US IT Job Growth Remains Anemic In Light Of Acute Talent Shortage

Staff Report

Friday, August 17th, 2018

The number of IT jobs grew 0.06% sequentially last month to 5,343,800 according to TechServe Alliance, the national trade association of the IT & Engineering Staffing and Solutions industry. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment grew by 0.73% since July 2017 adding 38,600 IT workers.

Engineering employment increased by 0.21 percent sequentially to 2,606,300. On a year-over-year basis, growth in engineering employment increased by 2.41% since July 2017 or 61,300 engineering workers.

"Despite strong demand for talent in high demand IT skill sets, IT job growth continues to underperform the overall job market," stated Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance.  "It is beyond frustrating to see a large number of opportunities, but not the qualified people to fill these positions. The Administration's restrictive immigration policies are encouraging IT work that would otherwise be performed in the U.S. to be pushed off-shore," observed Roberts.