to the 213,000 jobs created in 2021. 

In January, the growth of the IT job market stopped with a decline of 4,700 jobs.  That was the first loss in over 27 months, according to Janco. The three-month moving average of IT job market growth went negative with a trend line that shows a further decay in IT job market growth. At the same time, there is an excess of 109,000 unfilled jobs for IT Pros due to a lack of qualified candidates.

A lack of qualified candidates has lead to increased demand for tech workers raising overall salaries for all IT positions by 5.6%, with small-and-medium-sized businesses seeing an average increase of 7.74% increase, with their median compensation increasing to $100,434 as reported in Janco’s 2023 IT Salary Survey.

U.S.-based employers announced 102,943 cuts in January, a 136% increase from the 43,651 cuts announced in December, according to global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. That’s 440% higher than the 19,064 cuts announced in the same month in 2022, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s report. Forty-one percent of January’s job cuts were in tech.

Yet demand for those to fill jobs requiring tech skills is rising.

“That’s a ton of expertise missing from an industry that needs the brightest to get brighter,” said Vince Padua, CTO at Axway, a tech company that sells an API management platform.

And it’s going to get worse, he added, as 86% IT leaders expect an expertise gap increase in coming years.

“As cloud computing, AI and microservices are developed and adopted, the skills required to support them constantly evolve,” Padua said. “Companies need more employees with the right skills and experience – plus IT infrastructure and enterprise software experts with specialized skills in cybersecurity, data analytics and cloud architecture.”

IT jobs took the top spot in a list of the 25 best jobs in the US, according to online job site Indeed. The top job slot went to full stack developer, which offers a median annual salary of $130,000 and allows for a mostly remote or hybrid workplace..

Eight tech jobs were among the top 10 positions on Indeed’s list this year; that compares with just two tech jobs in the top 10 on last year’s list. In 2022, tech jobs were moving down the top jobs list; now, a year later, tech jobs are surging upward. This year, 11 of the top 25 jobs, or 44%, were tech positions. By comparison, in 2022, just 25% of the top 25 jobs were tech-related.

“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals are there but not in as broad in scope as in 2022. Layoffs, for the most part, did not hit developers.  Rather they were focused on data center operations, administrative and HR roles related to recruiting, and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion),” said Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis.

Some roles, especially in telecommunications and data center operations are being automated and eliminated, Janulaitis noted, but those operations will continue to hire coders and developers.

The highest demand continues to be for security professionals, programmers, and blockchain processing IT professionals, according to Janco. Currently, there are over 109,000 unfilled jobs in the IT job market — a drop from 216,000 in November.

Janulaitis blamed continued concern over a possible recession as one reason organizations are eliminating jobs.

“More CIOs are looking at a troubling economic climate and are evaluating the need for increased headcounts based on the technological requirements of their specific business operations,” Janulaitis said.

According to the latest BLS data analyzed by Janco, there are now just over 4.2 million jobs for IT Professionals in the US., and layoffs at big tech companies are having an adverse on overall IT hiring.

“The possibility of the economic downturn is very likely and is impacting all decisions that increase technology-related expenditures. Work from home is being minimized as companies are requiring employees to be in the office at least 3 to 4 days a week,” Janulaitis said. “Mid-level managers are now having to justify most positions where the IT Pro is not working in the office.  Companies that are forced to hire replacements, do so with the caveat that payroll costs remain flat. “

The 2023 IT budgets increased salaries for IT pros to address inflationary pressures faced by employees.  Those are now being reviewed. Given those facts, Janco believes that median salaries for IT Pros in 2023 will be 3-4% salary above 2022 levels, not the 7% to 8% that was budgeted at the end of 2022.

“With this as a background, Janco has just revised downward its forecast for the growth of the IT Job Market in 2023 to just over 160,000 from 174,000 new jobs,” Janulaitis said. “That will be less growth than in 2021 and 2022 but still at high levels.”

December 2022

Even as some high-profile layoffs have lead the news over the past few months, the US added 223,000 jobs in December, including 17,600 positions at tech companies, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and other research.

Technology job gains were recorded in four of five sector categories. It’s the 25th straight month of net employment growth in the tech industry, according to a report by CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.

The overall US unemployment rate dropped from 3.7% in November 2022 to 3.5% in December, according to BLS data. In the technology sector, the unemployment rate dropped from 2% in November to 1.8% in December, according to CompTIA.

“Another wave of positive tech employment data speaks to the many moving parts of a complex labor market,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement. “Despite the layoffs there continues to be more employers hiring tech talent than shedding it.”

CompTIA’s analysis also showed that 30% of all tech jobs postings are for positions in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, or in roles requiring emerging tech skills.

Within the tech sector, three occupation categories lead December hiring: IT services and custom software development (+7,200 jobs), other information services, including search engines (+6,600 jobs) and data processing, hosting and related services (+5,600 jobs).

CompTIA

The positive news was countered by a second consecutive month of lower employer job postings for future tech hiring. Future tech hiring is one metric CompTIA uses to predict how many job openings will be available over the next year. Future tech hiring declined for the second consecutive month, but still totaled more than 246,000 in December, down from 270,000 in November, 2022.

Also, the organization cautioned, recent layoff announcements by technology companies may not show up immediately in government reports, such as today’s BLS “employment situation” report, a CompTIA spokesperson said.

In spite of that, in the first quarter of 2023, the IT industry will lead all others in hirings, according to a new report from global staffing firm ManpowerGroup.

While companies are expected to hire fewer technology workers this quarter than the previous one (6% less) or even Q1, 2022 (14% less), ManpowerGroup’s survey of just under 39,000 employers in 41 countries revealed overall there will be a 23% increase in hiring.

ManpowerGroup

When considering how staffing levels will change during the first quarter, employers in 39 of 41 countries and territories surveyed anticipate a net positive hiring outlook, the report stated.

Organizations in the IT industry reported the most optimistic outlook for Q1, 2023 with an expected 35% increase in hiring; that was followed by Financials & Real Estate (28%), and Energy & Utilities (+26%).​

Geographically, North American organizations expect to increase hiring by 31%; US organizations expect a 29% increase in hiring and Canadian organizations expect at 34% increase. Large organizations with more than 250 are more than twice as optimistic as small businesses (with less than 10 employees) to hire in the coming quarter with outlooks of 29% and 13%, respectively.

Wanting to hire is one thing and actually being able to find tech talent is another. Currently, there is a dearth of tech talent available.

Despite strong optimism to hire, the industry faces a talent shortage where 76% of IT industry employers report difficulty finding the hard and soft skills needed, according to ManpowerGroup’s survey.

“This recovery is unlike any we have ever seen [and] demand for skills is at record highs in many markets, and unemployment levels remain high while workforce participation stagnates,” the report said.

ManpowerGroup

Because of the lack of available talent, the lead time for filling an open IT position is now several months, according to a new report by business consultancy Janco Associates.

“If the position to be filled is a replacement for some who has left the enterprise, training time has to be factored in. This is just one of the issues faced by CIOs,” Janco stated in its 2023 IT Salary Survey, which included interviews more than 142 CIOs, CFOs, and HR professionals to identify key CIO staffing Issues

Organizations have addressed hiring challenges by removing college degree requirements from job postings and by creating apprenticeship programs to train new candidates.

“With the limited labor supply of IT professionals, every hiring mistake is magnified,” Janco’s report stated.

Janco Associates

In Janco’s review of hiring failures based on survey responses, it found two factors that stood out over others. Interpersonal issues associated with these failures (29%) and poor corporate culture fit (28%) with the others. Those issues, Janco argued, can mostly be filtered out during the recruiting and interviewing process.

November 2022

For two straight years, the technology sector has added jobs every month.

In November, US tech companies added 14,400 workers, and tech jobs in all industry sectors grew by 137,000 positions, according to a new report from CompTIA

While the needle on overall US unemployment remained unchanged in November at 3.7%, for the technology sector it dropped to 2% from 2.2% in October, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures compiled by CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.

CompTIA

So far this year, tech industry jobs grew by 207,000 positions, according to BLS data.

“The hotter-than-anticipated tech jobs report confirms there are still many more employers hiring tech talent than shedding it,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer. “It’s certainly premature to dismiss concerns over the health of the economy, but this should be a reassuring sign for the tech workforce.”

The growth in the tech sector belies an economy beset by high inflation and what many still believe is an impending recession. And although inflation slowed to 7.7%, it is still well over the 2% target set by policymakers at the Federal Reserve Bank.

In November, nearly a dozen big name companies announced layoffs — some in the thousands, including Amazon, Cisco and HP. But experts believe the targeted layoffs, which have been ongoing over the past three months, are mostly a result of poor hiring strategies.

Due to a dearth of tech talent over the past two years, companies rushed to hire, bringing in a raft of tech workers with seven to 10 years’ experience and highly specialized skills.

On top of that, the companies tended to pay two to three times more than what they would have for someone with less experience but with the right education, aptitude, and attitude to be part of a sustainable workforce, according to Tony Lysak, CEO of The Software Institute, which offers IT consulting and education services.

“We need them, and can’t get them, so let’s pay more,” said Lysak, summing up how many companies have approached hiring during the past two years.

According to IT employment consultancy Janco Associates, the latest BLS data shows there are now just shy of four million jobs for IT professionals in the US. Janco sees this trend of IT jobs increases continuing but at a slower pace in the future. Layoffs will continue as companies seek to improve productivity levels.

“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals will continue to be positive but not as broad in scope as in the first three quarters of this calendar year,” Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. “CIOs and CFOs are looking to improve the productivity of IT. They are focusing on eliminating ‘non-essential’ managers and staff. They will continue to hire coders and developers. The highest demand continues to be for programmers, blockchain processing, and security professionals. There still are over 200K unfilled jobs in the IT job market.”

IT salaries for existing IT staff and middle managers increased by just under 3% while new hires were paid 5% to 6% more than existing staff, according to Janco’s Mid Year 2022 IT Salary Survey. “In conversation with several CIOs, we observed that starting pay rates for new hires were in the 8% to 10% range a few months back, but this is not the case currently,” Janulaitis said.

November hiring by technology companies was broad-based across occupation categories, led by IT services and custom software development (+8,100). Employment growth also occurred in data processing, hosting and related services (+4,100), other information services, including search engines (+2,100), and computer and electronic products manufacturing (+1,900).

CompTIA

Employer job postings for future tech hiring fell back in November, but still totaled nearly 270,000. Openings for software developers and engineers accounted for about 28% of all tech jobs postings. Demand for IT support specialists, systems engineers, IT project managers, and network engineers was also solid.

While major tech hubs recorded the largest numbers of job postings for tech positions, ‘under the radar’ markets showed notable increases in employment opportunities, including Topeka, Kan.; Virginia Beach, Va.; Worcester, Mass.; and Riverside, Calif. Among industries, the professional, scientific, and technical services sector had the most tech job postings (41,188), followed by finance and insurance (35,132) and manufacturing (31,036).

CompTIA

CompTIA’s analysis also showed 30% of all tech jobs postings are for positions in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, or in roles that require emerging tech skills.

Janco’s report also shows corporate executives are challenged by inflation and the economic downturn. Those executives are reluctant to hire replacement employees at salaries that are significantly higher than those who left as part of the Great Resignation. In their 2023 salary budgets for IT pros, “CIOs are trying to address the inflationary pressures faced by employees. We believe that starting salaries for IT Pros in 2023 will be 6% to 7% salary above existing levels,” Janulaitis said.

October 2022

Tech firms in October hired between 15,300 and 20,700 workers (depending on who’s doing the counting), marking roughly two straight years of hiring growth in the industry, according to two new employment reports.

So far this year, tech industry employment has increased by 193,900 jobs, 28% higher than the same period in 2021, according to a jobs report from CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce. 

In contrast, technology job postings by tech and non-tech companies had been on a five-month downward slide until last month. Tech workers employed throughout the economy, regardless of industry, declined by 116,000 last month, according to CompTIA. CompTIA’s report is based on the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.

“The data is roughly in line with expectations,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement. “Tech hiring activity remains steady, but there are undoubtedly concerns of a slowing economy.”

CompTIA

In October, the number of tech workers employed throughout all industries grew by 10,000 over the previous month, according to CompTIA.

Most of the issues affecting the economy are due to supply chain problems, according to Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates, which also released its IT jobs report on Friday.

“If China opens up and supply chains will improve, that should lessen the recessionary pressures that are driving the tech giants to reduce staff,” Janulaitis said in a statement. “Also, the results of the election in the US will provide an opportunity to improve the economic climate.”

