U.S Tech Industry Adds Nearly 119,000 Jobs in First Half of 2014, TechAmerica Foundation Analysis Reveals

News provided by

Oct 15, 2014, 09:15 ET

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United States technology industry added nearly 119,000 net jobs during the first half of 2014, a new analysis by the TechAmerica Foundation reveals. The industry employed some 6.3 million workers as of June 2014.

During the first six months of the year industry employment increased by 1.9 percent. This growth rate was slightly higher than the 1.8 percent growth during the same period in 2013, but slower than the 3.5 percent growth in employment for the overall private sector.

The latest edition of the TechAmerica Foundation's Competitiveness Series examines national tech employment trends for the past 18 months in five sectors: technology manufacturing, telecommunications, software publishing, IT services and R&D, testing and engineering services.

Each of the five categories recorded job growth during the first six months of 2014. The IT services category, for example, added 36,000 jobs.

"This is a reflection of one of the most significant macro trends shaping the industry right now – the on-going shift to an agile, on-demand, as-a-service model," said Todd Thibodeaux, president and chief executive officer, CompTIA.

Employment growth in the first half of 2014 is tempered somewhat by the fact that tech industry employment is not growing as fast as in the overall private sector market.

"While the tech sector has generally outperformed other industry sectors over the past few years, we must recognize the challenges that come with transitions to new business models and the accompanying need to develop a tech workforce with the right mix of skills and experience," said Thibodeaux. "This workforce supports the innovation economy and helps drive employment and economic activity in many other industry sectors."

Data for the TechAmerica Foundation's report was compiled from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Employment Survey and is preliminary (subject to revisions) and not adjusted for seasonal variances. The full report is available at http://www.techamericafoundation.org/cs.

About the TechAmerica Foundation
Launched in 1981, the TechAmerica Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan affiliate of TechAmerica, the public sector and public advocacy department of CompTIA. The foundation disseminates award-winning industry, policy and market research covering topics such as U.S. competitiveness in a global economy, innovation in government, defense and federal IT forecasts, and technology employment and international trade indicators. It also organizes conferences and seminars to explore pertinent issues with government and industry representatives and to share the foundation's findings with the public. Learn more about the foundation at www.techamericafoundation.org.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140513/87367

SOURCE TechAmerica Foundation