CompTIA reports standout numbers for the tech industry in July, likely promising more success for Pittsburgh

Tech jobs are booming as America’s economic recovery from pandemic shutdowns finally starts to round a corner.

The most recent Tech Jobs Report from technology trade association CompTIA showed that the industry’s employment numbers are up as companies pivot to a more remote and software-heavy future following the pandemic.

Employers in the tech sector added a total of 10,700 jobs last month, whereas tech occupations across all sectors increased by 178,000 in July. Leading the pack for that growth were postings in scientific and technical services, finance and insurance, manufacturing, information, and retail trade, demonstrating the widespread influence the tech industry now has in a variety of workplaces. Top employers included Deloitte, Humana, Accenture and Amazon.

The report comes at a bright time for the U.S. economy, which added 943,000 jobs in July and saw unemployment fall to 5.4%, surpassing experts’ initial predictions. (Notably, the data was collected in the first half of the month before the broader rise of the Delta variant.) Unemployment for the tech industry is down, too, at 1.5% — the lowest it’s been since the record low of 1.3% in August 2019, per CompTIA.

The growth and benefits of these new numbers are no longer limited to East and West Coast tech hubs as they were a decade ago. This year’s Scoring Tech Talent report from CBRE listed Pittsburgh in the top five of smaller tech hubs, due in large part to its strong local talent pipeline, general affordability and increasingly successful company exits.

While the CompTIA report didn’t directly mention Pittsburgh, it listed Pennsylvania as one of the top 10 states for remote tech job postings, showing promise for a white collar workforce that has partially shifted to permanent or mostly remote setups as the pandemic has persisted. A recent survey done by local community and coworking space Code & Supply showed that many tech workers are still hesitant about a full return to in-person work, even after the pandemic is under control.

So with remote work likely here to stay in corporate America, these new numbers from CompTIA show that Pittsburgh stands to benefit from both the economic rebound this summer and its status as a tech-heavy, remote friendly city.