Tech job postings reflect the total of “help wanted” ads companies listed last month. There were 317,000 such postings in October, according to CompTIA. It was the first time since April 2022 that the number of job postings increased over the prior month.

CompTIA also noted that tech manufacturing employment is up 43% compared to the same period last year.

CompTIA

While the tech industry unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 2.2% in October from 2.1% in September, it remained well below the overall US unemployment rate, according to CompTIA’s report. The overall US unemployment rate also ticked up to 3.7% in October.

CompTIA’s jobs report differs somewhat from Janco Associates’s figures. Janco reported 15,300 new hires by tech companies in October; that compares to 13,700 job listings added by the tech industry the previous month.

There are now a total of 3.98 million jobs for IT professionals in the US, according to the BLS data analyzed by Janco.

“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals will continue to be positive, but not as broad in scope as in the first three quarters of 2022,” Janulaitis said in a statement. “CIOs and CFOs are looking to improve the productivity of IT.  That means they are focusing on eliminating “non-essential” managers and staff. They will continue to hire coders and developers.”

CompTIA

The highest demand in IT will be for programmers, blockchain processing, and security professionals, according to Janulaitis. Much of the hiring will be limited to filling positions that have been approved and are unfilled — not staff expansion.

Within the tech industry, the bulk of new hiring occurred in three sector categories, according to CompTIA:

• IT services and custom software development (+8,800)
• Other information services, including search engines (+6,800)
• Computer and electronic products manufacturing (+5,400)

In Janco’s mid-year 2022 IT Salary Survey, it found IT salaries for existing IT staff and middle managers increased by just under 3%, while new hires were paid 5% to 6% more than existing staff.  “In conversation with several CIOs, we observed that starting pay rates for new hires were in the 8%-10% range a few months back, but this is not the case currently,” Janulaitis said.

The disparity in pay between veteran IT workers and new hires is a point of contention and has likely led to some problems in worker motivation, according to Sinem Buber, lead economist with ZipRecruiter. When new employees are hired, they often come in with pay and benefits equal to or better than veteran employees. Even as companies have raised wages, it’s often across the board, ignoring seniority.

“So, the link between hard work and raises is broken,” Buber said.

CompTIA Remote work hiring trends on the upswing

Remote work shows no signs of slowing down, according to CompTIA. Employer job postings for tech positions that specify remote work or work-from-home options continue to increase, with a year-to-date rate of 34% compared to 27% in 2021, and 22% in 2020.

Major tech hubs saw significant month-over-month increases in tech jobs postings, including Boston (+2,732), New York City (+1,459), San Francisco (+884) and San Jose (+864). The top industries for tech job postings were professional, scientific, and technical services (50,688); finance and insurance (35,500); and manufacturing (34,488), according to CompTIA.

Positions for software developers and engineers led the October job postings (85,796). “There is also strong demand for IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and network engineers,” CompTIA said.

September 2022: Janco analysis

IT job growth has continued each month for over a year, and in the last 12 months 202,800 jobs have been added, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor data, which was analyzed by IT consultancy Janco Associates.

At the same time, CIOs and CFOs have started to slow the rate at which they’re creating new IT jobs and hiring due to inflation and recession fears, according to Janco’s latest report.

“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals will continue to be positive, but not as broad in scope as in the first nine months of 2022,” said M. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates. “CIOs are still posturing to hire staff and expand technologies to address blockchain processing and security applications based on market conditions. However, most hiring will be limited to filling positions open due to attrition, not staff expansion.”

U.S. tech firms added workers for the 22nd consecutive month, and companies across the economy hired an estimated 84,000 new tech workers in September, according to the latest Tech Jobs Report from CompTIA.

Job postings for new hiring were down 12% from August, but still totaled just over 300,000. Positions in software development and engineering, tech support, tech project management, systems engineering, and network engineering were in highest demand, according to CompTIA.

CompTIA

About 30% of all postings were for positions in emerging technologies or in jobs that require emerging tech skills. Positions that offer remote work or work from home as an option surpassed 109,000.

Another new report by UK-based job search engine Hired showed that, unlike 2021, when companies were hiring faster than in years prior, the overall time to hire job seekers in 2022 slowed across the US, UK, and Canada. UK companies are now taking 68 days on average to fill open positions. US companies aren’t moving much faster, taking 60 days (up from 52 days in 2021). In Canada, it’s now 54 days. (Remote roles took 40 days to fill – that’s slower than in 2021, but the shortest time to hire overall, Hired said.

“Why? It’s not clear yet,” Hired said in its report. “Are jobseekers taking longer to evaluate opportunities? Or are employers moving candidates through the funnel more carefully? While this indicates an increase in the time to fill roles, it doesn’t equal an overall slowdown in tech hiring.”

Data from Hired indicates employers offering remote roles have a hiring edge over those requiring hybrid or on-site jobs. Since June 2021, candidates showed a preference for remote-only roles.

In January, 18% of active jobseekers indicated they only wanted remote roles. By May, preference for “only remote” roles climbed to 31% of all active jobseekers on Hired’s platform, and rose another percentage point to 32% in June. By June, 93% of candidates showed a preference for remote or hybrid jobs.

Janco Associates

Throughout the year, IT salaries in the US and Canada (except for junior candidates with less than two years of experience) saw significant growth. Mid-level US candidates with four to six years of experience saw the biggest jump from $146,000 to $154,000 between 2021 and 2022. Remote salaries for all candidates, except the most junior, also saw significant growth; on average they jumped by $7,000 to $8,000 from 2021 to 2022.

CompTIA September 2022: CompTIA analysis

Tech companies added 25,500 workers last month, one of the strongest hiring months so far this year, according to new data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and industry analysts.

So far this year, employment in the tech industry has increased by 175,700 jobs, 46% ahead of 2021 — and 92% ahead of 2019, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce. (The total includes all employees —technical and non-technical — on the payrolls of tech companies.)

“Stability in tech hiring continues to be an over-arching theme this year,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “Despite all the economic noise and pockets of layoffs, aggregate tech hiring remains consistently positive.”

According to the latest BLS data, analyzed by IT consultancy Janco Associates, there are now 3.97 million jobs for IT Professionals in the US. For 24 months in a row, there has been an increase in the number of jobs added to the IT job market. Janco sees this trend continuing, according to its latest report released Friday.

CompTIA

The unemployment rate for tech occupations rose to 2.3% in August from 1.7% in July, according to CompTIA. There are likely two reasons for it jump: the overall US unemployment rate increased, as well, and some large tech firms announced layoffs, Herbert noted.

“The other component is we’ve seen a rebound in consumer confidence and worker confidence,” Herbert said. “So, it can also be attributed to tech workers feeling a renewed sense of confidence, and so they’ve quit their job and they’re looking for new opportunities. That was far more prominent earlier this year and last year with the ‘Great Resignation.’”

The number of workers quitting their jobs remained above 4 million in August, according to BLS data. Since June 2021, more than 4 million people have quit every month, according to BLS data, giving rise to the trend known as the Great Resignation. The trend reflects a deep dissatisfaction by many workers with their employment situations. The ongoing global pandemic pushed workers to rethink their careers, work/life balance, long-term goals, and working conditions.

Overall employer job postings for tech positions eased in August to just under 320,000 from 372,000 in July, with 31% of jobs posted last month for positions in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and IoT, or in roles that require emerging tech skills, such as data analytics and automation software.

“A lot of the technology is mature enough now that a lot of positions are implementing automation solutions, robotic process automation,” Herbert said. “Next-generation roles include cybersecurity, and broad categories of automation, so, marketing automation and HR automation.”

From January through August 2022, tech job postings where employers specify remote work or work from home as an option were up 56% over last year —and up 281% from the pre-pandemic year of 2019, according to CompTIA.

“The one thing that jumped out at me, to no surprise, was the trend toward remote work that I think is now in a semi-permanent state,” Herbert said.

The increase in remote employment was highlighted by the leap in tech job postings in states such as Wyoming, Montana and Alaska, Herbert said.

CompTIA

Even as hiring was up, the number of job openings dropped, indicating the pace of new job vacancies could be slowing, according to Janco Associates. Its data is based on the latest BLS statistics.

There is some slowing in hiring as fears of a significant downturn or recession are on the horizon, Janco’s report stated.

“CIOs and CFOs now are more cautious than they were in the first quarter.  CIOs do not have a clear understanding of how a downturn will impact their bottom line.  Most still are hiring but at a slower pace,”Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis wrote in the report. “Some companies have stopped hiring and started laying off employees.”

“With all that, the IT job market remains tight with an average of 200,000 IT professionals jobs that are not filled due to a lack of qualified candidates,” Janulaitis continued. “The number of unfilled IT jobs has peaked from over 260,000 in April to 210,000 in July. That should still be enough of a buffer to keep hiring of IT pros on a positive track.”

Janco Associates

Janulaitis also said new IT hires are on average receiving salaries that are 5% to 6% above pay for existing positions — and in some cases as much as 10% higher; The higher starting pay is needed to attract the best IT candidates. That salary disparity, however, is driving dissatisfaction and an increase in attrition rate among existing employees, according to Janulaitis.

“The challenge CIOs face will be how to keep the balance between the existing budget, providing salary increases to existing employees that address inflation and higher commuting costs, and having sufficient resources available to achieve the enterprise’s technology and bottom line objectives,” Janulaitis said.

The BLS doesn’t track tech industry jobs directly. Instead, the agency uses the “information sector” as a proxy for tech employment because there are tech jobs in most industries, and therefore technology is not an industry in and of itself.

The nation’s unemployment rate rose from 3.5% to 3.7% in August, with the number of unemployed rising by 344,000 to 6 million. 

Overall, the US economy added 315,000 jobs in August, which was more than economists had predicted, but still far less than the 526,000 positions added in July – a record month for jobs.

Professional and business services added 68,000 jobs in August, according to the BLS. Within the industry, computer systems design and related services added 14,000 positions; management and technical consulting services grew by 13,000; and scientific research and development services increased by 6,000. Over the past 12 months, professional and business services has added 1.1 million jobs, according to the BLS.

“CIOs and CFOs now are more cautious than they were in the first quarter. CIOs do not have a clear understanding of how a downturn will impact their bottom line,” Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates said in a report last week. “Most still are hiring, but at a slower pace. Some companies have stopped hiring and started laying off employees.”

With all that, the IT job market remains tight, with an average of 200,000 IT professional jobs that are not filled due to a lack of qualified candidates, according to Janulaitis. If there is a major recession, many companies will choose not to fill those new open positions.

“That should be enough of a buffer to keep the hiring of IT pros on a positive track,” he said.

August 2022

Despite a number of sizeable layoffs at high-profile companies in recent months, the tech sector continued to lead all others in low unemployment rates in July, according to a new report from CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.

Tech occupations across all industry sectors increased by an estimated 239,000 positions last month, according to an analysis of US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data by CompTIA.

Tech industry employment saw a net gain of 12,700 workers, the 20th consecutive month of growth. So far this year, the tech sector has gained 143,700 jobs, an increase of 55% year-over-year, according to CompTIA. The unemployment rate for tech jobs was just 1.7% in July (1.3% for women, 1.8% for men), roughly half the overall US unemployment rate of 3.5%.

Employer job postings for tech positions approached 484,000 in July, a slight decrease from the previous month but still at a near record level. Through the first seven months of 2022, US companies listed approximately 3.1 million jobs postings for tech positions, up 49% compared to 2021.

“The tech jobs market has repeatedly outperformed in the face of real and perceived economic weakness,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement. “The data confirms that for every layoff announcement there are other employers stepping in to take advantage of tech talent hiring opportunities.”

CompTIA

Meanwhile, since June 2021, more than 4 million people have quit their jobs every month, according to BLS data, part of a trend known as the Great Resignation. The trend  reflects a deep dissatisfaction by many workers with their employment situations. The ongoing global pandemic has enabled workers to rethink their careers, work/life balance, long-term goals, and working conditions.

Some of the top reasons workers quit this year are unhappiness with how their employer treated them during the pandemic (19%), low pay or lack of benefits (17%), and a lack of work-life balance (13%), according to a survey by employment listing website Joblist.

The BLS doesn’t track tech industry jobs directly. Instead, the agency uses the “information sector” as a proxy for tech employment because there are tech jobs in most industries, and therefore technology is not an industry in of itself. 

