Unemployment in IT fields has been dropping in recent months. Generative AI (genAI) is opening up recent profession opportunities. Inflation is deflating, and the US economy appears strong.
So, why is it so many persons are still finding it hard to land a job in technology?
This 12 months, large enterprises, including tech giants equivalent to Alphabet (Google), Dell, Intel, Microsoft and Cisco, have announced significant layoffs. To date in 2024, 168 tech firms have laid off greater than 42,000 employees. That’s still a vastly smaller number than the 262,682 staffers laid off by tech firms in 2023.
Multiple research firms reported that the unemployment rate for IT employees dropped sharply in October. One report cited a 37% slide — a marked shift from months of incremental increases and plateaus.
One reason for the trend: small to midsize firms that had been ravenous for employees were scooping up talent left within the wake of enterprise layoffs. In accordance with management consultancy Janco Associates, the IT unemployment rate dropped from 6% in August to three.8% in September, while another industry sources estimated it as little as 2.4%.
Last month, according Janco, the variety of unemployed IT professionals within the US dropped from 148,000 to 98,000. (Janco derived its findings from a US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report released originally of November.)
More recently, nevertheless, hiring has slowed, partially due to a scarcity of qualified candidates and since the variety of job openings shrank as IT positions were quickly filled earlier this 12 months, based on Janco Associates CEO Victor Janulaitis.
“Within the last three months the IT Job market shrank by 21,900 jobs,” Janulaitis said. “Overall, that could be a flattening of the long-term growth rate pattern of the IT job market. Based on our data and forecast models, there will likely be no growth within the IT job market in [the remainder of] calendar 12 months 2024.”
Janco Associates
A crisis of confidence for job-seekers?
ZipRecruiter just released its latest Job Seeker Confidence Index; it found that confidence has dropped to its lowest level for the reason that index began in Q1 2022. Forty-one percent of job seekers reported it’s now much harder to search out a job, and almost half of job seekers (43%) said their job search goes poorly, based on the report. Only 13% of job seekers described their hunt as going well — the widest gap in nearly three years. Greater than half of job seekers (53%) said there are fewer opportunities in comparison with six months ago, and 34% said that they had to look outside their usual field.
That “flattening” in job growth has led to a dour mood amongst IT employees. A brand new survey of greater than 1,100 individuals in high-demand tech roles by online hiring platform Indeed found greater than a 3rd of tech talent is worried about layoffs in the following 12 months. 4 in 10 consider if layoffs occur, they’ll be impacted, 70% said that they’re prone to start searching for roles at other firms if their current company does layoffs, and 79% feel pressure to upskill due to rise of genAI.
The dynamic of smaller firms hiring more employees also added to the shift in needed skills.
“The economy is slowing,” Janulaitis said. “Nevertheless, there are plenty of jobs unfilled by IT pros. The first wrongdoer is the dearth of qualified individuals to fill the open positions.”
Savi Thethi, who leads tech transformation consulting for the Americas at Ernst & Young, agreed that despite low unemployment, many IT job seekers struggle because of a shortage of skills in crucial areas equivalent to data analytics, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing. The rapid evolution of those technologies has outpaced the supply of qualified professionals, creating a niche between demand and provide, he said.
“As well as, firms are increasingly investing in reskilling and upskilling their current workforce, not only inside their IT departments but across the complete organization, to extend digital fluency and higher prepare their workforce for the longer term,” Thethi said.
One in every of the largest changes within the IT job market is that firms are less thinking about college degrees and more prone to be in search of specific hard and soft skills equivalent to problem solving, critical pondering, communication, and alter management. Additionally they want employees who can simply get together with others.
Corporations also want candidates who’ve a combination of business and tech skills, based on Thethi. “Generally speaking, what can IT employees within the hunt for a brand new job do to extend their odds of landing one? Obtaining certifications in key areas equivalent to AI, data science, and cloud computing is quick in lots of cases. Moreover, leveraging social platforms to construct and expand skilled networks can result in recent opportunities and helpful connections.”
It’s also crucial for job seekers to spotlight their business acumen, showcasing how their skills and contributions have driven value creation and business outcomes in previous roles, he said. “By combining technical expertise with strong business skills and a proactive networking approach, IT professionals can significantly enhance their job prospects,” Thethi said.
Uneven demand for IT pros, depending on skills
Allison Shrivastava, an economic research associate on the Indeed Hiring Lab, said that while the unemployment is low, some sectors are doing significantly better than others. For instance, many in-person and repair sectors have job postings well above their pre-pandemic baselines, while other sectors, including software development and IT, are below.
There are several reasons tech-related sectors aren’t doing in addition to others. Specifically, the sectors expanded through the post-pandemic boom, with job postings in software development reaching well above pre-pandemic levels, Shrivastava said. The declines in hiring for those jobs may very well be related to a market correction after several years of rapid growth.
“These sectors are also pretty costly to rent in, each when it comes to money and time, so employers may very well be more cautious in expanding their worker base, favoring a wait-and-see approach while the labor market settles,” Shrivastava said.
Linsey Fagan, a senior talent strategy advisor at Indeed, called the tech job market “unique immediately.” With tech job volume down and more talent looking, job seekers can take steps to enhance their success.
“First, tech is advancing rapidly, underscoring the importance of upskilling to stay competitive,” Fagan said, adding that the longer term of labor will increasingly be shaped by AI, forcing tech pros to repeatedly adapt to remain relevant.
