Tech Job Postings Hit a Three-Year High. Hiring Lags Behind

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Good news for tech professionals comes with an asterisk this month. Employer demand for IT workers in the US reached its highest level in more than three years in September: active IT job postings climbed to 625,633, up 22.4% from a year earlier. New postings reached 272,040, up 16%.

The asterisk is employment. The number of people working in tech occupations across all industries was essentially flat at a little over seven million. In other words, plenty of doors are being advertised, but fewer are swinging open than the listings suggest.

Where the demand is

Software developers and engineers led with 47,598 new postings, up 8.3% from August. Systems engineers came second with 36,146, ahead of tech support specialists, data analysts and DevOps engineers. Growth was broad: postings rose in 23 of the 30 highest-volume tech occupations and in 16 of the 20 industries tracked, led by professional and technical services, manufacturing, and administrative and support services.

AI is the loudest theme. Across the whole labor market, not just IT, active postings that require AI skills reached 349,821, up 32,327 from August and roughly 282% higher than in May 2024. Postings for dedicated AI and machine learning titles reached 13,636, nearly triple their May 2024 level.

Reading the signal correctly

"Even in an environment where employers remain generally cautious about hiring, there is still strong demand" for core IT skills, said Seth Robinson, vice president of research at CompTIA. He tied those skills to helping companies build digital discipline and move forward with AI adoption. The analysts add their own fine print: advertised openings are not completed hires, the data does not show whether AI is creating or eliminating jobs, and monthly employment estimates are volatile, so longer-term trends are the safer guide. For job seekers, the practical reading is that core skills such as software engineering and systems work remain in demand, and that adding AI to the mix widens the field of postings considerably.

Source: Employer demand for tech talent reaches three-year high, CompTIA analysis finds