Gains in all 50 USA states expands tech’s footprint; 3% job growth forecast for 2023.
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. – Against the backdrop of an eventful year tech employment added new jobs and grew in depth and breadth, according to today’s release of new research from CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the information technology (IT) industry and workforce.
CompTIA’s annual “State of the Tech Workforce” reveals that net tech employment grew by 3.2% nationally in 2022, with the number of people employed in technology increasing by an estimated net new 286,400 workers.
More than 9.1 million people work in tech jobs, spanning both technical and non-technical workers employed by tech companies and tech professionals who work in industries across the economy.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia saw increases in tech employment in 2022. Texas led the nation in net tech employment growth, adding an estimated 45,331 jobs. California (+38,186), Florida (+22,029), New York (+18,487) and Washington (+17,962) rounded out the top five states for job gains.
Demonstrating the breadth of tech employment opportunities, an estimated 50,000 net new jobs were created last year in ‘under the radar’ states that may not be viewed as tech hubs, including South Carolina (+3,853), Indiana (+3,525), Alabama (+2,430), Kansas (+1,786) and Idaho (+1,503). The Silicon Valley corridor of San Francisco to San Jose remains an important jobs growth engine, but over the past five years 86% of tech employment growth occurred in other metro areas across the country.
“In a year of even more uncertainty than usual, the tech labor market routinely defied expectations,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer for CompTIA. “The data continues to confirm the degree to which technology underpins so many facets of business activity across the economy and the breadth of employers reliant on technical and digital skills.”
CompTIA forecasts a 3% increase – more than 272,000 new jobs – in tech employment for 2023.
The tech industry delivers a direct economic impact of an estimated $2 trillion, or 8.8% of the total national economy. Tech sectors in 29 states generate $10 billion or more in direct economic impact.
CompTIA’s “State of the Tech Workforce” is the most comprehensive source of data on the size and scope of the U.S. technology industry and workforce. The report includes data on employment, wages, business establishments, job postings, workforce diversity, emerging tech metrics and more. Among other highlights from the 2023 report:
Occupations poised for growth – Data scientists and analysts (5.5%), cybersecurity analysts and engineers (5.2%), web designers and UI/UX professionals (4.7%), software developers and engineers (4.7%) and software quality assurance and testers (4.1%) and projected to see the most growth this year. The interconnected nature of technology requires robust infrastructure and multi-faceted support which can be seen in the growth of network and cloud engineers and IT support specialists (3rd highest on the year-over-year count of new jobs added).
Work from home impact – Among the nearly 4.1 million employer job postings for tech positions in 2022, 34% specified a work from home or hybrid work options – slightly more than 1.4 million jobs. That is a 146% increase over the pre-pandemic rate.
Emerging tech employment opportunities – Just over 30% of all tech jobs postings were for occupations related to emerging technologies or for positions that required emerging tech skills. New York City, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Dallas and Los Angeles were the top five cities for emerging tech job postings.
Growth in tech businesses – The number of tech business establishments increased by 7.5% in 2022, the equivalent of more than 40,500 additional companies. There are now more than 582,000 tech business in the U.S.
Access the full report here
