Cloud Drives Tech Sector Hiring – Report

Increased demand for cloud-based technology services drove employment gains across the US IT sector last month, according to a report by IT trade group CompTIA.

The IT sector grew by an estimated 10,300 jobs in August, driven by the addition of 8,000 positions in the IT and software services category, according to the report. Overall, the IT and software services sector has grown by more than 106,000 jobs this year.

"IT services have powered tech sector job growth all year," said Tim Herbert, senior vice president of research and market intelligence at The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) , in a prepared statement. "All signs point to this trend continuing through year's end. The question is whether gains in IT and software services, along with contributions from tech manufacturing and data services, will offset losses in telecom to achieve projected net job growth on the year."

The computer and eletronic products manufacturing sector added 3,900 jobs last month while information services, which included search portals, grew by 1,700 jobs.

The telecommunctions category lost 2,700 jobs last month while jobs in data processing, hosting and related services shed 600 positions. The loss of telecommunications jobs is noteworthy since telcos are faced with a lack of skilled IT employees as they implement their virtualization projects while adding new services and applications. (See Lack of Skilled Employees a Hurdle for Carriers.)

CompTIA estimated the total employment across the IT sector was at 4,445,300 while the unemployment rate for IT occupations was at 2.4% last month.

"The labor market for IT positions remains extremely tight with the IT occupation unemployment rate nearly half that of the national rate," Herbert said.

Continuing a trend from earlier this year, IT job postings were flat in August. The biggest month-over-month increase was in the IT project managers category, which grew by 1,300 additional jobs last month.

— Mike Robuck, Editor, Telco Transformation