When it comes to job postings in April, North Texas fared better than most, but that was largely because it lost fewer jobs than many other metros.
According to a report by IT trade association CompTIA, which looked at data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Dallas moved into the No. 3 spot for tech job postings in April. That brings the city up from the No. 4 spot last month, putting Dallas behind only Washington, D.C., and New York City. Overall, Texas took the No. 2 spot in terms of IT job postings.
“The data suggests tech job losses skewed more toward business services positions and not skilled tech personnel, which makes sense,” said Tim Herbert, executive VP for research and market intelligence at CompTIA, in a prepared statement.
However, where typically these reports show cities competing to attract talent, the Covid-19 pandemic is forcing tech companies to look for ways to retain employees. Overall, the U.S. lost nearly 112,000 tech jobs, the largest monthly decline in industry history, according to the report. Texas has one of the higher job losses by state, shedding nearly 7,800 positions. Dallas took a hit of about 4,400 tech jobs.
One area that did see some positive growth was remote and WFH tech job postings – a clear sign of the impact the pandemic is having on the ecosystem. In that area, Texas saw an increase of 247 positions, bringing the total to more than 7,800.
The report also noted that by industry professional; scientific and technical services; finance and insurance; manufacturing and information had the largest number of posting for the past month. However, as the effects of Covid-19 continue to spread and with data still being compiled for March, there are likely some difficult jobs reports in the coming months.
“To cut costs, companies will likely first forego sales, marketing, and similar positions while preserving the ‘brains’ of the organization in positions that are developing and deploying technology products,” Herbert said. “This is especially true in companies providing critical remote-work technologies. If anything, these companies will be looking to expand their technical staff to meet increased customer demand.”
