The U.S. tech sector added 16,000 new jobs in March, its strongest month for hiring so far this year, according to an analysis by CompTIA, the leading technology industry association.

New hiring in technology services, custom software development and computer systems design led the way, growing by an estimated 11,500 new hires, CompTIA's analysis of today's Bureau of Labor Statistics "Employment Situation" report finds.

"Employer demand for these skills aligns with investments in technology," said Tim Herbert, senior vice president for research and market intelligence. "Technology services and software account for nearly half of spending in the U.S. tech market. As cloud computing continues to expand its footprint, along with advances in edge computing, 5G wireless networks and other infrastructure technologies, expect to see continued strong demand for technology professionals in the services, application and software development realms."

Employment in the category of computer and electronic products manufacturing increased by 2,100 jobs in March, a bright spot in a month where overall durable goods manufacturing was down 7,000 positions.

Job gains were also reported in the categories of data processing, hosting and related services (+ 1,600); and other information services, including search portals (+ 900). Telecommunications employment declined by an estimated 100 jobs.

Across the entire economy IT occupations declined by 155,000, offsetting some of the gains from February. There tends to be a higher degree of variance with monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics data at the occupation level, so the monthly occupation figures should be viewed as directional. 

The unemployment rate for IT occupations was 1.9 percent in March. The U.S. unemployment rate was unchanged last month at 3.8 percent.

Looking ahead, employers increased the number of job postings for core IT positions by an estimated 62,433 in March over February. Software and application developers were the most in-demand, with 90,500 job postings. Other tech positions companies were looking to fill included computer user support specialists (24,700), computer systems engineers and architects (21,900), computer systems analysts (18,300) and IT project managers (17,700).