What the latest employment surge means for technology jobs
Summary
Total US employment increased by 223,000 in the month of December 2022, edging the unemployment rate down to 3.5 percent, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported (PDF) Friday. Even if companies opt to either cut back or compensate for their skills shortages with artificial intelligence, robots, and digital business flows, this means even more work for the people needed to design, build, program, and maintain such systems. Also: Despite the gloomy headlines, demand for tech skills is strong "We are constantly looking out for good-quality technology resources and we are recruiting to support our growth plans," relates Raju Seetharaman, senior vice president of IT and transformation at Legal and General America. "The skilled labor shortage will only get worse in the near future, as the need for tech talent continues to grow and the gaps between the available supply and demand for these individuals are exacerbated," predicts Laura Baldwin, president of OReilly Media. Also: Programming languages: Why this old favorite is on the rise again Over the coming year, Baldwin predicts "sustained demand for cloud engineers, data, and machine learning talent.