CompTIA

Within the tech sector, three occupation categories recorded job growth in July – other information services, including search engines (+6,800); data processing, hosting and related services (+4,100); and computer and electronic products manufacturing (+3,300). Hiring in the IT services and custom software development category was flat, while telecom-related occupations declined (-1,400), according to CompTIA.

About one in five tech job postings in July were for positions requiring two years or less of experience. About half specified three to five years of experience, while 13% sought candidates with nine or more years of experience, CompTIA said.

Many employers, even those in tech industries, are ending college degree requirements for many job openings. Instead, organizations are focusing on the skills, experience, and personality traits of job candidates. The sea change opens up tech jobs to a more diverse pool of candidates.

CompTIA

Software developers and engineers are the most in-demand positions employers are looking to fill — accounting for nearly 148,000 job postings last month. There is also a strong job market for IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and architects, and network engineers and architects. Positions in emerging technologies or jobs requiring emerging tech skills accounted for one-third of all postings in July.

Faced with a dearth of workforce talent, many tech companies and others are hiring through non-traditional approaches that include coding bootcamps, low-code training, and a focus on population areas outside the norm.

July 2022

Over the past three months, IT job openings for entry-level positions have declined significantly, according to a new report.

Job openings for entry-level tech workers declined from 29,500 in April to 24,000 in May and to 18,400 in June, according to IT employment consultancy Janco Associates.

Janco’s report, which was compiled from US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and survey data, said the downward trend is the result of several factors — the most critical of which is an increasing belief among C-level executives that we are already or soon will be in a recession.

In creating its May forecast for future IT hiring, Janco found that almost all 217 CIOs it surveyed are planning on:

• Limiting the extension of existing contracts for contract workers and consultants beyond the 3rd quarter of the year.
• Managing the full-time employee headcount to budgeted levels through the end of this year.
• Not replacing departing employees who do not have critical IT skills and/or enterprise-specific operational knowledge.

“In our interviews, we have found that Wall Street has stopped hiring, and a number of job offers for recent IT college graduates have had offers that were extended pulled back,” Janco’s report stated. “The initial indicators from the monthly BLS data for June seem to be reinforcing those findings.”

Janco’s report noted that some organizations have already started the process of layoffs.

• Netflix, PayPal, Getir, Klarna, Bolt, and Carvana instituted layoffs in May.
• Coinbase will cut 1,100 jobs, about 18% of its global workforce.
• Microsoft is slowing down its hiring “to better align its resources.”
• Meta (Facebook) and Twitter have frozen hiring for some departments.

Gartner research shows that just 4% of US companies have started laying off employees, while 7% have frozen hiring and 15% have started to slow down hiring.

Janco Associates

Hiring is still robust for experienced IT pros —particularly for certain job titles, including security-related positions and in-demand technology, such as blockchain and e-commerce positions — but entry-level candidates are finding it more difficult to find new jobs, according to Janco.

Overall, the number of open jobs in the US at the end of May was 11.3 million, a drop from 11.7 million in April, according to the BLS’s May Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report. Despite the drop in open requisitions, the U.S. added 390,000 jobs in May; The unemployment rate also held at 3.6%, and there were almost two job openings for each unemployed American. The number and rate of workers quitting their jobs remained almost unchanged at 4.3 million and 2.8%, respectively.

The impact of inflation and the potential of a significant downturn is not reflected in the preliminary budgets for 2023. Most CIOs and CFOs are trying to determine what they will do if that downturn occurs, Janco reported.

Janco also publishes a biannual salary survey in January and July. The just-published survey results showed that IT salaries were on the rise in the first six months of 2022. For the first time, median salaries for all IT pros in large enterprises exceeded $100,000.

Midsized companies were offering the greatest salary increases, which averaged north of 4% for IT middle managers and staff. IT executives saw an average 3.04% salary increase this year.

Large enterprises were more miserly, with staff receiving a 3.27% average increase and executives and middle managers earning a 3.47% and 1.20% average boost, respectively.

The unemployment rate for tech occupations fell to a near-record low in May, and employer job postings for tech positions passed 443,000, according to an analysis of the latest labor market data by CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.

“The already tight labor market just became even tighter as competition for tech talent reaches near-record levels,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “For any employer relying on the old hiring playbook, it’s time to rethink approaches to recruiting and retention.”

Employers throughout the US economy are stepping up their search for tech workers and tech companies continue to expand payrolls, according CompTIA. Specifically, tech firms added 75,200 workers through the first four months of 2022.

More than 190,000 new IT jobs will be created in 2022, according to IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. The IT job market now has more than 3.85 million positions in the US, with about 130,000 of those positions unfilled, Janco’s report stated.

Some of the top tech jobs in terms of hiring and pay include software developer/engineer, IT project manager, IT support specialist, systems engineer/architect, and network engineer/architect, according to CompTIA’s jobs report.

Tech workers employed in the cloud space saw some of the greatest salary increases over the past year, according to a new salary survey from O’Reilly Media, an online IT training provider. According to the report, cloud-focused workers are the most sought-after tech talent as a growing number of organizations of all sizes utilize cloud tools and services.

The survey revealed that cloud professionals are paid an average yearly salary of $182,000. Report findings also show the impact of the great reshuffle within the tech sector, with 20% reporting they’ve already changed employers over the last year, and 25% of respondents planning to find new employment with better compensation, raising a question of whether the great reshuffle will continue.

Janco Associates

The average salary increase over the past year for cloud workers was 4.3%. The average salary for women, unfortunately, is 7% lower than the average salary for men, the survey also found.

The highest-paid job titles include directors ($235,000) and executives ($231,000), followed by architects, “leads,” and managers ($196,000, $190,000, and $188,000, respectively).

“During the pandemic, we witnessed millions of workers resign from companies in an effort to reconfigure their careers and take deliberate steps toward new job opportunities with higher wages and better alignment between their work and life goals,” said O’Reilly President Laura Baldwin. “With these workers in such demand, we anticipate the great tech exodus to continue unless employers step up with competitive pay, substantial benefits, remote work flexibility, and on-the-job learning and development.”

June 2022

Technology companies added workers for the 18th consecutive month and employer job postings for tech occupations reached a new high in May, according to an analysis of the latest employment data by a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.

Technology industry level companies added 22,800 net new workers in May. Through the first five months of 2022 employment increased by 106,700 positions and is 69% ahead of the same period versus 2021, according to an analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report by industry association CompTIA.

Employer hiring activity as measured by job postings for tech positions totaled 623,627 for the month of May and nearly 2.2 million year-to-date, which represents a 52% increase versus the same period of the previous year.

“The data speaks to the broad-based nature of the tech workforce,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement. “It also speaks to the many factors affecting employment and situations where sectors or companies easing up on hiring may be offset by sectors or companies increasing hiring.”

The unemployment rate for the IT sector did edge up slightly in May to 2.1% from 2.0% the previous month . The unemployment rate for tech occupations, however, remained remarkably low compared to the overall national unemployment rate of 3.6%.

“In an analysis of the latest BLS data we have found the number of jobs created for IT professionals continues to grow. However, there are some clouds for IT pros’ job prospects six to twelve months in the future.” said M. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of  IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. “The primary driver is inflation and high energy costs which is causing concerns that the economy will slow later in the year and potentially have an extended recession in 2023.”

Janco Associates, which did its own analysis of the BLS jobs report, found over the past year more than 20,000 new IT positions were added each month. That surge has begun to cool a bit with 17,000 new IT jobs created in May. 

Janco Associates

All signs point to that growth continuing but at a slower rate of 13,000 to 14,000 new jobs added per month through out the rest of the year. By the end of 2022, Janco forecasted that 191,000 new IT Jobs will be added.

Currently, there are more than 3.9 million unfilled IT job positions in the US, according to Janco.

“That is driven by the fact that qualified candidates can not be found,” Janulaitis said. “The first sign that the growth of the IT job market is slowing will be the reduction in that number as companies will just pull back on trying to recruit those unfilled positions.”

So far in 2022, the IT job market has grown by 93,400 jobs, which is 43,000 more  than the for the same period in 2021. If there is a downturn, as some predict, one of the reactions by CEOs will be to implement hiring freezes that will result in a decrease in the growth of the IT job market, according to Janulaitis.

CompTIA

“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals will continue to be positive but not as broad in scope as last year. CIOs are still posturing to hire more staff and expand technologies to address blockchain processing and security applications based on market conditions,” Janulaitis said. “However recent events, increased energy cost, and the specter of high inflation will harm IT job market growth.”

Positions for software developers and engineers (204,084) accounted for nearly a third of all employer tech job postings in May, an increase of more than 77,000 from April, according to CompTIA. IT project managers, IT support specialists, systems engineers and architects and network engineers and architects also saw market increase in hiring.

One-third of all job postings were for positions in emerging technologies or jobs requiring emerging tech skills.

Industries that saw some of the hottest hiring trends includeded scientific and technical services, finance and insurance, manufacturing, information, retail trade, health care and social assistance, public administration and educational services. The search for tech talent was widely dispersed across geographies, as well. Four metro areas (New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles and Washington) recorded tech jobs postings totals that surpassed 31,000 positions.

Hiring in the IT services and custom software development category led May’s tech sector job growth with more than 13,100 new positions. Hiring in data processing, hosting and related services, computer and electronic products manufacturing and other information services, including search engines also increased. Conversely, jobs in telecommunications declined, according to CompTIA’s report.

April 2022

The IT job market size grew by 17,000 jobs in April, according to new data from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates.

Over the past three months, 43,200 Jobs have been added to IT Job Market, a pace of expansion exceeds 2021, the firm stated in its latest research post.

In 2021, 213,100 jobs were added to the IT Job Market. That not only replaced the jobs lost during the pandemic, but it also expanded the growth to a level that exceeded the pre-pandemic levels. (Janco bases its information on data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics — the BLS.) 

“In interviews with both CIOs and HR professionals, Janco has found that hiring IT professionals is at a record high level. This, even with inflation and the specter of a possible economic downturn,” Janco stated. “All signs point to that growth continuing.”

While all IT jobs lost during the pandemic have been recovered, the hiring of IT professionals is now being hindered by a lack of qualified individuals, according to the latest statistics.

The April monthly tech jobs report released by the CompTIA industry association showed the tech industry added 12,300 jobs from February to March, 2022. Software developers (3,613) and systems engineers/architects (3,126) led the pack in terms of new positions available.

Software developers and engineers are far and away the most sought-after positions companies need to fill, with more than 115,000 job postings across the US, according to CompTIA. IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and architects, and network engineers and architects are also in high demand.

“By all accounts this was an exceptionally strong start to the year for tech employment,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “The arms race in recruiting and retaining tech talent undoubtedly challenges employers in direct and indirect ways.”

The unemployment rate for tech occupations fell to a near-record low, as tech firms added workers for the 16th consecutive month and employer job postings for tech positions surpassed 400,000 in March, according to an analysis of the latest labor market data by CompTIA.

“The already tight labor market just became even tighter as competition for tech talent reaches near-record levels,” Herbert said in a statement. “For any employer relying on the old hiring playbook, it’s time to rethink approaches to recruiting and retention.”

IT jobs across the US increased by 19,000 in March. The unemployment rate for tech occupations is 1.3%, its lowest level since June 2019 and about one-third the current national unemployment rate (3.6%).

Janco is forecasting more than 138,000 new IT jobs will be created in 2022. The IT job market now has more than 3.85 million positions in the US. As of December 2021, Janco reported 3.72 million IT positions in the US.

“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals will continue to be positive, but not as broad in scope as in the last quarter of 2021,” Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. “CIOs are still posturing to hire more staff and expand technologies to address blockchain processing and security applications based on market conditions. However recent events, increased energy cost, and the specter of high inflation will harm IT job market growth.”

Janco

IT job growth in recent years.

According to the BLS, employment in computer and information technology occupations is projected to grow 13% from 2020 to 2030, faster than the average for all occupations. IT is projected to add about 667,600 new jobs, with demand for those workers stemming from a greater emphasis on cloud computing, the collection and storage of big data, and information security, according to the BLS.

The median annual wage for computer and information technology occupations was $94,729 in January 2021, which was higher than the median annual wage for all occupations ($45,760). In January 2022, the median wage for IT positions had increased to $96,667 – an uptick of about 2.05%.

Conversely, new IT hires in the last quarter of 2021 were paid 5% to 6% more than existing staff, according to Janco.

