After months of cautious hiring and economic uncertainty, the tech job market just showed its strongest pulse in a year. According to new data from CompTIA, the global IT training and certification body, U.S. employer job postings for information technology roles jumped 5.3% in October—reaching 474,293 active listings, the highest monthly total since October 2024.
That uptick outpaced the broader labor market, which saw a more modest 2.3% increase. Nearly half of those listings (217,238) were new postings—evidence that employers aren’t just re-advertising stale roles, but actively investing in new tech talent.
“Given the prevailing vibe of economic unease, the better-than-expected volume of tech job listings is a welcome bit of good news,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer.
AI and Cloud Skills Lead the Pack
If there’s a clear takeaway from the numbers, it’s this: AI and cloud are driving the next wave of hiring.
Job postings citing artificial intelligence skills nearly doubled year-over-year (up 97%), while listings mentioning cloud infrastructure skills like AWS, Azure, or GCP grew 30%.
Other high-demand skills include:
-
Scalability (+71%) – companies want architectures that grow efficiently.
-
Workflow management (+56%) – highlighting a continued need for productivity optimization.
-
Automation (+27%) and machine learning (+49%) – underscoring the shift toward intelligent operations.
-
Python, the lingua franca of AI development, remains in hot demand with nearly half a million postings.
The most eye-catching jump? Cross-functional collaboration skills, up 339% year-over-year—a signal that tech roles are increasingly hybridized, blending technical fluency with business alignment and teamwork.
Who’s Hiring—and Where
Big names like Amazon, Google, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte, CVS, Leidos, and General Motors all showed strong hiring intent in October, with postings spanning both traditional tech hubs and emerging markets.
The top states for tech job growth included:
-
New Jersey (+23%)
-
Illinois (+14%)
-
Massachusetts (+15%)
-
California (+10%)
Meanwhile, San Francisco (+26%), Chicago (+19%), and Philadelphia (+20%) led metro-area growth—suggesting the “tech exodus” narrative may have been overhyped.
Public Sector Hiring Slows
The only major outlier was the public sector, where postings fell by roughly a third. Whether that’s a temporary dip or part of a longer-term slowdown remains to be seen, especially with ongoing government funding debates and the delayed release of official Bureau of Labor Statistics data due to the federal shutdown.
What It Means for the Tech Workforce
Despite the backdrop of layoffs in certain pockets of big tech, demand for skilled IT professionals remains resilient and diversified. From finance and healthcare to manufacturing and retail, nearly every major industry posted year-over-year increases in tech hiring.
-
Finance and Insurance: +13%
-
Retail: +21%
-
Manufacturing: +7%
-
Information, Software, and Media: +23%
That spread underscores a maturing trend: tech talent is no longer just for tech companies.
As CompTIA’s data hints, the modern IT job market is increasingly a tale of adaptation—employers recalibrating their tech strategies, and professionals reskilling to meet the age of AI and automation head-on.
For job seekers, that means opportunity. For employers, it means competition is back on.
Join thousands of HR leaders who rely on HRTechEdge for the latest in workforce technology, AI-driven HR solutions, and strategic insights
