IT Employment Posts Respectable Growth in January
Monday, February 13th, 2017
The number of IT jobs grew 0.3 percent sequentially last month to 5,257,900, according to TechServe Alliance, the national trade association of the IT & Engineering Staffing and Solutions industry. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment grew by 3.9% since January 2016 adding 195,600 IT workers.
Engineering employment increased by 0.1 percent sequentially to 2,547,400. On a year-over-year basis, growth in engineering employment remained anemic increasing by only 0.7% since January 2016 or 18,600 engineering workers.
"IT employment grew a respectable 0.3 percent in January," stated Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. "While a single month does not establish a trend, I am pleased IT showed some strength as we begin the New Year. While bullish that demand will increase as the year unfolds, I remain concerned with the rhetoric supporting more restrictive immigration policies for high skilled workers. Given the shortage of many IT and engineering skill sets, such policies could limit domestic IT and engineering job growth pushing those jobs overseas---an undesirable outcome for both U.S.-based businesses and workers," observed Roberts.