“In conversation with several CIOs, we learned that increases for new hires in the 9% to 12% range were not uncommon,” Janulaitis said. “ It is not uncommon for IT pros who are highly skilled and experienced (over 10 years) to be offered salaries at $125,000 and above. Salary disparity is a driver of dissatisfaction and an increase in attrition rate among existing employees.”

December 2021

Hiring of IT professionals is at record pace with 197,000 more IT jobs so far this year than at the same time last year, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

There has been growth in the IT job market each of the past eight months, according to IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. 

“Information-Technology leaders say they are boosting compensation packages and flexible work options to widen the pool of prospective job candidates, as demand surges for tech talent,” M. Victor Janulaitis, Janco’s CEO, stated on the company’s website. 

To entice employees and retain existing tech staff, CIOs are offering flexible work options, such as a combination of in-office and remote work. The median salary for IT professionals is expected to grow to between $96,000 and $97,000, up from just over $94,600 in January and $95,600 in June, Janulaitis wrote.

“Most CIOs have not recruited at this rate before. Janco attributes the hiring push of some CIOs to meet their company’s goals to recruit talent related to security, compliance and cloud computing, Those IT jobs are difficult ones to fill,” he said.

In 2019, 90,200 new IT jobs were created. As a result of the global pandemic. By contrast, 33,200 were lost in 2020. In 2021, almost 150,000 jobs were added to the IT job market.

All job markets included, nearly 100 million working-age people were excluded from the labor force in November 2021, according to Janco Associates, which is based on BLS data. Most, of course, are still in school, retired ill or disabled and unable to work, according to the BLS data. But, those excluded from the labor force also include 471,000 “discouraged workers,” which represents an increase from 460,000 last month. Among the reasons cited for not re-joining the workforce were the continued impact of vaccine mandates, travel restrictions, and new virus variants.

Roughly 34.4 million people have quit their jobs this year as they reevaluate their work lives, according to job-search company Joblist. A survey of 26,000 employees recently published by Joblist showed nearly three-quarters of respondents said they were actively thinking about quitting. And, roughly 34.4 million people have quit their jobs this year during 2021 as they reevaluate their work lives.

About 46% of the remaining workforce is considering leaving work because they’re not being allowed to work remotely, according to the Work Trend Index study by Microsoft Corp.  

“There are 94.438 million who just do not want work at all. That is a increase of almost 612,000 individuals from the same month last year,” according to Janco Associates’s website.

Baby boomers retiring is another factor in the continued fall in the Labor Participation rate.

Overall, though, the IT job market in the U.S. has added an average of about 13,000 positions during each month of 2021, up from a typical monthly average of between 5,000 and 8,000 jobs.

Job growth in the US IT industry had slowed and took a dip in October, adding just 4,800 positions, according to the BLS data that were included in the figures from Janco Associates. That was down from 8,900 positions added in the revised September figures.

In October, the overall growth in IT positions was even as the highly infectious delta variant of COVID-19 continued to hinder overall job growth, mainly due to slowdowns in the restaurant, entertainment, and service sectors.

The IT industry’s bigger challenge is finding qualified candidates for those IT jobs, Janulaitis said in a statement at the time. And the challenge won’t end soon, he said:

From data that we have reviewed, shutdowns resulted in fewer computer science candidates graduating from universities and trade schools. Those in the pipeline for those degrees were reduced as well. One of the drivers of that trend was that the closing of borders limited the number of foreign nationals who could qualify for that training and education.

Many of the new positions that CIOs are trying to fill are in new technologies. There is a shortfall of individuals who have the training and skills necessary. There are open positions that cannot be filled. … At the same, time attrition rates are on the rise in many IT organizations.

US IT job growth was stronger earlier in the year, before the delta variant and the talent shortage: August saw a surge of 25,400 new jobs on the heels of about 18,500 in June and 9,900 in July (all are revised figures), reflecting continuing business recovery from the pandemic. In fact, IT job growth has occurred for 15 consecutive months, though it was uneven through May. I has averaged 13,000 new jobs each month so far in 2021.

The IT job situation in the US continues to look very much like the pre-pandemic state: more positions than candidates. In fact, businesses would have filled more IT positions in September had they found enough qualified candidates, Janulaitis said. Finding web developers and cybersecurity and compliance pros remains the toughest task for CIOs, he said — and is causing HR to focus more on IT staff retention.

That talent shortage has put even greater pressure on businesses to increase salaries, Janulaitis said — and US IT salaries had already been trending up in 2021.

Janco still expects 2021 to have greater IT job growth — there were 189,000 new positions in 2021 as of Oct. 31, with two more months of hiring left in the year — than in any previous year, more than making up for jobs lost due to the pandemic. The last high was 2015, when 112,500 new positions were created. In 2018, 104,600 new IT positions were added; in 2019, the increase was 90,200; and in 2020, the industry lost 33,200 positions.

There are now 3.72 million IT pro jobs in the US, Janco estimates.

The monthly tech jobs report released by the CompTIA industry association also showed slower hiring growth in October. CompTIA calculated that there were 8,300 new US tech-sector jobs last month, down from September’s 18,700, August’s 26,800, July’s 10,700, and June’s 10,500 jobs. The US tech sector’s job numbers remain above their March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions, nudging just past 4.81 million in October 2021, according to CompTIA data.

CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, with roughly 44% being technical and 56% being nontechnical; Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.

CompTIA calculated the estimated unemployment rate for the tech sector at 2.1% in October, down from 2.2% in September but up from 1.5% in August and July. The current tech unemployment rate is within range of its 2018-19 lows, where it ranged from 1.2% to 2.4%. The national unemployment rate in October was 4.6%, down from 4.8% in September, according to the BLS.

October 2021

The job growth in the US IT industry slowed in September, adding 16,700 positions, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data reported in the latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. That’s down from 22,000 positions added in the revised August figures.

Overall growth in IT positions comes even as the highly infectious delta variant of COVID-19 continued to hinder overall job growth, mainly due to slowdowns in the restaurant, entertainment, and service sectors.

That August surge followed job growth of about 18,500 in June and 10,100 in July (both are revised figures), reflecting continuing business recovery from the pandemic in the US. In fact, IT job growth has occurred every month this year, though it was uneven through May, averaging 13,000 new jobs each month so far in 2021.

The IT job situation in the US continues to look very much like the pre-pandemic state: more positions than candidates. In fact, businesses would have filled more IT positions in September had they found enough qualified candidates for them, Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. Finding web developers and cybersecurity and compliance pros remains the toughest task for CIOs, he said — and is causing HR to focus more on IT staff retention.

That talent shortage has put even greater pressure on businesses to increase salaries, Janulaitis said — and US IT salaries had already been trending up in 2021.

Janco expects 2021 to have greater IT job growth — 145,000 to 152,000 new positions — than in any year since 2015, when 112,500 new positions were created. In 2018, 104,600 new IT positions were added; in 2019, the increase was 90,200; and in 2020, the industry lost 33,200 positions.

There are now 3.72 million IT pro jobs in the US, Janco estimates.

The monthly tech jobs report released by the CompTIA industry association also showed slower growth in September hiring. CompTIA calculated that there were 18,700 new US tech-sector jobs last month, down from August’s 26,800, but still a jump over both July’s gain of 10,700 and June’s gain of 10,500 jobs. The US tech sector’s job numbers remain above their March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions, reaching 4.81 million in September 2021, according to CompTIA data.

CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, with roughly 44% being technical and 56% being nontechnical, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.

CompTIA calculated the estimated unemployment rate for the tech sector at 2.2% in September, up from 1.5% in August and July, and the same as in June. The current tech unemployment rate is within range of its 2018-19 lows, where it ranged from 1.2% to 2.4%. The national unemployment rate in September was 4.8%, according to the BLS.

September 2021

The job growth in the US IT industry accelerated in August, adding 25,400 positions, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data reported in the latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. That growth in IT positions comes even as the highly infectious delta variant of COVID-19 slowed overall job growth, mainly due to slowdowns in the restaurant and entertainment sectors.

The August surge follows job growth of about 18,500 in June and 10,100 in July (both are revised figures), reflecting continuing business recovery from the pandemic in the US. In fact, IT job growth has occurred every month this year, though it was uneven through May.

The IT job situation in the US continues to look very much like the pre-pandemic state: more positions than candidates. In fact, businesses would have filled more IT positions in August had they found enough qualified candidates for them, Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. Finding web developers and cybersecurity and compliance pros remains the toughest task for CIOs, he said — and is causing HR to focus more on IT staff retention.

That talent shortage has put even greater pressure on businesses to increase salaries, Janulaitis said — and US IT salaries had already been trending up in 2021.

Janco expects 2021 to have greater IT job growth — 132,000 to 152,000 new positions — than in any year since 2015, when 112,500 new positions were created. In 2018, 104,600 new IT positions were added; in 2019, the increase was 90,200; and in 2020, the industry lost 33,200 positions.

There are now 3.7 million IT pro jobs in the US, Janco estimates.

The monthly tech jobs report released by the CompTIA industry association also showed a surge in August hiring. CompTIA calculated that there were 26,800 new US tech-sector jobs last month, a jump over both July’s gain of 10,700 and June’s gain of 10,500 jobs. The US tech sector’s job numbers have now exceeded their March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions, reaching 4.79 million in August 2021, according to CompTIA data.

CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, with roughly 44% being technical and 56% being nontechnical, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.

CompTIA calculated the estimated unemployment rate for the tech sector at 1.5% in August, the same as in July and down from 2.2% in June. The current tech unemployment rate is approaching its 2018-19 lows, where it ranged from 1.2% to 2.4%. The national unemployment rate in August was 5.2%, according to the BLS.

August 2021

The job growth in the US IT industry continued at a steady pace in July, adding 11,200 positions, according to figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported in the latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. June saw an increase of 11,400, reflecting continuing business recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. In fact, IT job growth has occurred every month this year, though it was uneven in the first five months of the year.

Today, the jobs situation looks very much like the pre-pandemic state: more positions than candidates. “With reopening, more organizations are actively recruiting,” Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. “In full-employment states, there are many positions for IT pros that remain unfilled due to the lack of qualified candidates.”

That’s put pressure on businesses to increase salaries.

Janco expects 2021 to have greater IT job growth — 108,000 new positions — than in any year since 2015, when 112,500 new positions were created. The year 2018 saw 104,600 new IT positions; 2019 saw 90,200; and 2020 saw a loss of 33,200 positions.

There are nearly 3.7 million IT pro jobs in the US, Janco estimates.

The monthly tech jobs report released by the CompTIA industry association calculated that there were 10,700 new US tech sector jobs in July, similar to June’s gain of 10,500 jobs and following gains the entire year. The US tech sector’s job numbers have now essentially matched their March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions, according to the CompTIA data.

CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, with roughly 44% being technical and 56% being nontechnical, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.

CompTIA calculated the estimated unemployment rate for the tech sector as 1.5% in July, down from 2.2% in June. The current tech unemployment rate is approaching its 2018-19 lows, where it ranged from 1.2% to 2.4%. The national unemployment rate in July was 5.4%, according to the BLS.

July 2021

The US IT industry has seen strong job growth so far in 2021, according to revised figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as reported in the latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates.

The BLS has adjusted its figures on job growth for all of 2021, bringing the total hires to 69,000 IT staffers through June. The agency had previously reported 47,700 jobs through May, a figure now revised upward to 57,100. June saw an additional 11,900 hires, and it’s possible the BLS could revise its figures again in future reports.

Janco also confirmed previously reported preliminary data on US IT salaries from its own surveys. As the jobs market remains steady in its post-COVID recovery, IT salaries have started to increase as organizations struggle to fill some positions.

That salary survey shows that IT execs in large enterprises are getting the largest salary boosts, with a median increase of 3.2%. Those in midsize enterprises are seeing median rises of 1.2%. For lower-level positions, IT pros do better at midsize enterprises than at large ones: Middle managers at large enterprises are seeing 0.6% boosts, while those at medium-sized firms are seeing 1.3% increases.

IT staffers are seeing the least improvement — an ongoing phenomemon across all company sizes, in which IT execs continue to be rewarded more. Staffers at large enterprises are realizing 0.4% gains; those at midsize enterprises are seeing 0.7% gains. 

At its worst, more than 100,000 IT jobs were lost during the depths of the pandemic in spring 2020, though two-thirds of those came back as the year progressed. Still, 2020 ended with 33,200 fewer IT jobs in the US compared to 2019. With the 69,000 estimated job gains so far in 2021, the US IT job market at the end of June is at 16,700 ahead of the 2020 peak in February — and nearly 140,000 jobs ahead of the 2020 nadir in July.

