IT Jobs Will Grow 22% Through 2020
The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts strong demand for software developers and DBAs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released its biennial employment forecasts, and this year's report has some good news for IT workers. The agency predicts that employment in all computer-related fields will grow 22 percent through 2020. Some job titles will do even better, for example software developers (28-32 percent growth), database administrators (31 percent growth), and network and systems administrators (28 percent growth).
While the forecast looks good, some experts say the U.S. IT job growth isn't as high as it needs to be. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of research firm Janco Associates, characterized the IT job growth as "anemic," saying, "When you consider the overall demand for systems and applications in high-growth markets like China and India, [the BLS projections] mean the U.S. will be doing a diminishing portion of the development and implementation work. If that's the case, the U.S. will no longer be the leader in IT."
He added, "The BLS projections are a bad sign for the U.S. IT graduates from universities. Those numbers do not cover the net growth necessary to give all of the graduates jobs."
Historic IT Job Market Size
Updated with current data
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Updated with the most recent information
for current analysis see IT Job Market Data
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Janco’s findings are validated by the latest BLS data which shows there was a net increase of IT jobs in January. All sectors of the IT job market showed an improvement - computer system design and related services accounted for 34,200 jobs, telecommunications 10,200 jobs, data processing hosting 2,200 jobs and other information services 900 jobs.
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