Despite the global crisis, IT job postings in the DC area continue to increase

The District led the nation in total number of March IT job postings with 25,855, according to global tech industry trade association CompTIA.

D.C. also saw an increase of 3,310 job postings in March compared to February. The association published these findings among others in its most recent CompTIA IT Employment Tracker report. Each month, CompTIA analyzes tech employment data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics which includes employment rates for five IT sectors:

• Custom software development and computer systems design
• Other information services, including search engines and portals
• Data processing, hosting and related services
• Computer and electronic products manufacturing
• Telecommunications

Nationally, employment has fallen by 701,000 positions due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the restaurant, retail and hospitality sectors getting hit the worst. Meanwhile, the IT sector added an estimated 8,500 new tech workers in March and the unemployment rate for IT occupations stood at 2.4% last month, as 19,000 IT workers were laid off, CompTIA reported.

Despite the global crisis and those layoffs, the IT sector’s employee retention rate is looking better than others.

“At this point we simply do not know how the crisis will play out in the labor market,” said Tim Herbert, executive VP for research and market intelligence at CompTIA, in a press release. “On the one hand, reliance on technology grows by the day and the professionals that support networks, remote work, e-commerce, cybersecurity, and related, are more critical than ever. On the other, historical precedent reminds us that no category of employment is immune to severe downturns.”

As Herbert said, these are uncertain times and there’s no way to predict who will stay employed through this global crisis. During the 2008-2010 recession, IT occupations reached a 6.5% unemployment rate. CompTIA did find that IT job postings that promoted remote or work-from-home requirements increased by 182% in Q1 2020 compared to Q1 2019.

Nationally, software developers for applications was the top IT position for remote or work-from-home job postings with 27,884 openings last month. Of the DMV region, Virginia was featured in the top 10 states for open remote or work-from-home gigs with 4,136 job postings. The Commonwealth was also among the top five states for IT job postings in March with 21,643 open positions.

Reston, Virginia’s General Dynamics, Leidos and SAIC and Falls Church, Virginia’s Northrop Grumman were among the top 10 employers for IT job postings count in March.