Hiring for information-technology jobs at U.S. companies outside of the technology industry slowed in March, but remained in positive territory for the year, CompTIA reported Friday.
The number of IT jobs declined by roughly 50,000 jobs last month, following strong gains at the start of the year, the trade group said. Since January, U.S. employers at non-tech firms have created a net 180,000 new IT jobs, a CompTIA spokesman told CIO Journal.
The results are based on an analysis of the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data, released Friday.
Software and applications developers, computer systems engineers and architects and computer systems analysts were the most sought after workers last month, CompTIA said. Overall, total job postings for IT workers were up by 27,200 over the previous month.
Within the IT sector, employers added an estimated 9,000 new jobs in March, led by IT services and custom software, data processing and hosting and related services.
Telecommunications jobs were cut by roughly 2,000.
Across the economy, non-farm payrolls in March saw the smallest increase in six months, rising a seasonally adjusted 103,000, less than half of the employment gains reported in February, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The unemployment rate held steady at a 17-year low of 4.1%. Including March, U.S. employers have created new jobs for 90 straight months, the longest continuous jobs expansion on record.
Some fear that emerging technologies may dampen those gains. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in a report released last month, said it estimates that the number of jobs at risk of being automated — by artificial intelligence, machine learning and other digital capabilities – at roughly 66 million across dozens of countries.
The number of at-risk jobs vary by location, though most are low-skilled occupations or jobs held by younger workers, the Paris-based research body said.
Jobs at the highest risk include food preparers, cleaners and laborers in mining, construction and transport, it said.
Roughly two out of five companies globally have already replaced some jobs with digital tools powered by AI, according to a survey earlier this year by technology outsourcing firm Infosys Ltd.
Gartner Inc. last year said its estimates that AI will create 2.3 million jobs by 2020, while eliminating 1.8 million, and account for a net two million new jobs by 2025.
