ACI Voices: IT jobs outlook through rest of 2024? Better.

We’re always reviewing industry projections for demand, growth rate and salaries for tech jobs. (As a leading provider of audit, cybersecurity and IT training solutions, ACI Learning has an obvious interest!) After a few years of unprecedented boom, things slowed down late last year but good news – lately we’ve found that – barring major global economic disruptions and heavy AI investments – things are starting to look up again.

Here are the broad strokes:

Demand for tech professionals is slowly recovering. After plunging from mid-2022 highs, postings for tech jobs are edging up – especially for IT project managers, data analysts, systems analysts and, of course, many roles in AI. According to the latest monthly tech jobs report from CompTIA, professional services firms, finance and manufacturing offered the most new opportunities. That’s welcome news.

Big layoffs at tech titans Google, Meta, Salesforce, Amazon, Apple and others in late 2023 and early 2024 rattled many people. Doomsayers proclaimed “the end of tech jobs!” and “AI is taking over!” Not really. AI will surely change and obsolete some jobs. But new roles like prompt engineer and careers are already appearing.

And remember: big tech is its own beast, not the whole field. During the post-pandemic hiring boom, many overhired, often to lock up valuable talent. Pressured by Wall Street, companies cut staffing levels, including IT. Downsizing has leveled off, and IT opportunities in many places are growing. 

“Across every conceivable industry, well-compensated tech jobs and skills are in high demand,” 
CompTIA IT Industry Outlook 2024 reports. “The options in terms of tech disciplines and job roles are voluminous, ranging from entry-level help desk and network techs to data scientists, cybersecurity experts and those tackling today’s new AI projects.” 

Placement firm Robert Half agrees. “ Technology teams across industries are broadly forging ahead with business-critical projects,” according to its 2024 Technology Salaries and Hiring Trends. “Managers are especially in need of expertise for cloud and DevOps initiatives, digital transformation, security and privacy, development, AI, automation, system upgrades, and data integration and analytics. With 61% of hiring managers planning to expand their teams, competition for candidates promises to remain high. 35% are hiring for vacated positions.”

Internal training continues as the most popular choice for building expertise. CompTIA found 59% of companies surveyed expect to pursue training options, compared to 41% exploring new hiring to add skills. It adds: “as a capstone to training efforts, 41% of companies expect to pursue certifications for their technical staff.” Again, Robert Half concurs. The hottest credentials, they say:

Bottom line: hiring for tech jobs is nowhere near as bonkers as mid 2022, but better than late 2023. We’re keeping a close eye on things. In our next post, we’ll look at 1Q24 numbers for hiring and salaries in IT, cybersecurity and audit. How good were all those projections? Check back to find out!

ACI Voices is an occasional series where our leaders share what’s on their minds.