The tech unemployment rate climbed in February to 3.3 percent, a bit below the national rate of 4.1 percent, according to a CompTIA analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Although employment by tech sector companies declined by 11,514 positions last month, tech employment across all industry sectors increased by 177,000 during the same period; those sectors with the highest volumes of tech job postings included professional, scientific and technical services, manufacturing, information, and finance and insurance. Year-over-year, new tech job postings are up 15 percent.
In other words, there are positive signs for tech hiring amidst all the economic uncertainty right now. “As expected, the report paints a mixed picture as labor market data catches up to market developments,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer of CompTIA, wrote in a statement accompanying the data. “Recent employer tech hiring and future hiring intent indicators remain steady, so a degree of reassurance.”
Despite the turbulence, employers still seem intent on hiring tech professionals with artificial intelligence (AI) skills. According to CompTIA’s analysis of Lightcast job posting data, job listings referencing some kind of AI skill rose 116 percent year-over-year, while dedicated AI job roles increased 79 percent during the same period. Across the broader market, job posting activity remained strong for software developers/engineers, systems engineers/architects, tech support specialists, and cybersecurity engineers/analysts.
If you want to learn how to use AI, you could take the intensive route and learn the fundamentals of the technology, which you could leverage into training models and other pursuits. Necessary skills include:
- Programming Proficiency: Master Python, the go-to language for AI/ML.
- Mathematics Mastery: Grasp linear algebra, calculus, and probability theory.
- Data Science Fundamentals: Learn data cleaning, exploration, and visualization.
For many tech professionals, however, learning how to effectively use prompts in AI-powered chatbots such as ChatGPT is more than enough to integrate the benefits of AI into your workflows, particularly when it comes to coding.
