The tech industry continued to add jobs despite the tens of thousands of layoffs that were announced in November, though tech job postings continued a downward slide, according to an analysis of U.S. employment numbers released Friday.
U.S. tech companies actually added 14,400 workers in November, according to the Computing Technology Industry Association, or CompTIA, capping two straight years of monthly job growth in the tech sector. In addition, the group said tech jobs in all sectors grew by 137,000 positions, and that the unemployment rate for tech workers fell to 2% from 2.2% in October. CompTIA’s analysis is based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly jobs data, as well as hiring data from Lightcast.
While those numbers belie a downturn for tech, the report from CompTIA — which calls itself “a leading voice and advocate” for the tech industry — also showed reason for concern about hiring moving forward. Job postings for future tech hiring fell in November — though they totaled almost 270,000 — continuing a drop in tech job postings every month since April.
See: U.S. adds 263,000 jobs in November and wages rise sharply — far too much for the Fed’s liking
Many of the recently announced tech job cuts are not reflected in this analysis. For example, DoorDash Inc. DASH, -3.38% just announced cuts earlier this week. Some announced layoffs aren’t scheduled to take effect until the next month or two in accordance with laws that require 60 to 90 days of notice for job cuts, such as the thousands of layoffs at Twitter and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. META, +2.53%
In addition, some industry giants including Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -1.43% have either indicated more layoffs may be coming, or are reportedly considering them, as is the case with Google GOOG, -0.44% GOOGL, -0.54%. Against the steady drumbeat of layoff announcements, experts have issued mixed forecasts about how bad the tech downturn will be and how long it will last.
Read: Tech layoffs approach Great Recession levels
Tech companies hired for these types of jobs in November, according to CompTIA: IT services and custom software development (added 8,100 jobs from the month before); data processing, hosting and related services (4,100); other information services, including search engines (2,100); and computer and electronic products manufacturing (1,900). There was a 2,300 decline in hiring for telecommunications jobs.
CompTIA’s report also showed that the top three industries that each had more than 30,000 job postings for tech positions in November were professional, scientific and technical services; finance and insurance; and manufacturing.