An annual report from Janco Associates showed the IT job market shrinking for the first time since 2020. The IT and BT job market has 4,700 less jobs than it did one year ago. On the other hand, IT salaries have increased, although Janco notes that the salaries have not kept up with inflation. The analysis was based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data published in 2023. The analysis projects that the shrinkage of the job market is set to continue, as the trend line suggests more reduction in the coming months.
At the same time, the IT discipline is still plagued by a relentless skills shortage – although it is shrinking. M. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco, noted that “the highest demand continues to be for security professionals, programmers, and blockchain processing IT Pros. Currently, there are over 109K unfilled jobs in the IT job market, a drop from 216K in November.”
The news comes as layoffs have plagued the tech industry, with household brands like Microsoft, Google, and others making headlines as thousands of employees were let go. Developers seem to have been largely safe from these layoffs, but some IT roles were affected. Data center operations, administrative and HR roles related to recruiting, and DEI, telecommunications, and data center operations were reported to be affected in the reductions.
What does this mean for business technologists and IT pros? The Wall Street Journal quoted Christopher Gilchrist, Forrester Analyst, who noted that “there is excess demand for IT labor, which will continue to be in favor of those looking for IT employment.” In other words, a safe bet is continuing to build skills in high demand IT disciplines that matter. The 2022 State of Business Technology report lists these skills as the highest priority:
- Cybersecurity
- Cloud Applications
- Data Analytics/BI
- Cloud Infrastructure
- Data storage
- Automation
- Systems/data integration
- API integrations
- AI and ML
- Predictive analytics
