The latest employment figures for the U.S. information technology sector reflect businesses' expanding use of cloud-based technology and "as-a-service" options, CompTIA, the world's leading technology association said.

The IT sector added an estimated 9,600 new jobs in July, led by the addition of some 4,900 positions in IT and software services and computer system design, according to the "CompTIA IT Employment Tracker." The monthly report analyzes IT-specific job trends contained in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics "Employment Situation" report. #JobsReport

For the year, the IT services and custom software category has added nearly 100,000 jobs.

The nation's IT sector has seen positive job gains every month this year, with the exception of April. Through the end of July the sector has added an estimated 72,100 positions.

"Despite the positive employment growth for the year, the job posting data suggests employer demand should translate to even more tech worker hiring," said Tim Herbert, senior vice president, research and market intelligence, CompTIA. "A combination of factors such as skills gaps, pipeline gaps, location gaps, and pay gaps can contribute to fewer workers hired than needed."

July job growth was also recorded in the categories of other information services, including search portals (+ 2,300); computer and electronic products manufacturing (+ 1,300); and data processing, hosting and related services (+ 1,200).

Tech manufacturing has seen positive job figures in four of the past seven months. Gains in July were driven by employment growth in semiconductors, electronic instruments, and communications equipment; offsetting declines in computers and peripherals manufacturing.

Employment in the telecommunications category was essentially flat last month (- 100). For the year, telecom has shed 38,500 jobs – the deepest losses across the IT sector.

"Telecommunications providers continue to remake their workforces as they shift away from legacy services and move towards emerging services," Herbert said.

The 9,600 jobs added by the IT sector in July outpaced new employment in several other sectors, including financial activities (+ 6,000), non-durable goods manufacturing (+ 3,000), retail trade (+ 900), transportation and warehousing (+ 900), and coal mining (- 200).

While healthcare (+ 39,400) and accommodation and food service (+ 53,100) had much larger job gains, on average, the pay for these jobs is significantly less than the average pay for tech sector jobs.

The second component of the nation's IT workforce – IT occupations in all other industries – saw a decline of 74,000 jobs in July. For the year, IT occupations are in net negative territory, with five months of job declines and two months of gains.

IT occupation data tends to show a higher degree of volatility from month to month, reflecting the normal pattern of labor turnover, including workers resigning to seek new opportunities, retirements and layoffs.

IT job postings were flat for July. Software development talent continues to be the most in demand role among employers, with nearly 61,000 job postings in July. That's more than the combined total of the next four categories.