The U.S. technology sector recorded its second consecutive month of slow employment growth in October, adding an estimated 5,400 new jobs, according to an analysis by CompTIA, the leading technology industry association.

New hiring in custom software development and computer systems design occupations accounted for the bulk of October's job gains. The category expanded by an estimated 4,500 new hires, CompTIA's examination of today's U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics #JobsReport finds.

"Despite the underwhelming jobs figures for the month, tech industry employment year-to-date 2019 is tracking ahead of the same periods in 2018 and 2017," said Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA. "Big picture, enterprise demand for technologies to modernize and move the business forward continue to be robust. The overall outlook for tech employment remains positive."

October job growth was marginal in other technology employment categories: 1,200 new hires in other information services, including search portals; 600 in data processing, hosting and related services; and 400 in computer and electronics product manufacturing.

The telecommunication employment category again served as a drag on the overall tech employment numbers, declining by some 1,300 positions.

Year-to-date industry job growth totals 96,500 new positions. If telecommunications occupations were excluded, the total number of new jobs would be 127,300. 

The unemployment rate for IT occupations in October was 2.2 percent, unchanged from the previous month.

Tech occupation across the entire U.S. economy declined again last month, by an estimated 96,500 jobs. It is important to note that there tends to be a higher degree of variance and volatility with monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics data at the occupation level, so these figures should be viewed with caution.

October also saw a drop off in the number of employer job postings for core technology positions, down nearly 28,000 from September. Still, employers advertised to fill positions in several critical categories, including software and application development, IT user support, systems engineers and architects, and systems analysts.