Main image of article Tech Unemployment Rises to 2.1 Percent

Tech unemployment bumped upward to 2.1 percent in August, according to the latest data from CompTIA.

That’s a small-but-notable increase from July, when the unemployment rate stood at 1.8 percent, although it’s still low by historical standards—and beneath the national unemployment rate of 3.8 percent.

“The usual caveats of monthly fluctuations in labor market data apply,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, wrote in a research note accompanying the data. “The seesawing between strong and lagging tech jobs reports is undoubtedly confusing, but the overall macro trend of growth in the depth and breadth of the tech workforce remains steady.”

Several established and up-and-coming tech hubs enjoyed an increase in job postings between July and August, including Denver, Washington, Phoenix, Tampa, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Software developers, tech support specialists, computer systems analysts, data scientists, and cybersecurity analysts all saw strong demand.

“Positions in emerging technologies or jobs requiring emerging tech skills accounted for 23 percent of all tech jobs postings in August,” CompTIA’s note added. “Within emerging tech job postings, 37 percent were associated with artificial intelligence (A.I.). California, Texas, New York, Massachusetts and Virginia had the highest numbers of A.I.-related job postings.” For those interested in learning more about artificial intelligence and machine learning, this rise in job-related activity suggests that mastering these technologies can potentially lead to new employment opportunities, especially in those states.

According to Upwork’s latest analysis of the generative A.I. market, companies want the following generative A.I. skills, at least based on the platform’s job searches:

  • BERT
  • Stable Diffusion
  • TensorFlow
  • A.I. Chatbot
  • Generative A.I.
  • Image Processing
  • PyTorch
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP)
  • Bard
  • ChatGPT

While these skills can be potentially difficult to master, those who invest the time and energy can be rewarded. Some A.I. positions pay as much as $900,000 per year, once you include benefits such as bonuses and stock options. Although employers across the economy are hungry for all kinds of tech skills, keep in mind that A.I. and machine learning are hot at the moment.