Employers are currently combating the query of the way to future-proof their job descriptions, since they are usually not 100% sure on what skills will likely be essential, based on Amy Loomis, a vp analyst with research firm IDC.
“Job seekers need to point out experience with current IT required skills in addition to people who will likely be helpful for the longer term to drive AI-enabled business. Increasingly, enterprises require that job candidates confirm their skills in real-world scenarios, like labs,” Loomis said. “Employers take significant stock in badging as a marker of proficiency, but some certifications can only be achieved by being employed somewhere that gives the training to get the badge, so it’s a Catch 22.”
A key difference between last 12 months and this 12 months is the speed with which skills have gotten outdated and the necessity for workers to undertake continuous learning to remain current, Loomis added.
James Stanger, chief technology evangelist with IT industry group CompTIA, said hiring managers are searching for more specialized knowledge in potential hires in areas equivalent to automation, cloud computing, data security, and incident response. Hands-on knowledge is important for demonstrating true skill capabilities.
Distant work is less of an option worldwide than it was last 12 months, based on Stanger, which has led to a rise in security and privacy regulations, equivalent to NIS2 within the European Union, SEC regulations in america, and the Cybersecurity Act in Malaysia.
“A whole bunch of regulations have appeared, mandating using things equivalent to Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) and imposing secure by design requirements,” Stanger said. “They’re having an effect on hiring, because they drive hiring managers to search for individuals with an understanding of those regulations and best practices.”
AI skills are starting to “creep slowly into serious job role descriptions,” he said.
“Automation can be increasingly essential. That’s significant change. Data analytics knowledge and the power to administer data has also increased in demand,” Stanger added.
In accordance with Indeed’s AI at Work report, AI is anticipated to affect jobs that require highly technical skills. For IT professionals, staying on top of the evolving needs of the market, especially in areas like AI, machine learning (AI/ML), and cloud computing, will likely be critical. “At Indeed, we prefer to say AI won’t replace jobs, but individuals who can use AI well will,” Fagan said.
Stanger added that job seekers must learn the way to evaluate data because it is available in from AI programs. In other words, AI doesn’t yet create “information,” just just creates the information; it takes a human to interpret that data in order that it might be applied to a business use case. Should you can exhibit you already know the way to do this, Stanger said, “that’ll get you some great interview opportunities.”
“Leaders of organizations in literally every sector have realized that clever use of technology is critical for any organization to remain on mission, or serve its constituencies, or remain profitable,” Stanger said. “Consequently, hiring managers are reacting to significant pressure from the challenge to be sure their employees can map technology to business needs.”
Along with AI skills, technologies just like the programming languages Rust and Go, knowledge of Google Cloud Platform, AWS, and cloud management platforms equivalent to Terraform, are all experiencing a surge in demand — with relatively few job seekers to fill those open roles. One place to accumulate those skills: IT certifications.
The highest IT certifications listed in tech Job postings for Q3 2023 vs. Q3 2024, measured in the share of every based on total tech job listings. Despite some certifications growing in demand and others shrinking, there hasn’t been a major change in demand for certifications overall.
Indeed
In accordance with Indeed, the highest 10 certifications ranked by highest salary in job listings are:
- CISSP
- PMP
- IAT Level II
- DoD 8570
- IAT
- Certified Information Systems Auditor
- CompTIA Security+
- CCNA
- CompTIA Network+
- CompTIA A+
Certifications directly related to the role someone is being hired for are essential and ought to be called out within the job description, based on Tamara Larsen, Indeed’s director of IT Infrastructure & Platforms. These typically include certifications from recognized third-party providers equivalent to AWS Cloud, Azure Cloud, Azure Lively Directory, PMI Project Management, or CSM Scrum Master, amongst others.
As well as, certifications that help develop complementary skills, equivalent to Leadership Development, Skilled Writing, Toastmasters, or other technical certifications not explicitly required, will be helpful, too. “Nevertheless, too many certifications that are usually not relevant will be considered a negative,” said Larsen.
“Learning those skills, and others related to AI, can provide candidates a major advantage in securing roles in what can only be described as a ‘dynamic landscape,’” said Indeed’s Fagan.
The excellent news for those currently working in IT: training is sort of at all times free.
“Our research found that 89% of tech professionals use company-provided training opportunities to maintain their skills fresh. And with gen AI gaining momentum, 79% of tech professionals feel pressure to upskill,” Fagan said. “Most employers offer tuition reimbursement or upskilling opportunities, so it will be a missed opportunity to not make the most.
“Moreover, adapting and integrating AI into workflows is becoming essential,” he added.
Flexibility is a priority for a lot of job seekers, with tech professionals favoring distant roles over in-office ones. Nevertheless, staying open to hybrid or on-site work might help job seekers find jobs faster.
“Our research found that professionals who work on-site about 4 days per week are likely to want to stick with their employers, likely because of the collaboration and sense of community fostered by in-person interactions,” Fagan said. “By staying open to upskilling, particularly in high-demand areas and in AI integration, and considering flexibility in work location, tech job seekers can higher navigate today’s tech job market.”
If hiring managers are searching for more evidence of your experience, then find clever ways to get experienced people to vouch for you. And, find ways to steer hiring managers into feeling confident in you.
“That’s greater than just tech skill; that you must be a business tech problem solver. The solution to prove that’s to have a trusted third party do this for you,” CompTIA’s Stanger said. “That’s greater than just tech skill; that you must be a business tech problem solver. The solution to prove that’s to have a trusted third party do this for you.”
