U.S. IT sector cuts 4,700 jobs in January

Based on data from the U.S. Department of Labor, consulting firm Janco Associates released a report showing that 4,700 jobs were cut in the U.S. IT sector in January.

In January, the U.S. IT job market shrank for the first time in more than two years. According to the Wall Street Journal, as global business spending slows, IT technicians are facing the same risk of being eliminated as other technology jobs. For example, Capital One Financial Corp. cut 1,100 jobs in its technology department in January, and the company plans to eliminate the "Agile" work force.

According to reports, before January this year, the large-scale layoffs of technology giants such as Amazon and Google's parent company Alphabet did not affect IT department employees, and even the wave of layoffs in non-tech fields did not affect IT technical staff.

In the first month of 2023, 100,000 people in technology companies have already lost their jobs. According to statistics from trueup.io, 326 technology companies around the world have proposed layoffs in January, affecting a total of 106,950 people, an average of more than 3,000 people per day. Dell and Rivian also announced layoffs of different proportions in February.

Still, employment across the tech sector hasn't faltered, according to the Computing Industry Association. IT jobs slowed, but more than 100,000 IT jobs remained unfilled due to a lack of qualified candidates, reflecting IT skills gaps in areas such as cybersecurity and software development. "There is excess demand for IT labor, which will continue to benefit those looking for IT jobs," said Kristopher Gilchrist, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

“We needed to deliver not just the capabilities to drive the business forward, but also the best engineering tools, modern architecture and people in the right roles to respond to changing market conditions,” said Mnica Caldas, CIO of Liberty Mutual.