Which employers were hungriest for technologists in November? According to a new breakdown by CompTIA, the giants of finance, consulting, and education were all on the hunt for skilled technologists to help them carry out strategy, fortify the tech stack, and build new apps and services.
CompTIA bases its data on Emsi Burning Glass, which collects and analyzes millions of job postings from across the country. With that in mind, here’s the breakdown of its November data:
The overall tech unemployment rate hit 2.6 percent in November, a slight rise from 2.1 percent in October (according to CompTIA’s analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data). Cities with rising demand for technologists included San Francisco, Orlando, Phoenix, and Chicago, while other metropolises (such as New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago) had large numbers of open technology jobs.
As previously mentioned, the top employers of technologists last month were some of the country’s largest consulting and business-services firms. With organizations of all sizes turning to consultants and contractors in order to quickly implement strategies and deliver products to market, these consultancies have been enjoying a sizable spike in demand during the pandemic. The complexities of the current environment—including supply-chain issues, and cybersecurity threats—mean that demand will likely continue for quite some time to come.
Other companies on this list, including Anthem Blue Cross and Wells Fargo, have popped up again and again during the pandemic as big hirers of tech talent. This sustained hunger for technologists shows that companies from all kinds of industries have firmly embraced the role of technology (and tech talent) in their ongoing operations. Healthcare and finance have particular need for data scientists, data analysts, and other specialists who can help store, structure, move, and analyze data for crucial insights.
For technologists, this sustained demand is a good thing, as it provides added leverage for negotiating for anything from boosted compensation to better work-life balance. When heading into any negotiation, stay flexible—you might not get 100 percent of what you want, but your manager might be happy to meet you halfway. It’s also critical to show how your current scope of work makes you more valuable than your current compensation (using data to back up that assertion always helps, too).
