The technology industry’s unemployment rate jumped a bit in the third quarter of 2015, to 3.0 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). While that’s the highest rate since the second quarter of 2014, it’s still lower than the 5.2 percent unemployment rate for the U.S. labor market as a whole. For July and August, the latest months for which the BLS has preliminary data, layoffs and discharges in the technology industry totaled 377,000 and 378,000, respectively. That’s a decline from the first and second quarters. Over the same period, an average of 500,000 employees per month quit their positions voluntarily—a rate only slightly lower than the previous two quarters. On a segment-by-segment basis, Web developers, computer-systems analysts, programmers, network and systems administrators, software developers, and computer & information systems managers all experienced varying increases in their respective unemployment rates. What does this mean for recruiters? With overall tech unemployment still low, top talent retains the ability to demand top salaries and perks. The number of voluntary quits suggests that candidates feel confident enough about the economy to leave their current positions to search for new work (or try their hand at independent contracting). That represents a lot of opportunities for companies looking to fill their ranks.
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