There are more than 3.6 million IT pro jobs in the US, Janco estimates.

The monthly tech jobs report released by the CompTIA industry association calculated that there were 10,500 new US tech sector jobs in June, following gains in each previous month of 2021. The US tech sector’s job numbers have now essentially matched their March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions, according to the CompTIA data.

CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, with roughly 44% being technical and 56% being nontechnical, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.

CompTIA’s data does show a softening of hiring, with small reductions in job postings in several roles, such as for software developers and systems analysts, as well as in several cities, including Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and San Francisco. By contrast, postings grew for positions in San Jose, Calif. The data show more variability, indicating perhaps some settling of hiring activities.

CompTIA calculated the estimated unemployment rate for the tech sector as 2.2% in June, down from 2.4% in May. The current tech unemployment rate is approaching its 2018-19 lows, where it ranged from 1.2% to 2.4%.

June 2021

As the US IT jobs market remains steady in its post-COVID recovery, salaries have started to increase as organizations struggle to fill some positions. That’s based on a survey to be releasd June 15 by IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. Janco provided Computerworld a preview of that survey.

That salary survey shows that IT executives in large enterprises are getting the largest salary boosts, with a median rise of 3.2%. IT execs in midsize enterprises are seeing median rises of 1.2%. For lower-level positions, IT pros do better at midsize enterprises than at large ones: Middle managers at large enterprises are seeing 0.6% boosts, while those at midsize enterprises are seeing 1.3% rises.

IT staffers are seeing the least improvement — an ongoing phenomemon across all company sizes, in which IT execs continue to be rewarded more — with those at large enterprises registering 0.4% gains and those at midsize enterprises seeing 0.7% gains. 

The US IT employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has been very volatile in 2021, with the agency reducing its prior-month estimates several times this year. The agency, for example, reduced its 2021 job gain count by 14,100 from earlier estimates. The BLS data shows a May rise in IT hires of 7,700, and — even with the downward BLS revisions for prior months — the net growth for US IT jobs this year stands at about 47,700, according to Janco’s analysis.

At its worst, more than 100,000 IT jobs were lost during the depths of the pandemic in spring 2020, though two-thirds of those came back as the year progressed. Still, 2020 ended with 33,200 fewer IT jobs in the US compared to 2019. With the 47,700 estimated job gains so far in 2021, the US IT job market at the end of May is at 13,500 more than the 2020 peak in February — and nearly 150,000 ahead of the 2020 nadir in July.

There are more than 3.6 million IT pro jobs in the US, Janco estimates.

The monthly tech jobs report released by the CompTIA industry association calculated that there were 10,500 new US tech sector jobs in May, following gains in each previous month of 2021. CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, with roughly 44% being technical and 56% being nontechnical, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.

Still, the US tech sector’s job numbers have not yet matched their March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions. As of last month, there were 4.74 million, a number that continues to grow.

CompTIA’s unemploment rate estimate for the tech sector stood at 2.4% in May, within its range over the last few months — versus 5.8% in May for the national rate for all industries. For previous months, CompTIA calculated a 2.5% tech unemployment rate in April, 1.9% in March, and 2.4% in February. The rise in the overall tech unemployment rate may reflect a loss of sales jobs in the tech sector, even as technologist jobs grew.

CompTIA also saw the number of tech-related job listings jump in May, to about 365,000 versus the 307,000 estimated for April. Job postings have grown by about 158,000 so far in 2021.

Software developers constituted the largest pool of listed openings at 112,200, with listings for IT support specialists coming in second at 28,200 and for system engineers and architects third at 27,200 — all represent significant increases from May.

The top sector for tech job postings in May was manufacturing, which had 70,970 positions open. Professional and technical services followed at 58,783, then finance and insurance at 31,054, and information services at 20,244.

The Washington, D.C. metro area had the most job postings, 21,611, followed by the New York metro area with 20,481; the Dallas metro area with 14,796; the Los Angeles metro area at 12,825; and the Atlanta metro area at 12,825. The San Francisco metro came in sixth at 11,918, just 117 more postings than in April. And the adjacent San Jose metro came in ninth at 8,746.

The Chicago metro had the greatest decline in postings, with 10,526 postings — down 1,025 from April. On the West Coast, slight declines in job postings were recorded in the Los Angeles area (205 fewer), the Seattle area (51 fewer, for 80,080 in May), and the San Jose metro area (466 fewer, wiping out the 117 gain in the adjacent San Francisco metro).

May 2021

Nearly all the US IT jobs lost in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic have come back, with IT employment enjoying eight straight months of growth. Of course, some of the replacement jobs were in IT specialties other than the jobs lost, as there has been a steady trend of declining data center and telecommunications positions in favor of software development jobs; that was true, even before the pandemic.

At its worst, more than 100,000 IT jobs were lost during the depths of the pandemic in spring 2020, though two-thirds of those came back as the year progressed. Still, 2020 ended with 33,200 fewer IT jobs in the US compared to 2019.

So far in 2021, 30,400 IT jobs have been added, nearly erasing the 2020 net losses.

And IT jobs in 2021 are set to continue to grow, according to the latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. It expects another 70,000 IT jobs to be available this year. Janco’s numbers come from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly reports.

When adjusted for seasonality, March saw 6,500 new IT jobs, February saw 9,400, and January saw 14,400. The January and February numbers were revised up significantly from BLS’s original estimate of 8,500 and 6,000, respectively.

The Janco figures jibe with a report released by the CompTIA industry association. It calculated that there were 9,700 new US tech sector jobs in March, following a gain of 7,700 in February and 19,500 in January. CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.

Using a much broader definition of IT, including sales positions, CompTIA estimated that 50,000 IT-related jobs were added in March across all industries, following a 178,000-job gain in in February and a 78,000-job gain in January. That reflects an unemployment rate of 1.9%, down from 2.4% in February 2021 and the lowest rate since August 2019.

Nationally, for all jobs, the US unemployment rate fell from 6.2% in February to 6.1% in March, according to the BLS. But the national unemployment rate is closer to 9% if those who have given up looking are included, estimates Oxford Economics; the BLS reports the level of these discouraged workers has remained steady.

CompTIA also saw the number of IT-related job listings grow by about 30,000 in March, passing 307,000. That follows a rise of 44,300 listings in February and 26,000 in January.

Software developers constituted the largest pool of listed openings at 93,000, with listings for IT support specialists coming in second at 25,800 and for system engineeris and architects third at 23,200.

April 2021

Nearly all the US IT jobs lost in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic have come back, with IT employment enjoying eight straight months of growth. Of course, some of the replacement jobs were in IT specialties other than the jobs lost, as there has been a steady trend of declining data center and telecommunications positions in favor of software development jobs; that was true, even before the pandemic.

At its worst, more than 100,000 IT jobs were lost during the depths of the pandemic in spring 2020, though two-thirds of those came back as the year progressed. Still, 2020 ended with 33,200 fewer IT jobs in the US compared to 2019.

So far in 2021, 30,400 IT jobs have been added, nearly erasing the 2020 net losses.

And IT jobs in 2021 are set to continue to grow, according to the latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. It expects another 70,000 IT jobs to be available this year. Janco’s numbers come from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly reports.

When adjusted for seasonality, March saw 6,500 new IT jobs, February saw 9,400, and January saw 14,400. The January and February numbers were revised up significantly from BLS’s original estimate of 8,500 and 6,000, respectively.

The Janco figures jibe with a report released by the CompTIA industry association. It calculated that there were 9,700 new US tech sector jobs in March, following a gain of 7,700 in February and 19,500 in January. CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.

Using a much broader definition of IT, including sales positions, CompTIA estimated that 50,000 IT-related jobs were added in March across all industries, following a 178,000-job gain in in February and a 78,000-job gain in January. That reflects an unemployment rate of 1.9%, down from 2.4% in February 2021 and the lowest rate since August 2019.

Nationally, for all jobs, the US unemployment rate fell from 6.2% in February to 6.1% in March, according to the BLS. But the national unemployment rate is closer to 9% if those who have given up looking are included, estimates Oxford Economics; the BLS reports the level of these discouraged workers has remained steady.

CompTIA also saw the number of IT-related job listings grow by about 30,000 in March, passing 307,000. That follows a rise of 44,300 listings in February and 26,000 in January.

Software developers constituted the largest pool of listed openings at 93,000, with listings for IT support specialists coming in second at 25,800 and for system engineeris and architects third at 23,200.

March 2021

As the overall US economy showed continued glimpses of recovery in February, the IT job market continued the rebound that began in the fall, though at a slower pace than in January.

Growth last month was 13,700, according to the latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. January saw 8,600 new IT jobs. When adjusted for seasonality, February saw 6,000 new IT jobs, and January saw 10,900, down dramatically from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS’) original estimate of 18,200.

Still, the overall trend for IT — whose US jobs number 3.6 million — remains on an upward trajectory.

The Janco figures jibe with a report released by the CompTIA industry association. It calculated that there were 7,700 new US tech sector jobs in February, following a gain of 19,500 in January. CompTIA calculates both technical and  nontechnical positions at tech vendors, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.

Using a much broader definition of IT, including sales positions, CompTIA estimated that 178,000 IT-related jobs were added in February across all industries, following a 78,000-job gain in January. That reflects an unemployment rate of 2.4%, down from 3.0% in December 2020.

Nationally, for all jobs, the US unemployment rate fell from an adjusted 6.3% in January to 6.2% in February, according to the BLS. But the national unemployment rate is closer to 9% if those who have given up looking are included, estimates Oxford Economics; the BLS reports the level of these discouraged workers has remained steady.

CompTIA also saw the number of IT-related job listings grow by about 44,300 in February, passing 277,000. That follows a rise of 26,000 listings in January. Software developers constituted the largest pool of listed openings at 88,000, with listings for systems engineers and architects coming in second at 22,700. But Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis expects that over the next several years, coders will find jobs scarcer as low-code development gains traction, even as demand for software developers overall increases.

February 2021

Even as the overall US economy struggled in January — adding just 6,000 private sector jobs and 49,000 jobs overall — the seasonally adjusted IT job growth last month was 18,200, according to the latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. The past two months saw 55,000 new IT jobs, revised up from the 18,000 total reported a month earlier, based on revisions from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Still, compared to January 2020, US IT jobs have decreased by 35,800, a loss of about 1%. Last spring, more than 100,000 IT jobs were lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, representing about 3% of the IT workforce.

The Janco figures jibe with a report released by the CompTIA industry association. It calculated that there were 19,500 new US tech sector jobs in January. CompTIA calculates both technical and  nontechnical positions at tech vendors, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.

Using a much broader definition of IT, including sales positions, CompTIA estimated that 78,000 IT-related jobs were added in January across all industry sectors. That reflects an unemployment rate of 2.4%, down from 3.0% in December 2020. Nationally, for all jobs, the US unemployment rate fell to 6.3% from 6.7%. But the national unemployment rate is closer to 9% if those who have given up looking are included, estimates Oxford Economics.

CompTIA also saw the number of IT-related job listings grow by about 26,000 in January, passing 232,000.

Over the coming decade, Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis expects 11% growth in US IT jobs. “Most of the growth in the IT job market will be with software developers, quality assurance, and testers,” he said in a statement. “This will be driven by [work from home] as it is will be embraced by more enterprises in normal operations and internet-centric applications are developed and deployed.

“The projected growth for that sector alone will be almost 18%,” he said.

January 2021

For the first time since the dot-com bust of 2000-2002, US IT salaries were flat in 2020, rising a negligible 0.08% to an average of $94,609 per year, according to the most recent survey of IT executives by management consultancy Janco Associates. The year also ended with 55,900 fewer jobs than the US IT industry had on Jan. 1, 2020 — a drop of 1.5% for the year. (Last week, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS] revised its figures for 2020, resulting in a revised drop of 55,900 versus the 81,100 reported previously.)

A separate survey by the industry association CompTIA, using BLS data, showed that the broad US tech industry showed job growth of 391,000 positions (22,000 of which were at tech vendors) in December 2020 — even as the US as a whole lost 140,000 jobs. About 44% of those tech sector jobs are for positions such as IT staff, software developers, and IT project managers; the rest are support positions such as sales, marketing, and management.

Janco’s survey focuses specifically on IT jobs, mainly people in a CIO’s organization, whereas the CompTIA survey looks at the entire tech sector.

