Companies shed 134K tech jobs in July

Dive Brief:

In July, IT occupations in U.S. companies fell by 134,000 jobs, according to a report from tech trade organization CompTIA. By comparison, companies added 227,000 IT workers to their payrolls in June.
Of the top 10 metro areas for IT job postings, Washington, DC saw the biggest drop in IT postings (-3,743), followed by San Francisco (-2,618) and Los Angeles (-1,954).
Since the coronavirus pandemic hit, net IT employment has risen by 203,000 positions, signs that the technology space has fared better than the economy overall. Among IT occupations, the unemployment rate is 4.4%, less than half the national unemployment rate of 10.2%.

Dive Insight:

The expansion projected for the IT sector in 2020 cooled off last month, as industries buckled under historic economic pressures.

CIOs entering 2020 with plans to revamp technology stacks, modernize legacy systems or launch new initiatives were forced to hit the pause button and reassess. Organizational demands shifted and the CIO was tasked with enabling the pivot to remote work.

"After several months of tech job gains exceeding expectations in a very difficult economic environment, a pause in tech hiring was not unexpected," said Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA, in the press release.

Five months into the pandemic, businesses have largely adapted. No matter how the pandemic impacted organizations, executives see technology investments as a solution to their problems, according to Monika Sinha, research vice president at Gartner.

In deciding where to direct investments as pressures to cut costs mount, leaders will look to technologies that enable flexibility and adaptability. In the long term, businesses with increased demand in the pandemic will look to capitalize on the opportunity and scale operations.

Effects of pausing or deferring large investments trickle down to company talent demand. In the context of expanded distributed work, organizations will be able to tap into broader talent pools once the geographic barrier is removed.