Key measurements of tech hiring activity delivered conflicting signals in March as uncertainty factors accelerated, CompTIA, the leading global provider of vendor-neutral information technology (IT) training and certification products, reported today.

Employment by tech sector companies declined by a net 8,428 positions in March, analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) #JobsReport data reveals.¹ Staffing reductions in the tech services and telecommunications occupation categories accounted for the majority of job losses.

Across all industry sectors, tech employment declined by an estimated 29,000.² The tech unemployment rate fell slightly to 3.1%, compared to the national rate of 4.2% for March.

New employee job postings for tech occupations increased slightly to more than 213,000. In all, there were nearly 478,000 active tech job postings last month.³

Industry sectors adding the largest numbers of new tech job postings included professional, scientific and technical services (52,526), administrative and support services (26,099) and manufacturing (21,975).

"With many employers in wait-and-see mode, the jobs data is about in line with expectations for the month," said Tim Herbert, chief research officer, CompTIA.

Software developers and engineers, tech support specialists, systems engineers and architects and cybersecurity engineers and analysts were in highest demand. Positions in artificial intelligence (AI) or that require AI skills accounted for 21% of all active tech job postings. One-half of all tech job postings did not specify a need for a four-year academic degree.

California, North Carolina and Washington recorded the best month over month gains in tech job postings among the states. At the metro market level, Seattle, San Francisco and San Jose led metropolitan markets in month over month growth, while New York City, Washington and Dallas had the highest numbers of postings.

The "CompTIA Tech Jobs Report" is available here.