IT Job Market: 2022's Wild Ride and What to Expect for 2023

Warning: instrumentality attraction erstwhile looking backmost connected the IT occupation marketplace successful 2022. You whitethorn acquisition nausea, dizziness, a racing heart, oregon different symptoms associated with chaotic rides. Also, perchance whiplash arsenic we travel to an abrupt halt with large tech layoffs astatine the extremity of this year.

Heading into 2023 the signals are mixed. On 1 hand, there’s that immense fig of large tech institution layoffs that person spilled a large fig of skilled tech workers into the occupation market. On the different hand, determination is inactive a immense fig of unfastened jobs.

But earlier we get to a caller year, it’s clip to look backmost connected the brainsick thrust that was 2022.

The IT Job Market 12 Months Ago

It was a occupation candidate’s marketplace successful January 2022. Skilled IT workers were successful precocious demand. That made it easier for IT pros to determination to caller companies and get sizable wage increases. There were tons and tons of occupation openings. On the last time of December 2021, occupation openings successful the accusation assemblage doubled to 217,000 from 109,000 connected the past time of 2020, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Bureau was besides reporting higher wages and salaries -- up 4.5% for the 12 months of 2021 compared to an summation of 2.6% the erstwhile year.

Return to Office, Hybrid Work, and Pushback to Stay Remote

Despite precise disposable efforts by large tech companies to “return to normal” often with a hybrid “back to office” requirement, the dates for those mandatory returns kept slipping successful 2022. Google started its hybrid enactment statement of 3 days successful the bureau per week backmost successful April 2022, but managers reportedly wanted much days a week successful the bureau portion immoderate workers questioned the request for returning astatine all, voicing their objections during a institution gathering successful March. High state prices, agelong commute times, and the productivity of uninterrupted clip were each reasons exertion workers cited for keeping afloat distant enactment successful spot arsenic a choice.

Even arsenic tech giants specified arsenic Apple, Google, and Microsoft were pushing hybrid plans, occupation postings for distant enactment continued to turn astatine an unprecedented pace, particularly successful high-demand areas specified arsenic DevOps, information science, and IT security. As tracked by the Ladders, which monitors jobs that wage $100K-plus astatine respective occupation posting sites, postings for distant positions accrued successful aboriginal 2022 and in immoderate fields reached a precocious of 35% to 38%.

It's truly what IT pros wanted, according to the 2022 InformationWeek Salary Survey, wherever those polled rated the quality to enactment remotely astatine the apical oregon adjacent to the apical of what mattered astir to these professionals astir their jobs.

This openness to distant enactment during the pandemic and good into 2022 whitethorn person made it easier for organizations to enlistee experienced non-traditional labour into the marketplace to assistance with the endowment shortage. For instance, distant enactment and flexible schedules whitethorn entreaty to retired IT workers.

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