Technology workers in the Phoenix metro had 69% more jobs to pick from during the first half of 2022 than they did during the same period a year earlier.
That’s one finding of career site Dice’s First Half 22 Tech Job Report, which said that Phoenix had the ninth-highest rate of tech job listing growth in the U.S. And the bulk of that job growth percentage was recent.
By May, the Valley’s tech job postings had peaked at 9,058 before dipping again in June. That May figure was by far the highest of the year. April’s number was 4,983, which was the highest to that point.
That surge in May was true across the board among the top 15 cities in the report for tech job postings, and just as in Phoenix, every one of those cities saw a drop off in postings in June. Phoenix had 7,707 postings that month.
The drop was seen as due in part to the cooling housing market and its effect on places including Arizona.
"A plateau in growth is anticipated as people stay put after moving (or not) in 2020 or 2021, especially with Austin, Charlotte, Phoenix and a number of other top tech hubs widely viewed as overvalued," the report said.
When it comes to sheer volume of postings, Phoenix ranked No. 14 in the nation, and Arizona ranked No. 16 of all 50 states. The by-volume list was led by New York, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco and Austin, Texas.
Tech job postings increased by 50% in the Grand Canyon State, and that made for the 27th largest state percentage of growth in the nation.
Recent tech layoffs not slowing hiring
To compile its report, Dice analyzed 3 million tech job postings between January and June 2022 and compared them to data from the previous year. The conclusion, despite the late-spring and early summer drop off, was that demand for tech talent is continuing to grow and the market remains strong.
Nationally, tech position postings rose 45% over six months through June and were 52% higher than during the same period in 2021.
It’s a sign of health in the sector, according to Dice.
"The recent wave of layoffs and hiring freezes in tech-focused organizations has not slowed down the overall demand for technologists," stated Dice CEO Art Zeile. "Moreover, we believe that current demand exceeds the available supply of unemployed technologists by at least two times."
The most dramatic job-posting growth of the year’s first half was seen in emerging tech hubs. The top-ranked city when comparing the first half of 2021 with the first half of 2022 was Orlando, with 111% growth. It was followed by Miami; Detroit; Irvine, California; and Houston.
Software engineers were the most in-demand employees, with business analysts, data analysts, data engineers and devops engineers also among the most sought-out.
For skills, agile methodology led the way, followed by Structured Query Language, troubleshooting, Python and software engineering.
Separate report cites national trends
A separate report done recently by IT trade association CompTIA confirmed the strength of the tech sector.
CompTIA’s nationwide analysis of the U.S. of Bureau of Labor Statistics found national postings for tech jobs surpassed 484,000 in July and 3.1 million year-to-date. That’s an increase of 40% over the same period last year.
That July number was a slight decrease from the previous month but remains at a near-record level, according to CompTIA.
In fact, the industry as a whole gained 12,700 workers for the month, and with an unemployment rate of 1.7% in July, the tech industry continues to grow as others struggle in the face of Covid.
CompTIA’s report broke down cities and states only by top 10 for listings and for month-to-month change. Phoenix and Arizona did not appear on those lists.
