Tech Industry Employment Grew 3 Percent in 2015

the-var-guy-logo

By The VAR Guy

The US technology sector is in good shape, at least from an employment perspective, according to the new Cyberstates 2016 report released by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). Nearly 200,000 new jobs were added in 2015, bringing the total number of US tech workers to over 6.7 million. This represents a year-over-year (YOY) increase of 3 percent, the highest growth rate the tech industry has seen in over a decade. Compare this to the 2.1 percent YOY national employment growth average for last year.

CompTIA found that over half of the growth was in IT services, which added 105,400 new tech jobs in 2015. This is good news for channel companies making investments in growing their services offerings. IT services drive much of the activity in the deployment, integration and management of many of tech’s hottest trends, including business process automation, data analytics and other business intelligence (BI) innovations.

Read more: Which Data Center Skills are in Demand Today

“Much of this growth can be attributed to the current trends in cloud computing, mobility, automation and social technologies that are reshaping businesses large and small,” said Tim Herbert, senior vice president, Research and Market Intelligence, CompTIA. “Momentum behind the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to grow, while the critical importance of cybersecurity shows no signs of abating.”

Though these technologies are poised to deliver exciting changes for businesses in all sectors, CompTIA acknowledges that few will be able to take full advantage of them without the help of the channel. Solution providers, MSPs, VARs, distributors and cloud service providers are among the organizations of the channel ecosystem the report says will play an integral role in supplying these emerging technologies and servicing customers’ ongoing needs.

The report also alludes to the growing need for IT consultative services, saying that organizations across sectors recognize that building digital workflows requires a new approach to software and equal attention paid to all layers of the stack.

On the wage front, CompTIA reports that on average, tech workers earned $105,400—more than double the US average private sector wage. Nearly 12 percent of all US private sector payroll can be attributed to the tech industry. Among all tech subsectors, IT services again took the lead in terms of highest payroll at $232,100.

On the state-by-state level, California lead in employment, wages, payroll and number of establishments. Texas, New York and Massachusetts followed behind.

This first ran at http://thevarguy.com/var-guy/tech-industry-employment-grew-3-percent-2015-67-million