Layoffs and AI have taken a toll on the IT and information systems professions lately. The ongoing chatter is that jobs will be replaced, or that jobs will be redefined. What it will mean to be a sysadmin, coder and cybersecurity professional might not be the same in five years.
[SmartBrief Custom Content Editor Victoria Martinez used Canva to create the following infographics.]
Despite the chaos, CompTIA’s “State of the Tech Workforce 2025” released earlier this year offers a solid barometer that shows, despite economic hiccups, IT jobs will still be needed. The report shows that tech employment will grow despite the massive layoffs reported by Google, Meta, Microsoft and many others.
Where jobs will flourish
The next figure notes the growth of IT jobs for the next decade. Estimates from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and Lightcast show the IT workforce will double faster than the general workforce in the next 10 years, with several million IT workers needed by 2035.
Interestingly, the growth comes with some variables, which include companies churning through workers, due to a number of reasons: retiring workers, organizations rightsizing and lots of personal reasons such as workers changing professions and many just burning out.
The rate of change among IT job roles is heading upward slightly, as shown in the following figure, but I continue to see news of layoffs (see this on jobs in general and this in tech specifically) and more disconcerting is that in my readings in workforce hiring show that software development and coding jobs face a grim future in light of AI (see this and this) — despite what you see in the following figure.
Areas projected for growth are those dealing with data, as they’re responsible for parsing the information into forms that can be digested by various systems and applications, and then extracting meaningful value from it. While not as high as the 2024 estimate, growth is strongest here. This and this side with CompTIA’s results.
Let’s go ahead and talk about AI
The report, of course, looks at the increasing presence of AI. The call for AI skills in job postings over the last two years has been exponential. Most of the speculation these days is that AI will replace jobs, but companies are trying to find enough humans to put AI to effective use now, especially in IT, but also across job segments, as this figure shows.
A Brookings report from July shows this to be the case, with their report citing AI job postings year over year having increased 100%. The potential financial impact from the lack of AI-skilled workers is also measurable, with one report projecting trillions in costs in 2026 alone. So, gaining AI proficiency can only help your job prospecting.
It’s your move
This final figure points to the top states for tech employment. California is still tops for tech work, but there are pockets across the country where IT workers are growing: Minneapolis has a growing tech hub that feeds the need for health care, finance and retail IT; Chattanooga, Tenn., has been building a robust internet infrastructure that is attractive to businesses that will need more IT workers. Examples abound; if you look, they might be right in your backyard.
So, should you move, or are there IT jobs where you live already? If you know of jobs in your area that need IT workers that are not part of the top 5 in the infographic, share them with us and we’ll spread the news.
If you live in Canada or the UK, you might be interested in seeing how those regions compare to the US. You can find them here (Canada) and here (UK). (Spoiler alert: IT jobs are growing there too.)