The December growth in tech and IT jobs still left the broader tech sector below December 2019’s level, with 4.68 million jobs in December 2020, down from 4.73 million a year earlier. CompTIA’s survey shows a steady increase in tech jobs since July 2020, after a steep drop that began in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Janco survey showed that IT middle managers lost the most pay ground in 2020, with an average 0.08% salary reduction at large enterprises and 0.07% reduction at mid-sized enterprises. IT staff saw 0.03% average salary increases in large enterprises and 0.04% in medium enterprises. Executives did the best, of course: their salaries were up 0.59% in large enterprises and up 0.35% in medium ones.

April and May were the worst months for US IT jobs in 2020, Janco’s data shows. In those months, 116,000 IT pros lost their jobs due to COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. Hiring partially recovered in later months, but the total of 3.58 million US IT jobs in 2020 remained below 2019’s 3.64 million (but slightly above 2018’s 3.54 million).

Janco notes that IT consulting and contract positions meant to augment IT staff were all but eliminated in 2020 and hiring growth stalled in the second wave of lockdowns that began in the fall as COVID-19 infections resurged. Those infection rates continue to grow in early 2021; Janco’s interviews with 101 US CIOs reveal that they don’t expect IT job or salary growth in 2021.

Still, IT was fortunate in 2020 compared to many other industries. The COVID-19 pandemic devastated many industries, eliminating jobs at an unprecedented scale in the travel, hospitality, entertainment, and events businesses. Retailers with physical stores faced massive job losses as well, though manufacturing has largely bounced back. The US overall had 9.4% fewer jobs as of June 30 (the latest data available) compared to 2019, the BLS reported. The tech unemployment rate has been roghly half that of the national rate throughout the pandemic, ending at 3% in December 2020 versus 6.7% for the economy as a whole, CompTIA reported.

Despite those massive losses in multiple industries, the average US salary rose 2.6% in 2020, according to the PayScale salary survey, which was last updated on Oct. 12. The latest data from the BLS, which covers the first half of 2020, showed an 8.6% average salary increase from a year earlier. Some of the salary increases reflect higher pay for grocery workers, delivery drivers, and warehouse workers whose jobs became more critical during the lockdowns and who were at greater risk of contracting the virus in their work.

Of course, people who lost their jobs aren’t included in salary surveys, so those figures reflect the pay of the still-employed.

CompTIA reports that software developers had the largest employment gains (4,700 hires) in December, triple that of the next-largest group, systems analysts (1,400 hires).

December 2020

After three months of rebound, the US IT job market reversed course in November, shedding 8,300 jobs. That loss follows a 9,300-job gain in October, a 13,500 gain in September, and a 4,500 gain in August. For the year, the net loss of US IT jobs now stands at 81,100, still down from a peak high of 102,900 job losses this year as of August, according to the most recent survey of IT executives by management consultancy Janco Associates. 

In November, “the major loss of jobs for IT professions was in [small businesses] and consulting firms that service them; 7.5 million small to mid-size business are disproportionately impacted by shutdowns,” said Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis. He said many of these closures escape notice because they shut down before their debt levels require going through bankruptcy court.

Large companies have also shuttered or retrenched, he said.

Three quarters of the lost IT jobs in the US are concentrated in two segments, he said. One is data processing, hosting, and related services, the other is computer systems design and related services.

“Hiring of IT professionals has all but stopped due to the uncertainty about the recovery,” Janulaitis said. And the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic this fall, and the likelihood that vaccinations will be largely complete only in summer 2021, suggests that IT jobs will be at risk for the foreseeable future, he said, as many businesses continue to shrink and many others put off anchoring until there’s more economic certainty.

November 2020

IT jobs lost at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and its lockdowns continue to recover slowly, with an additional 12,700 US jobs added in October — bringing the total recovered jobs since August to 27,800. Those autumn gains bring the loss of US IT jobs to 75,100 for the year, down from a high of 102,900 job losses as of August, according to the most recent survey of IT executives by management consultancy Janco Associates.

The IT job market continues to struggle with the closure of many small- and medium-sized businesses and of many retail operations, in addition to broad cutbacks in all industries meant to preserve cash, said Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis.

In addition, the percentage of data center jobs has dropped from 10% of the US IT workforce to 9% since the pandemic began, indicating more severe cutbacks in back-end IT services as part of a shift to the cloud.

A separate report by Foote Partners, which conducts salary surveys on IT jobs and certifications, shows a mixed bag for IT pros in 2020, with some skills increasing in compensation despite (or because of) the pandemic, and others losing value. On average, though, IT compensation has held steady.

Gainers include a variety of positions involving security, Apache ZooKeeper distributed configuration, the Hbase SQL database, the Ethereum blockchain, Oracle Coherence caching, Marketo marketing automation, the Apache Flink stream-processing framework, natural language processing, master data management, and the Keras deep learning API.

Decliners include BusinessObjects and Cognos application development, Google App Engine and JSON web development, Oracle Application Server, SAP Enterprise Business Applications, SNA networking, mobile device management, Cisco’s UCCX call center platform, big data analytics, Windows NT, Suse Linux, and Tibco Enterprise Messaging Service.

October 2020

Although the  IT and telecommunications job market in the US is still expected to shrink by 64,000 jobs this year compared to 2019, the recovery of IT jobs lost during the early days of the pandemic continued for a second month. The most recent survey of IT executives by management consultancy Janco Associates shows that about 12,200 IT jobs were added in September following a net gain of 6,900 in August. 

At the outset of the pandemic, more than 105,000 US IT jobs were lost as companies retrenched in the face of COVID-19, more than erasing the 90,200 jobs added in all of 2019. Those losses have been partially addressed since through rehiring and new hires. As a result, over the last nine months, IT jobs were down by 85,000.

However, Janco doesn’t forecast a recovery in the IT job marked until spring 2021, as the US economy suffers new waves of infections that slow or even reverse prior gains. In October, an additional wave of IT layoffs is expected as airlines furlough tens of thousands of workers now that federal job subsidies have ended for that industry.

Companies are leery about expanding during uncertainties around government action, particularly the stalled stimulus efforts, said Janco president Victor Janulaitis. The November presidential election is another cause for companies to wait and see. “Spending for IT products and services has all but stopped as companies reevaluate the state of the economy globally as new waves of selected shutdowns occur,” he said.

September 2020

By Ken Mingis, Executive Editor, Computerworld

Although the U.S. IT and telecommunications job market is still expected to shrink by 64,000 jobs in 2020 versus 2019, the worst may be over – and about a third of the IT jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to have come back by 2021. That’s according to the most recent survey of IT executives by management consultancy Janco Associates.

For the first time in six months, August saw a net gain in the number of IT jobs: up 6,900. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised the number of IT jobs lost in July, showing 4,400 fewer jobs were lost than originally reported. Still, over the last 12 months, IT jobs fell by 81,800, nearly erasing the 90,200 jobs gained in 2019.

“IT hiring will remain soft but improving slightly. …Major many companies are resuming existing operations slowly, but are holding back on any expansion until after the [Nov. 3] election,” said Janco’s latest report.

But some sectors will continue to lose jobs, it noted, including the airline industry, which is poised to lay off tens of thousands of employees across all roles, not just IT, as federal COVID-related subsidies end on Sept. 30. Cities such as Portland, Ore. that have seen ongoing civil unrest due to protests over police killings of Black citizens will also see deferred hiring until the unrest subsides, Janco said.

IT organizations remain cautious on spending, with very few new initiatives or expansions of current efforts being funded beyond the initial rampup in work-from-home and social-distancing technology investments at the start of the crisis.

August 2020

Coronavirus spikes in parts of the U.S. in July have worsened hiring conditions for IT professionals, and management consulting firm Janco Associates now doesn’t expect any rebound in hiring until late this year or early in 2021.

Janco now estimates that just 25,000 new IT jobs will be created in 2020; there are now more than 163,000 fewer tech jobs than a year ago. In July alone, another 10,900 IT positions disappeared, the company said.

“We have found that a number of companies have already shuttered their doors or are expanding layoffs that impact the IT job market,” Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. “This includes oil and gas drillers like Whiting Petroleum and Diamond Offshore, retailers like J Crew, manufacturers like Briggs & Stratton, and grocers like Dean and DeLuca. As a result, IT professionals working for those companies are looking for new employment opportunities.

“Until after the election…, when the public feels [it] can go back to a normal life [and]  more companies open their doors, hiring for new positions in IT will be limited at best,” he said. “In addition, the continued civil unrest is slowing confidence by the public, which in turn, hinders corporate confidence.”

He noted the stalemate in Washington, D.C. over new efforts to prop up the U.S. economy, as several states deal with increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases.

“Spending for IT products and services has all but stopped as companies reevaluate the state of the economy globally as new waves of selected shutdowns occur,” Janulaitis said. “With more companies adopting [work from home] to address ‘social distancing’ and avoid in-office contacts, fewer companies are taking an aggressive approach to any additional spending for IT products and services. It does not help that the U.S. Congress and the president are at a stalemate on pandemic relief.”

July 2020

The wave of IT layoffs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic did not end in May 2020 as expected, with June seeing 6,000 more layoffs as business uncertainties rose because of the increase in coronavirus infections in the U.S., according to new data from management consulting firm Janco Associates. The pandemic’s economic fallout had already led to about 117,000 job losses in U.S. IT positions in April and early May 2020.

The increase in COVID-19 infections across most U.S. states in June prompted the additional layoffs, and Janco’s June survey of U.S. IT organizations shows that further layoffs – though at the relatively small scale seen in June – are expected given business uncertainties. That survey also said that salary increases for IT staffers are “a thing of the past.”

The job losses were exacerbated by the extensive protests over the police killings of George Floyd and others, Janco said. That led to additional economic uncertainty, particularly in the retail industry hit by looting, leading to additional closings, deferred reopenings, and unexpected costs.

In addition, a Trump Administration decision last month to pause the use of H-1B visas, which are commonly used to fill IT positions, will not help U.S. IT pros in the near term, Janco noted. Because it applies to new hires it does little to free up existing positions.

IT organizations don’t expect to begin hiring again until late 2020 or early 2021, assuming that the infections are under control and the economic reopening interrupted in June can resume. Without a sustained reopening, companies won’t see demand for goods and services that provides the money for new and replacement hires.

Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis now expects the net number of new U.S. IT jobs in 2020 will be about 30,000, versus the 94,500 it had expected before the epidemic struck. In 2019, the U.S. IT job market grew by 90,200.

June 2020

The wave of IT layoffs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has ended, according to new data from management consulting firm Janco Associates. The pandemic’s economic fallout resulted in about 117,000 job losses in U.S. IT positions in April and early May 2020.

But Janco’s May survey of U.S. IT organizations shows that further layoffs are largely not expected. But neither is much IT job growth. IT organizations don’t expect to begin hiring again until late 2020, assuming that the gradual economic reopening now in progress continues and demand for goods and services resumes, providing the money for new and replacement hires.

Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis expects that the net number of new U.S. IT jobs in 2020 will be about 35,000, versus the 94,500 it had expected before the epidemic struck. In 2019, the U.S. IT job market grew by 90,200.

May 2020

It’s not yet at the level of “Brother, can you spare a dime?” for IT workers, as it is for many workers in retail, entertainment, and hospitality. But as it becomes apparent the road to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will be take several years, IT pros are seeing layoffs in the U.S. and diminished prospects for future work, both as staff and as contractors.

In April 2020, IT pros saw 102,300 layoffs in the U.S., according to management consulting firm Janco Associates. And Janco has now more than halved the expected IT job growth in 2020 that it predicted just a month ago – to 40,000 versus the earlier prediction of 95,400 IT jobs.

Janco’s current projection for U.S. IT jobs this year is now 3.6 million, down from 2019’s 3.7 million U.S. IT jobs.

Companies have essentially stopped filling IT positions and halted new contract work, Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis said, based on conversations with CIOs and CFOs. That means IT pros who lose their jobs will have little prospect of employment or contract work in 2020.

“Until the public begins to feel they can go back to a normal lifestyle and companies open their doors, IT hiring will be nonexistent,” he said.

Janulaitis noted that there had been a surge in IT contract work at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis to help set up work-at-home environments, from collabration tools to VPNs. “The demand for contractor help in this effort was high initially, but now is non-existent,” Janulaitis said. The tech startup sector is also in crisis.

