Pittsburgh’s tech workforce has held steady since 2022

A new, national breakdown of tech jobs gives us a clearer picture of the state of local tech: In Pittsburgh, there’s been very little change in tech employment and wages since 2022, but the change we are seeing is positive.

Yes, despite all that news of layoffs.

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) recently released its State of the Tech Workforce report for 2023, and like fellow Pennsylvania tech hub Philadelphia, the Steel City experienced neither major gains nor losses.

Whereas the 2022 report found that Pittsburgh contributed 60,734 jobs to the overall economy, the number has risen to 62,469 this year. These figures represent net tech employment — tech industry jobs as well as tech occupation jobs. (Technical.ly has differentiated these as “jobs in tech” vs. “tech jobs.”)

Wages saw modest growth, too: In 2022, Pittsburgh technologists earned a median wage of $82,820, and the 2023 median is $84,274. This, CompTIA noted, was 92% higher than the median metro wage. The local tech sector now makes up $13.3 billion in economic impact, compared to the $12.2 billion reported in 2022.

Not all of Pittsburgh’s stats increased. The city still accounts for 5.5% of the overall workforce and maintained its position being 29th in the United States for net tech employment.

Another area that saw little movement over the past year for Pittsburgh? Stats regarding diversity. Despite making up 8% of the workforce, Black residents still represent only 5% of tech. The  Hispanic/Latinx population represents around 3% of occupations in the total economy, yet only accounts for 2% of the tech workforce. And women make up 49% of the overall workforce is women, but only 25% of Pittsburgh tech jobs.

Finally, in Pittsburgh, certain roles have seen promising growth. This year, software, programmers, web and QA roles have seen a 2.8% increase. Database, data science, CS and analytics roles have seen a 1.8% increase. And cybersecurity and systems engineers have seen a 1.3% increase.

See the full report

Psst: If you want a really nuanced look at local tech salary data, check out this snapshot of Code & Supply’s 2023 compensation survey results.

Atiya Irvin-Mitchell is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Heinz Endowments.