IT staffing firms doing business in the US stand to benefit from an encouraging long-term growth outlook for IT-related employment, based on recently published projections by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook provides information and projections for 325 occupation categories, 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. The outlook reflects the agency's 10-year employment projections (2018-2028), which the agency updates on a biannual basis.
Employment in the Computer and Information Technology occupations group is projected to reach a scale of 5.0 million jobs by 2028, up 12.2% over the period. This represents an incremental 546,200 jobs and is well ahead of the 5.2% growth projected for total occupational employment.
The Computer and Information Technology occupations group ranks third in projected employment growth (up from fourth two years ago), behind only Healthcare Support and Personal Care and Service occupations. Specific growth drivers cited in the release include growth in cloud computing, the collection and storage of big data, and information security. Six of the 30 fastest growing occupations projected are attributed to the group, such as information security analysts (+31.6%) and application software developers (25.6%).
On the other end of the spectrum, computer programmer jobs are projected to decline 7.2%. This is the only IT occupation expected to decline over the decade, in part due to jobs lost through outsourcing to offshore locations.
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BLS employment projections for computer occupations
The median annual wage for the computer and information technology occupation group was $86,320 in May 2018, up 4.8% from the period two years ago. The highest median annual pay among the group was for computer and information research scientists, at $118,370, while the lowest was for computer support specialists at $53,470.
The Occupational Outlook Handbook section covering computer and information technology occupations is available online. For more insight on our perspectives on the outlook for IT staffing, see our IT Staffing Growth Assessment and US Staffing Industry Forecast.