Janulaitis does expect IT hiring to begin picking up at the end of the year. That’s in line with the current thinking for the economy as a whole; various U.S. Federal Reserve executives and economists have said they expect the current effective jobless rate of about 23% to fall back but still be about 10% in 2021. The official jobless rate stands at 14.7% – versus 3.5% in 2019 – but that count misses recent layoffs, laid-off people not looking for work during the crisis, and the self-employed.

Broadly, expectations of a V-shaped recovery have given way to expectations of a prolonged decline and then slow recovery, since there is no vaccine for COVID-19, treatments and testing are not available at meaningful levels to determine who can work safely, it’s not known whether infected people develop immunity, and the ramifications of the various efforts now under way to reopen parts of society and economy remains unknown.

The fate of IT positions is not immune from these general economic factors. “All of this has put IT professionals the same state as the rest of the labor market,”Janulaitis said.

Apple is becoming a satellite communications company, taking a 20% stake in its existing satellite services provider, Globalstar, as part of a much-expanded deal with the latter. The iPhone maker has agreed to put up to $1.1 billion into the satellite company, deepening its ties with the firm.

Apple in space

As a reminder, Globalstar provides the satellite infrastructure that enables life-saving satellite-based Apple services, including Emergency SOS by Satellite, Roadside Assistance via Satellite, Send Location via Satellite and, with iOS 18, Messages via Satellite. In the case of Emergency SOS, the service is already saving lives, including one example when five people were rescued after their fishing boat capsized near Key West, FL. 

These services have been proving themselves across the US this hurricane season. They are also being extended, as the recent introduction of Messages via Satellite shows.

All these services are being provided with existing infrastructure, which, under a current Apple/Globalstar deal, is being deployed to support a growing number of nations. The new deal suggests these services may be extended, as it includes provision of a new satellite constellation.

What is the deal?

Apple is spending its cash to support the deployment of a new satellite constellation and expanded ground infrastructure for those satellites. All of these will be owned and managed by Globalstar, but Apple will gain use of 85% of the company’s network capacity. (Globalstar will be able to use the remaining 15% to support other clients, presumably including enterprise clients seeking to deploy private 5G services in emerging economies, or in support of certain mission-critical applications in the US.)

The deal also sees Apple make payments for services. (Globalstar has previously confirmed Apple’s business accounted for around 48% of its revenue last year.)

Globalstar shared the news in a regulatory filing published just one day after Apple’s financial results call. Apple will also purchase $400 million of Class B shares in the company, which expects its total annual revenue to more than double in the year following the launch of these expanded satellite services.

It’s important to note a report from several months ago from a German publication, which claimed plans exist to launch thousands of satellites across the coming years.

What is the background to the deal

Apple and Globalstar have an existing relationship that supports iPhones in space. The Mac maker announced a $450 million investment in the satellite company in November 2022. That money was also invested in new satellite manufacturing and the launch of new satellites in support of Emergency SOS via Satellite.

On the relationship with GlobalStar, Apple Director for Hardware Engineering Michael Trela explained the complexity of the service to Via Satellite in 2022: “Using these Globalstar satellites wasn’t as simple as connecting to pre-existing cell towers in space. It did require us to develop some custom technologies and optimize the phone and the satellites to ensure we have reliable two-way communications.

 “The Globalstar satellites were only designed to talk to dedicated satellite communications devices, which feature larger, more purpose-built antennas. We started to maximize the iPhone’s capabilities by adding components to intelligently utilize multiple antennas to maximize the signal strength toward the satellite.”

Within that work, Apple developed a customized radio protocol from the ground up and optimized the link between the iPhone and satellite. That system also requires a proprietary system put in place at GlobalStar’s own ground stations. 

How the industry sees satellite connectivity

Satellite industry incumbents, telecoms, and tech companies see satellite communications as an important and necessary next step to bridge the digital divide. The idea is that these systems can connect communities globally, including in places in which the cost of building infrastructure remains too high, or even too risky.

That’s always been the case, of course. But as AI permeates everything and smart tech gets deployed broadly, the strategic and economic value of such services is growing. It’s already widely used across some industries, such as mining and maritime, and is expected to see wider use in smart city development, agriculture, and other areas.

Much of the potential has been opened up from advances in the tech inside Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Relatively cheap to manufacture and launch, LEO satellites are precisely the kind of devices Apple and GlobalStar are putting in space. They are also being integrated into the 5G ecosystem, which is, of course, precisely what Apple’s big investment in the tech will likely turn out to be all about. They provide another layer of network resilience ¸— and another attack surface, too. 

What happens next?

It is telling that in 2022, Trela described iPhone’s support for satellite as, “the first time that anyone has launched or integrated a two-way satellite technology in a mainstream way.”

What that means, obviously, is that the iPhone in your pocket is (to some extent) a satellite phone.

Apple has continued to expand the services and nations into which it provides satellite communications, but it seems unlikely to be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in a tech just to help iPhone owners call emergency services. The company will have much bigger dreams, particularly as it is now involved in development of the 6G standard, which is likely to implement much deeper support for satellite connectivity than the existing standard. 

At least one space expert thinks Apple will choose to widen the network to become a full space communications service — broadly in line with predictions from Bloomberg in 2020. 

Speculation is an uneasy guide, but it isn’t completely unreasonable to imagine an Apple satellite communications network designed in such a way as it becomes more private and secure than those services currently provided by mobile telecoms firms.

That seems an unlikely outcome, in part because competing with iPhone network providers could impact Apple’s business. But it’s at least an opportunity to sign off here with the phrase, “If you want to know where Apple is going, look to the skies.” Because Apple is already there.

Please follow me on LinkedIn, Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill group on MeWe.

Download the November 2024 issue of the Enterprise Spotlight from the editors of CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World.

Download the November 2024 issue of the Enterprise Spotlight from the editors of CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World.

Microsoft has delayed the rollout of its Windows Recall feature. The controversial feature — which takes regular screenshots of a user’s desktop screen — is now slated to launch in preview in December

Microsoft unveiled Recall in May, and initially intended to release it to Windows Insiders in June. Those plans were put on hold as Microsoft addressed data security and privacy concerns raised by experts about  Recall, with a new release date set for October. 

Microsoft said it had again postponed Recall’s release as it continues working on the feature. 

“We are committed to delivering a secure and trusted experience with Recall,” Brandon LeBlanc, senior product manager of Windows, said in a statement. “To ensure we deliver on these important updates, we’re taking additional time to refine the experience before previewing it with Windows Insiders. 

“Originally planned for October, Recall will now be available for preview with Windows Insiders on Copilot Plus PCs by December.”

Pitched as an “explorable timeline of your PC’s past,” Recall has drew criticism from security and privacy experts, with some likening the feature to keylogging software.  When enabled, Recall will record all user actions  Copilot+ PCs, taking “snapshots” of the screen at five-second intervals. Users can then search a timeline of everything they’ve interacted with on their device, whether that’s an application, website, document, image, or anything else. 

Microsoft outlined plans to enhance security and privacy plans to enhance security and privacy measures in September. For instance, Recall is now opt-in, so Copilot+ PC users must turn the feature on or it won’t be record their screen. Biometric authentication is also required via Windows Hello each time a user wants to use Recall, and content filtering to prevent recording of sensitive data such as credit card details is turned on by default.

Developers are already using multiple large language model (LLM) and other generative AI-based tools in the creation of automation tools. And soon, the tools will be able to use each other.

A new development in AI “swarms” serves as a wake up call for everyone involved in cybersecurity, automation and, in fact, IT generally: OpenAI’s Swarm. 

What is OpenAI Swarm?

OpenAI launched an experimental framework last month called Swarm. It’s a “lightweight” system for the development of agentic AI swarms, which are networks of autonomous AI agents able to work together to handle complex tasks without human intervention, according to OpenAI. 

(I wrote about agentic AI, but not swarming agents, in July.)

Swarm is not a product. It’s an experimental tool for coordinating or orchestrating networks of AI agents. The framework is open-source under the MIT license (which allows Python developers to use, modify, and distribute the software with minimal restrictions), and available on GitHub.

   

In the GitHub readme section, OpenAI says: 

“Swarm is currently an experimental sample framework intended to explore ergonomic interfaces for multi-agent systems. It is not intended to be used in production, and therefore has no official support. (This also means we will not be reviewing PRs or issues!)

The primary goal of Swarm is to showcase the handoff & routines patterns explored in the Orchestrating Agents: Handoffs & Routines cookbook. It is not meant as a standalone library and is primarily for educational purposes.”

Swarm is not totally unique. Other existing systems can be used for the orchestration of multiple agents, which approaches the functioning of agentic AI swarms. Though not explicitly designed for swarming, they can be used for making AI agents interact with each other to varying degrees. These include: Microsoft AutoGen, CrewAI, LangChain, LangGraph, MetaGPT, AutoGPT, and Haystack.

While Swarm might be designed for simplicity and relative ease of use, all these other tools are more robust, reliable, supported and ready for prime-time.  

OpenAI apparently launched Swarm to explore methods for improving agent collaboration through “routines” and “handoffs.” In this case, “routines” are predefined sets of instructions that guide agents through tasks or workflows. They serve as recipes for agents to follow, which adds control and predictability to multi-agent systems. “Handoffs” enable one agent to delegate a job to another based on the current context. For example, if the agent requires something specific that can be better handled by an agent specializing in that task, it can delegate it. That “handoff” provides the history of the task to the new agent, so it has context under which to proceed. 

One characteristic of Swarm is that it’s stateless, so agents don’t remember anything from previous interactions. That simplifying element also limits the tool to simpler tasks. (Developers can, however, build solutions that do enable memory between agent interactions.)

While Swarm isn’t intended for actual production (and OpenAI won’t maintain it going forward), the fact that it’s dabbling in the concept is one indication that agent swarms could eventually become commonplace.

It also points to a trend in which agent swarm technology becomes increasingly usable and, for lack of a better term, democratized.

The right tool for the job?

One way to look at agentic AI swarming technology is that it’s the next powerful phase in the evolution of generative AI (genAI). In fact, Swarm is built on OpenAI’s Chat Completions API, which uses LLMs like GPT-4. 

The API is designed to facilitate interactive “conversations” with AI models. It allows developers to create chatbots, interactive agents, and other applications that can engage in natural language conversations.

Today, developers are creating what you might call one-off AI tools that do one specific task. Agentic AI would enable developers to create a large number of such tools that specialize in different specific tasks, and then enable each tool to dragoon any others into service if the agent decides the task would be better handled by the other kind of tool. These tool types could include: 

• 1. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation): Enhancing text generation with relevant retrieved information. Basically, these agents would be tasked to “Google it” and return to the task at hand with that found information. 
• 2. NL2SQL: Converting natural language queries into SQL commands.
• 3. Text Generation: Creating various forms of written content.
• 4. Code Generation: Producing code based on natural language descriptions.
• 5. Data Analysis: Processing and interpreting large datasets.
• 6. Image Generation: Creating images from text prompts.
• 7. Speech Synthesis: Converting text to spoken audio.
• 8. Language Translation: Translating between different languages.
• 9. Summarization: Condensing long-form content into concise summaries.
• 10. Dialogue Management: Handling multi-turn conversations in chatbots.

Instead of the user making choices, opening new tools and essentially serving as the guide and glue for complex AI-based tasks, the agents would do all this autonomously. 

Easy-to-use swarms of AI agents — what could go wrong? 

It’s clear that agentic AI swarms could seriously boost enterprise productivity, offloading chores from people, enabling them to focus on higher-level responsibilities.

The risks are also clear. Take security, for example. 

At present, as far as we know, no nation-state or state-sponsored hackers are using agentic AI swarms. But that day is surely coming.

Hostile nation states are using LLMs in general, and even ChatGPT in particular, for malicious rreconnaissance and research, scripting and coding, social-engineering and phishing content, language translation, and detection evasion.

At present, people working for these nation states are doing individual hacking, and using LLMs as part of their knowledge toolset, manually prompt-engineering chatbots, then using the returned results in their breach attempts.

In an agentic AI swarm future, state-sponsored hackers will be able to create individual specialist AI agents to do each of these tasks, and enable the agents to call into play the other agents as needed. By removing the “bottleneck” of a human operator, malicious hacking can take place on a massive scale at blistering speed.

It’s reasonable to assume at this early stage that the most effective defense against agentic AI swarm attacks will be agentic AI swarm defenses. 

