The TechServe Alliance – a lobbying group for the IT industry – published its IT Employment Index for March 2010, the organization’s measurement of trends in US IT employment. The Index revealed that IT jobs decreased by 1800 in March, to a total of 3,829,100 nationwide. This was contrary to the upward trend the industry experienced during the first two months of 2010, when the US added 18 000 IT jobs.
According to the Index, IT jobs in the insurance and related industries fell by 0.42%, whereas IT employment in the telecommunications field decreased by 0.40%. There was an increase, however, in the number of jobs in computer systems and design services, as employment in this sector increased by 0.40% in March and is up by 0.67% from March 2009 levels. Furthermore, a year-over-year comparison revealed that total IT employment in all sectors has decreased by 2.26% when compared with March 2009.
Recent reports, including those covered by Infosecurity, have predicted an increase in IT spending and IT employment in 2010, albeit modest improvement. So the March IT Employment Index from TechServe may be just a momentary hiccup in the upward trend.
“Although IT job growth was essentially flat in March, we are not concerned this is indicative of a major change in the overall growth trend of IT jobs”, said Mark Roberts, CEO of the TechServe Alliance. “While employment data naturally fluctuates month-to-month, all signs point to continued growth as 2010 continues to unfold.” he added.
Taking into consideration the continuous outsourcing trends and the recent recession, the 3.8 million IT jobs in the US as of March 2010 is not far off the industry’s employment high-water mark. TechServe, with data that goes back to 2000, told Infosecurity that August 2008 was the apex of IT employment in the US. More than 4 million people (4,029,900) were employed in the IT field during that month, a number that just may be eclipsed in the not-too-distant future.