IT pros still losing jobs in the US as salaries stagnate: security experts in better position

The US job market can’t absorb all unemployed IT pros. The IT job market shrunk by 22,300 positions last year, marking a second year of declines. Median salaries barely increased by 1.87% when the annual inflation rate was 2.9%, and overall wage growth was twice that. Demand for security professionals is somewhat stronger.

70,900 IT jobs have been eliminated from the job market over the last two years, according to a report by tech consultancy Janco Associates, based on official Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

In December 2024 alone, the IT job market lost 5,700 positions, on top of a 6,600 reduction in the prior two months.

The decline pace is slower compared to 2023, when the IT job market shed 48,600 workers.

“With all the new advances in technology, many jobs have been eliminated or automated out of existence. No longer are there scores of monitors of status, KPI metrics, and SLAs as many of those processes are automatically checked, and when exceptions are noted, emails or text alerts are sent out to address the issue,” M. Victor Janulaitis, the CEO of Janco, said in the report.

However, the unemployment rate for IT professionals is 3.9%, below the national average of 4.1%. More than 4.16 million Americans work in IT, most of them designing IT systems and providing related services.

Alternative public data collected by the tracker Layoffs.fyi reveals 546 tech companies axed at least 152,000 employees in 2024. In 2023, almost 2,000 companies laid off almost 270,000 employees. Layoffs.fyi don’t track new hires.

Major tech companies, including Intel, Tesla, Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and others, announced the biggest cutbacks.

Janco forecast that the market will continue to shrink for the next few months.

From interviews with over 86 CFOs and CIOs, Janco has found that hiring and job growth continue in small to mid-sized enterprises.

“Many of the larger firms continue to be focused on improvements in productivity and replacing lower-level skills with AI applications. AI continues to halt the growth of entry-level positions within IT, especially in customer service, internal reporting, telecommunications, and hosting automation,” Janulaitis said.

He notes that the highest demand “continues to be for AI, security professionals, new technology programmers, and Internet processing IT Pros.”

Since the beginning of 2023, at least 63 security companies have laid off more than 6,300 employees, 1,356 of whom were let go in 2024, Layoffs.fyi data shows.

TechSpot reports that in the first few weeks of the year, big tech is already announcing additional layoffs: Microsoft is letting go of an undisclosed number of people and Meta is shedding 5% of worst-performing employees.

Salaries do not keep up with inflation

Mean compensation for IT professionals has increased slightly in 2024. On average, tech gurus earn $104.517, 1.87% more than a year ago.

The growth is lower compared to the wage growth in the US and the annual inflation rate. As of November 2024, wages in the US increased by 5.8%, according to Trading Economics. The annual inflation rate was 2.9% in December 2024.

Since 2015, the mean compensation for IT professionals increased by 28%, from $81,583 to $104,517.

The US consumer price index (CPI) grew by 34.4% between December 2014 and December 2024, driving salary growth.

“Inflation is part of the equation, but the elimination of many entry-level positions, clerical roles, and administrative reporting roles has concentrated IT Professionals in positions that pay more,” Janco’s CEO said.

“No longer are IT organizations populated with secretaries, data-entry operators, administrative monitoring clerks, and a massive help desk staff. Rather, the new roles are data architect, AI developer, e-commerce specialist, and similar roles.”