Another area of concern is the risk of overcomplexity. Agentic AI, including agentic AI swarming technology, operates autonomously to pursue goals. It can be “creative,” or, more accurately, unpredictable in how it achieves goals given to it by the developers who create it and the users who deploy it. Because it’s autonomous, people might not know what it’s doing or how it’s doing it. And it’s possible to lose track of what agent swarms are doing, or even that they’re still operating. 

Individual employees might automate their own work using agentic AI swarms they monitor close — agents that could continue running after the workers leaves the company (or gets hit by a bus). 

Pessimistic (or realistic) prognosticators fear agentic AI swarms might even accelerate job losses because they’ll be so capable of operating like people do.

As with other new, powerful developments in AI technology, agentic AI swarms are packed with promise and peril. 

What’s important to know about OpenAI’s Swarm is that it represents a move to simplify and democratize swarming agents. That probably means near-future exponential growth in the number of swarming agents in operation, and a rise in the expectation that tech pros will be using agentic AI agents for all manner of automation. 

The agents are coming. I recommend you learn all about them before they get here. 

Even with the US economy doing well by most measures, technology job seekers often find it difficult to get hired. It’s a conundrum.

The technology sector unemployment rate remains at near historic lows (from 2.5% to 3.8%, depending on the data source), but corporate layoffs have continued in earnest and some traditional IT skills are often no longer in demand. Online hiring platform Indeed recently found that tech jobs including software development remain 30% below 2020 levels, and that 79% tech workers feel pressure to upskill because of the rise of generative AI.

Those kinds of changes have prompted more workers to cast about for new jobs; this year, 34% of survey respondents said they are actively looking for work, up 11% from 2023. (The same percentage said they’re worried about layoffs in the next year, and four in 10 said if their company makes job cuts, they expect to be affected.)

Job data over the past two years have been a mixed bag of good times and bad; 260,000 tech workers were laid off in 2023, with another 142,000 getting pink slips so far this year, according to Layoffs.fyi. At the same time, US unemployment data released last month showed unexpected growth overall for tech job listings and hiring, along with a marked shift in the kind of workers organizations need — AI talent is no longer at the top of the list.

So what’s going on?

“While the labor market overall is performing well and unemployment is low, some sectors are doing much better than others,” said Allison Shrivastava, an economic research associate at Indeed’s Hiring Lab.

IT and tech-related sectors expanded during the post-pandemic boom, with job postings in software development reaching well above pre-pandemic levels, according to Shrivastava. Some of the decline in hiring now could be a correction to that rapid expansion.

“These sectors are also pretty costly to hire in, both in terms of time and money, so employers could be more cautious in expanding their employee base, favoring a wait-and-see approach while the labor market settles,” she said.

Janco Associates

ZipRecruiter’s latest Job Seeker Confidence Index has dropped to its lowest level since the index began in early 2022, with job seekers’ confidence in the labor market and their own financial wellbeing down sharply. Fully 41% of job hunters said it’s now much harder to find a job and slightly more, 43%, said their search is going poorly, ZipRecruiter found. Only 13% described their job hunt as going well.

Fewer opportunities for some, more for others

More than half of job seekers (53%) said there are fewer opportunities than just six months ago, and 34% have had to expand their search outside their usual field, ZipRecruiter said. Part of those frustrations could be because the mix of companies that are hiring has changed.

Industry observers say smaller organizations have been scooping up talent left in the wake of more than two-years’ worth of layoffs by bigger corporations. That could explain why the number of unemployed IT professionals in the US dropped last month from 148,000 to 98,000, according to IT industry consultancy Janco Associates, which drew its findings from a US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data for Septermber.)

Highest in demand technology platform skills and % change in demand year over year (Aug 2023 vs Aug 2024)

Indeed

By Janco’s tally, more than 78,000 IT pros were hired in September, cutting into unemployment. “IT pros who were unemployed last month found jobs more quickly than was anticipated, as CIOs rushed to fill open positions,” said Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis. “Our analysis predicts the same will be the case for the next several months.”

Janco pegged the September unemployment rate for IT workers at 3.8%, down from 6% in August and now below the overall national unemployment rate of 4.1%.

“The moving average of the number of unfilled jobs for IT professionals peaked in January, and has steadily declined to 45,000 in September,” Janulaitis said. “Most of those positions are for new technologies. IT pros having a legacy application focus are finding few opportunities.”

How to get hired

Of the tech workers open to new opportunities, nearly 80% say they would consider relocation, a 10% increase from 2023. Tech talent is also taking control of their hiring journey, with 61% in 2024 finding roles on their own compared to 55% who did so in 2023. This indicates a shift away from reliance on recruiters and personal networks, according to Indeed.

Linsey Fagan, a senior talent strategy advisor at Indeed, noted that the tech job market is currently seeing decreased job volume and an influx of talent, making it a unique challenge for job seekers to find suitable roles.

But there are a few key steps job seekers can take to improve their chances of success, according to Fagan — beginning with upskilling.

Indeed

“Technologies like Rust, Go, Google Cloud Platform, Terraform, and AWS are experiencing a surge in demand, but have relatively few job seekers compared to open roles,” Fagan said. “Learning these skills can give candidates a significant advantage in securing roles in this dynamic landscape.”

According to Indeed, the fastest-growing areas in tech at the moment are software development, generative AI, and cybersecurity, where despite high demand, there remains a shortage of experts.

Freelance employment platform Upwork found similar trends in a recently released study of freelance worker earnings for all of 2023; it found “unprecedented” growth in importance for genAI and data science and analytics skills.

Indeed

The genAI factor

In the US and Europe, as many as 300 million jobs could be threatened by some form of AI over the next few years, according to a March research note by investment bank Goldman Sachs. Fully two-thirds of US jobs could be partially automated through AI, and up to one in four current work tasks could be completely automated by AI, Goldman Sachs said.

Indeed

In particular, roles that require repetitive data entry, legal administration, careers involving math skills — even healthcare jobs — will all be impacted by AI’s adoption. Amid that backdrop, job seekers should ask a potential employer if they offer upskilling opportunities, as 89% of tech professionals use company-provided training opportunities to keep their skills up to date, according to Fagan.

“…With genAI gaining momentum, tech professionals feel pressure to upskill,” she said. “Most employers offer tuition reimbursement or upskilling opportunities, so it would be a missed opportunity not to take advantage. Additionally, adapting and integrating AI into workflows is becoming essential. By staying open to upskilling, particularly in high-demand areas and in AI integration, and considering flexibility in work location, tech job seekers can better navigate today’s tech job market.”

Tech professionals with five to 10 years of experience are more likely to apply for internal roles rather than outside their current company, underlining the need for companies to invest in upskilling. Sixty-six percent of employees say they are likely to remain at a company with mentorship programs, according to Indeed’s survey.

While work flexibility remains a top priority for many job seekers, it’s important for tech job seekers to be open-minded about hybrid or on-site work if they are looking to find a job quickly. “Our research found that professionals who work on-site about four days per week tend to want to stay with their employers, likely due to the collaboration and sense of community fostered by in-person interactions,” Fagan said.

When we talk about Android customization, we tend to focus on the home screen and the ocean of exceptional Android launchers that let you take total control of that environment.

But the beauty of Android is that the opportunity for making your phone work the way you want isn’t limited to any one area of the operating system. Unlike with that (cough, cough) other smartphone platform, you can customize and control practically every part of the Android experience to make it exactly right for you — instead of being forced to blindly follow the path some sweater-vested executive in an ostentatious spaceship office has chosen simply because he thinks it’s “elegant.”

Few Android-appreciating animals realize it, but that Google-given freedom of ours extends even into Android’s Quick Settings panel — that series of one-tap tiles you see when you swipe down twice from the top of your screen. In addition to expanding which specific shortcuts appear in that area, you can completely customize the very way that area of Android looks and works. And in doing so, you can make it especially efficient and functional for your personal style of working.

It’s basically like using a custom launcher — only for your Quick Settings instead of your home screen. And once you know where to look, the possibilities are practically endless.

Here, specifically, are two Quick Settings customization paths well worth exploring.

[Ready to push your Android Intelligence quotient even higher? Check out my new Android Notification Power-Pack to discover six powerful enhancements that’ll change how you use your phone.]

Android Quick Settings customization path #1: The simple replacement

The first tool I want to introduce you to is essentially the Nova Launcher of Android Quick Settings customization.

It’s called Power Shade, and just as Nova or any other launcher does on the home screen, it completely replaces your device’s entire default Quick Settings setup with something much more feature-filled and customizable.

Among other things, Power Shade empowers you to:

• Choose exactly what shape and size all of your Quick Settings tiles take — and, consequently, how many of ’em end up being visible at once in that initial swipe-down view
• Fine-tune the color palette, style, and all-around appearance of your Quick Settings panel
• And even change the behavior of the Android swipe-down gesture, so that just a single swipe can open up the entire Quick Settings and notification panel, if you want

srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/android-quick-settings-customize-power-shade.webp?quality=50&strip=all 800w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/android-quick-settings-customize-power-shade.webp?resize=267%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 267w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/android-quick-settings-customize-power-shade.webp?resize=768%2C862&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/android-quick-settings-customize-power-shade.webp?resize=621%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 621w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/android-quick-settings-customize-power-shade.webp?resize=150%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/android-quick-settings-customize-power-shade.webp?resize=75%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 75w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/android-quick-settings-customize-power-shade.webp?resize=428%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 428w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/android-quick-settings-customize-power-shade.webp?resize=321%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 321w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/android-quick-settings-customize-power-shade.webp?resize=223%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 223w" width="800" height="898" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px">Power Shade replaces your standard Quick Settings panel with a much more customizable alternative.

JR Raphael, IDG

Power Shade works by taking over the standard Android swipe-down gesture and loading its interface in place of your device’s default. Because of that, the mechanism isn’t flawless — once in a while, you’ll get a quick glimpse of your standard Quick Settings setup behind the Power Shade replacement — but the system has generally worked quite smoothly and consistently for me throughout my tests on a variety of different devices.

Power Shade offers oodles of options for taking total control of your Android Quick Settings interface.

JR Raphael, IDG

Power Shade is free to use in its base form, with an optional premium version that activates some advanced options and eliminates some mildly annoying ads throughout its configuration tool. You really don’t need the premium path to enjoy the app, but if you do decide to make the leap, be sure to look for the lifetime license, not the ongoing subscription plan. (The lifetime key is 10 bucks and seems to show up as an option only on occasion. If you wait a bit, you’ll probably get an offer to buy it for $2 at some point, too.)

The app does require some relatively deep system permissions, but they’re all genuinely required for what it needs to do. And its privacy policy is clear about the fact that it doesn’t collect or share any personal data.

Android Quick Settings customization path #2: The total makeover

If Power Shade is the jack-of-all-trades Nova Launcher of Android Quick Settings customization, this next option is the Square Home — a super-specific setup that aims to emulate what other environments offer while also adding in a healthy pinch of extra functionality and control.

It’s called Mi Control Center, and it draws on inspiration from both iOS and the popular Xiaomi MIUI flavor of Android to bring a distinctive and extremely different look ‘n’ feel to that area of the Android interface.

The key to this approach is that swiping down from the left side of the screen opens up your notifications while swiping down from the right reveals an Apple-like “Control Center” (a.k.a. Quick Settings) panel.

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JR Raphael, IDG

Just like with Power Shade, though, you can customize and control practically every aspect of the experience — down to the tiniest of details around exactly how the setup looks and works. You can even adjust the precise dividing point for where a swipe triggers notifications vs. the “Control Center,” if you really want to get intricate.

Mi Control Center is every bit as customizable as Power Shade — just with a different concept at its core.

JR Raphael, IDG

Mi Control Center is free to use at its base level, with an optional $10/week (!!) premium subscription to unlock certain advanced features and remove ads throughout the configuration tool. You definitely don’t need that, and I absolutely wouldn’t pay that much for it. If the developer ever offers a more reasonably priced upgrade, it might be worth considering. In the meantime, the free version should be more than enough for most people and purposes.

Like Power Shade, Mi Control Center does require a fair amount of permissions — but, once more, the app wouldn’t be able to operate and do what it needs to do without ’em. And, again, its privacy policy indicates that nothing of any significance is ever stored or shared.

So there ya have it: two potential-packed paths with limitless options for customizing your Android device’s Quick Settings panel and making it your own. Throw in some extra-useful tile additions and then spruce up the status bar above it, and you’ll effectively be carrying a new and drastically improved device — without having spent a single shiny dime.

Keep the customization coming with my Android Notification Power-Pack — six powerful enhancements for the notification panel on any Android device — next!