Alexandria, VA, January 15, 2021 – In December, IT employment increased by 0.50% to 5,240,000 jobs, according to TechServe Alliance, the national trade association of the IT & Engineering Staffing and Solutions Industry. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment is still down 2.08% since December 2019 a loss of 111,500 workers.
Engineering employment grew by 0.34% sequentially to 2,596,100. On a year-over-year basis, engineering employment dropped by 2.77% since December 2019, a loss of 74,000 engineering workers.
“For the fifth consecutive month, IT employment posted strong growth in December. From its low ebb in July, the graph reflecting the recovery is taking on a ‘hockey stick’-like trajectory,” observed Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. “While not quite back to employment levels pre-pandemic, we have made extraordinary progress in recovering the jobs lost in the Spring and early Summer. Despite weakness in other parts of the jobs market, IT employment remains a bright spot given the critical role IT professionals are playing in digital transformation and enabling many sectors of the economy to continue to operate through remote work,” added Roberts.
The following table presents information about the total number of jobs in certain sectors that provide a significant amount of employment for IT and engineering professionals.
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Technical note: TechServe Alliance’s IT Employment Index and Engineering Employment Index are the first specific measurements of IT and engineering employment. These unique measurements of total IT and engineering employment are created monthly by studying the ongoing staffing patterns of a dozen IT and computer related occupations in 22 industries and industry sectors employing significant numbers of IT workers and nearly two dozen engineering occupations in 30 select industries and industry sectors employing significant numbers of engineering workers. Both the monthly IT Employment and Engineering Employment Indices are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, which is subject to monthly revisions, and is revised accordingly. Both indices are also subject to periodic revisions and annual rebenchmarking that includes revisions to several years of employment data, which also may incorporate new occupational definitions. Both indices were re-benchmarked going back several years starting with January 2020 data and published in February 2020. In addition, both indices are subject to minor revisions to March and April data. The next major revision will be published in February 2021.
ABOUT TechServe Alliance
TechServe Alliance is the national trade association of the IT & Engineering staffing and solutions industry. Hundreds of IT & Engineering staffing and solutions firms and tens of thousands of affiliated professionals, count on TechServe Alliance to keep their leadership informed, engaged and connected. TechServe Alliance serves as the voice of the industry before the policymakers and the national and trade press. By providing access to the knowledge and best practices of an entire industry and tapping the “collective scale” of hundreds of companies, TechServe Alliance supports its members in the efficient delivery of best-in-class IT & Engineering staffing and solutions for clients and exceptional professional opportunities for every consultant.
DPP® is a member of TechServe Alliance.
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This article is reproduced with permission from TechServe Alliance. The views represented in this article are not necessarily the views of DP Professionals, Inc.
