The U.S. economy lost 4,700 IT jobs in January, the first decline for the sector in more than 27 months, consulting firm Janco Associates reported.
However, there are still 109,000 IT unfilled jobs due to a lack of qualified candidates, according to the Feb. 3 report, which analyzes data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Telecom and data center roles are among those being eliminated.
"Driving this is CIOs and CFOs who are looking to improve the productivity of IT by automating processes and reporting where possible," Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis wrote. "They are focusing on eliminating 'non-essential' managers and staff. They will continue to hire coders and developers. The highest demand continues to be for security professionals, programmers, and blockchain processing IT pros."
Janco expects the economy to add 165,000 IT jobs in 2023, which would be down from the previous two years but still high historically.