Tech jobs report follows national unsettled numbers

Tech unemployment ticked up slightly on the back of an overall underwhelming national jobs report.

Numbers from CompTIA showed that unemployment in the tech sector moved from 3.2% in July to 3.4% in August after a loss of 28,000 industry positions. The biggest loser was “PC, semiconductor, and components manufacturing,” which dropped 2,500 jobs; this was somewhat offset by 3,400 positions in “IT and custom software services and system design.”

With 211,000 added listings for August, the total available postings were higher than in July. Software developers and engineers, with 3,320 postings, and data scientists, with 2,036 postings, led the way. The five top metro areas for job postings were Washington, DC, New York, Dallas, Atlanta, and Boston; the five top states were California, Texas, Virginia, New York, and Florida.

Ups and downs. The up and down numbers show the continued volatility in the tech labor market. Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, noted in a statement accompanying the report that the back and forth necessitates a wider view.

“The bumpy stretch of tech labor market data requires the usual balancing of shorter term and longer term perspectives,” Herbert wrote.

Nationally, unemployment dipped slightly from 4.3% in July to 4.2% in August while hiring cooled, raising questions about the Federal Reserve’s continued decision to keep interest rates high (though the central bank may cut rates soon). Stocks dropped Friday on the data, with the Dow dropping 400 points after the report.

Beth Ann Bovino, the chief US economist for US Bank, told the Washington Post that the overall national picture shouldn’t cause panic.

“The payroll numbers were weaker than expected, but when you look deeper into the numbers and other economic data which is holding up well, there’s not reason to panic,” Bovino said.