After a scheduled day off yesterday, I thought I’d start with some data on employees… and the potential lack of them.
The good news, the job market is still strong – that from data from the Labor Department. The labor market surprisingly remains hot and tight as indicated by a trifecta of strength reported in the three key categories in April – employment, the unemployment rate, and average hourly earnings,” Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, wrote in a note.
Inside that data is that overall labor force participation — that is, the share of the total population either working or looking for work — is still slightly lower than where it was back in Feb 2020, while among those aged 25–53 is now at 83.3% — slightly higher than where it was in February 2020. Why? Older workers are retiring.
Tech services, tech manufacturing, and cloud infrastructure added jobs for the month. In contrast, according to an analysis by CompTIA, the broader measure of tech employment across the economy took a breather. Tech sector companies increased staffing by 18,795 positions in April, the largest volume of monthly hiring since August 2022, CompTIA’s analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics #JobsReport data reveals. New hiring of technology infrastructure, manufacturing, and services workers led the growth, according to CompTIA’s “Tech Jobs Report.”
Tech occupations throughout the economy took a step back, declining by 99,000 positions. The unemployment rate for tech occupations increased to 2.3%, still well below the national unemployment rate (3.4%).
There’s good news coming — More than 4 in 5 college graduates majoring in non-tech fields possess one or more technology proficiencies, such as data analytics capabilities and IT systems knowledge, according to a new Handshake report.
Specifically within tech, Insider looks at the changing environment for tech workers. Bringing them back into the office, cutting benefits, and industry layoffs. The question at hand – how far can they push before a rebellion?
And for context, IT services growth this year will be almost 6%, per IDC’s latest Worldwide IT Spending Growth report, and Overall software spending growth will be nearly 11%, driven chiefly by cloud software revenues which will increase by 19%.
Why do we care?
I want to focus on the age theme running through these stories. It’s awkward for many business leaders to discuss age while avoiding ageism, but there’s a reality to face of retiring experience in the workforce. Couple that with younger workers with more technical skill sets, and add dashes of spice to the conflict over benefits and pay, and you have a challenging hiring environment. I keep hearing how the pendulum of power has swung back to capital from labor. I’m not seeing it in this story, and I offer how challenging it continues to be to find and retain staff.