IT employment in the US remained essentially flat in July — edging down by just 700 jobs from June— with total IT employment at more than 5.3 million, the TechServe Alliance reported Aug. 7.

This represents a 0.01% decrease in IT jobs.

The number of IT jobs was also down year over year by 17,700, a decrease of 0.3%.

On the other hand,  engineering employment rose by 1.2% year over year, adding 34,400 workers, but remained unchanged in July from June, for total employment of more than 2.8 million. 

“Although IT employment showed small gains at the start of 2024 after 23 consecutive months of job losses, IT jobs have remained relatively flat over the past few months,” TechServe CEO Mark Roberts said in a press release.

Roberts noted that while the overall job market had remained strong as IT jobs declined in 2022 and 2023, July reflected a broader hiring slowdown with lower-than-expected jobs growth and rising unemployment, which jumped to 4.3%.

“Despite this labor market weakening, which triggered stock market volatility, I do not anticipate any meaningful decline in IT employment during the coming months as we have already seen the ‘correction’ in IT hiring. Unfortunately, until the widespread apprehension over the economy dissipates, I am also not anticipating significant growth either,” he said.  

 “Longer term, the perennial demand for IT and critical IT skill sets has not gone away  —many backlogged IT projects are awaiting budgets to open up once the cloud of uncertainty clears.”