Technology Snapshot

Employment Trends in Technology

At the onset of the year, it looked like it could be the end of Big Tech. Layoffs seemed widespread across some of the most noteworthy companies, including Meta, Twitter, and Amazon. The Federal Reserve’s rapid tightening cycle quickly destroyed the zero-interest-rate ecosystem these companies had existed in for over a decade. Without that environment, could tech still thrive? It seems the answer is “yes.”

The stories in the news about tech may have shifted from layoffs to artificial intelligence, but the tech jobs market has slowed down. In both May and June, the Information sector – the closest the Bureau of Labor Statistics has to a tech industry grouping – added zero jobs. If you looked at just the information sector, you may believe tech is faltering. But the professional and business services sector, which contains many tech-related subsectors, continued to be strong. Tech is in a transitionary period, trying to find a balance between the recent waves of high-profile layoffs and the buzzing excitement over AI .

Pure tech subsectors have actually experienced some strong growth. Technical consulting gained a strong 11,900 net new jobs in June, engineering services gained 6,300, and scientific research was up 700 jobs. Software developers gained 1,600 net new jobs. Interestingly, the flatlining of the information sector comes primarily from declines in broadcast and content providers, a subsector which lost 3,100 jobs.