The US Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released its "2017 Occupational Outlook Handbook," and the future for employment growth in IT-related jobs remains bright. The handbook provides information and projections for 575 occupations, accounting for approximately 80% of the jobs in the US economy. It includes information as to what the job role entails, where the work typically occurs, education and training requirements, wages and employment outlook. It also includes state and local area data. Projected jobs growth reflects the agency's 10-year employment projections (2016-2026), which the agency updates on a biannual basis.

Employment in the computer and information technology occupations group is projected to reach a scale of 4.8 million jobs, up 12.9% over the period. This represents an additional 546,100 jobs and is well ahead of the 7.4% growth projected for total employment. The group ranks fourth in projected rate of employment growth, behind only healthcare-related occupational groups. Specific growth drivers cited in the release include growth in cloud computing, the collection and storage of big data, and information security.

Employment projections for occupations within the group are listed in the table below:

Click on table to enlarge view.

Impressively, "software developers, applications," the largest computer and IT occupation subgroup, is projected to grow more than any occupation in the group, both in terms of percentage gains, up 30.5%, and in the number of jobs added at 253,400. In fact, application software developers are projected to make up 22.7% of all computer and IT occupations in 2026, up from 19.6% in 2016.

On the other end of the spectrum, "computer programmer" jobs are projected to decline 7.6%. This is the only IT occupation expected to decline over the decade and reflects jobs lost through outsourcing to offshore locations.

The median annual wage for the computer and information technology occupation group was $82,360 in 2016. This is up from $79,390 two years ago, an increase of 3.7%. The highest median annual pay among the group was for computer and information research scientists, at $111,840, while the lowest was for computer support specialists at $49,390.

The Occupational Outlook Handbook section covering computer and information technology occupations is available online.