Tech sector adds jobs, defies overall US job market decline

What this means for your job search: Focus your applications and highlight skills in cloud, data, AI infrastructure, and semiconductor manufacturing, as these sectors are experiencing significant growth. Be prepared for opportunities increasingly concentrated around specific skills and industries, and consider avoiding roles in the declining telecommunications sector. While the number of US jobs declined by 23,000 in July, employment in the tech sector rebounded as the AI revolution continues to gain steam. The national unemployment numbers were reported Friday by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics . At the same time, research firms said July was a good month for IT hiring compared to June. According to CompTIA, which analyzed the BLS data, tech sector jobs rose in July by 3,700 . In June, the IT sector had lost 900 jobs. Companies last month hired in the cloud, hosting, information processing, data, and semiconductor manufacturing sectors, CompTIA said in a statement. “We’re entering a labor market where opportunity is increasingly concentrated around specific skills, industries, and investments,” said Ger Doyle, regional president of North America at ManpowerGroup, a labor consulting firm. For example, data center hiring was up 39% in July compared to the same period last year, Doyle said. Not surprisingly, the data-center growth has been fueled by AI infrastructure needs and demand for hardware. That has helped increase the number of jobs in ancillary sectors such as transportation. July hiring data showed heavy truck driver demand, which surged by 181% from June, Doyle said. According to the BLS data, employment went up by 2.4% in the “computing infrastructure providers, data processing, web hosting, and related services” sectors, which is listed under the information sector. Jobs in the “computer and electronic product manufacturing” sector — which is bunched under manufacturing — rose by 2.9% from June to July. But bad news continued for the telecommunications sector, where the number of jobs declined by 1.5% from June to July. That continued a downward slide in recent years. Overall job layoffs slowed in July, with 33,429 cuts announced; that’s down from 45,849 cuts announced in June, and the lowest since July 2024, according to data from Challenger, Gray and Christmas . “Hiring has also increased over last year by 25%, so