A paltry 700 US IT sector jobs were created across the entirety of 2023, new research suggests, highlights a worrying downward trajectory in industry growth amid challenging economic conditions.
Analysis by US-based IT consultancy Janco said the decline in positions can be attributed to a growing “skills mismatch” throughout the industry.
More than 267,000 jobs were added to the US IT sector across 2022, highlighting the scale of the current dip in opportunities spanning a range of areas.
Over the course of 2023, telecommunications lost 26,400 jobs, content providers lost 9,300, and other information services lost 10,300 jobs. By comparison, computer game designers gained 32,300 jobs and hosting providers gained 14,000.
There doesn't seem to be much overlap between the IT sectors that are firing and the IT sectors that are hiring, however, and in the current environment there are almost 100,000 unfilled jobs compared to over 101,000 unemployed IT professionals.
A survey conducted by Forbes earlier this year made similar findings, as 93% of the 500 surveyed businesses reported a gap in IT skills in the UK job market. Nearly half (42%) of these businesses went on to attribute that gap to the fast pace of technological advancement.
Cloud computing is chief among such problematic advancements. Data shared with ITPro by SoftwareOne shows that 32% of companies missed financial targets last year due to a lack of cloud capabilities, 93% of companies see cloud managed services as an urgent priority.
Find out how you can meet the performance needs of today’s hybrid employees
DOWNLOAD NOW
Janco draws a slightly different conclusion in its report, pointing toward AI industry growth as a key issue. Their suggestion is that AI is slowing growth in entry-level IT positions because, as with other sectors, it essentially replaces jobs, particularly in “customer service, telecommunications, and hosting automation”.
Productivity is, and perhaps always has been, the rule of the day, and AI is ultimately productive. It’s going to push CIOs and CFOs into automating tasks that were previously the role of now-unemployed IT professionals.
There’ll always be opportunities for the higher level IT experts, however. Janco CEO reinforced the fact that “experienced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning IT Professionals remain in high demand”, fetching salaries that sit comfortably in the low six figures.
