Milwaukee was among a list of U.S. metropolitan areas that are sometimes overlooked in technology hiring conversations, but had a high increase in information technology job postings between April and May, according to a report released June 4 by CompTIA, a nonprofit IT industry association.
IT job postings in the Milwaukee metro area increased 21% to 2,412 in May compared with 1,986 in April, according to the report and additional data supplied to the Milwaukee Business Journal by CompTIA.
Most of the Milwaukee-area tech job postings were for software developers, computer user support specialists, computer systems engineers and analysts, and IT project managers, according to the additional data.
Northwestern Mutual had the most Milwaukee-area tech job postings in May with 103 local tech job postings, according to the additional CompTIA data. Other companies with high numbers of local tech job postings in May were General Dynamics Corp., Accenture, Rockwell Automation Inc. and Deloitte.
General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), a Virginia-based aerospace company, had the most U.S. tech job postings in May by far, with 47,722 postings, according to the report.
Brookfield-based Fiserv Inc. was among the top 10 U.S. employers with the most tech job postings in May, according to the report. Fiserv (Nasdaq: FISV) had 1,998 tech job postings in May — about the same number as it had in April, when it also ranked among the top employers for tech job postings.
Fiserv had 20 tech job postings in the Milwaukee metro in May, according to the CompTIA data.
Larger metros including Washington, D.C., Atlanta and New York added the highest number of U.S. tech job postings last month, but mid-sized metros — many of which are in the Midwest — had high month-over-month percent changes, according to the report. In addition to Milwaukee, those metros included Virginia Beach-Norfolk, Virginia, which had a 60% increase; Des Moines, Iowa (33% increase); Kansas City, Missouri (27%); Louisville, Kentucky (26%); Baltimore (26%) and Detroit (25%).
According to the job posting data that CompTIA sources from Boston-based Burning Glass Technologies, job posting data is an imperfect indicator of job demand because not every posting translates to a new job, hiring firms may post the same job multiple times, and companies may hire candidates internally or try other hiring approaches.
U.S. tech sector employment — which includes both technical and non-technical jobs at tech companies — grew by 10,500 jobs in May to a total of more than 4.7 million, according to the report. However, across all economic sectors that employ IT professionals, the U.S. lost 78,000 tech jobs in May, the report showed.
“The strong employer hiring activity for technology positions coupled with a loss of jobs at the occupation level suggests a disconnect,” Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA, said in a statement. “However, it is not uncommon for factors such as hiring timing or an increase in workers seeking new employment opportunities to affect labor market data in the short-term.”
