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Source: https://www.computerworld.com/feed/

1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="0.92">
2. <channel>
3. <title>Computerworld</title>
4. <link></link>
5. <description>Making technology work for business</description>
6. <lastBuildDate>Mon, 06 May 2024 19:31:28 +0000</lastBuildDate>
7. <docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>
8. <copyright>Copyright (c) 2024 IDG Communications, Inc.</copyright>
9. <language>en-US</language>
10. <!-- generator="WordPress/6.4.4" -->
11.  
12. <item>
13. <title>GenAI is to data visibility what absolute zero is to a hot summer day</title>
14. <pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2024 18:51:01 +0000</pubDate>
15. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
16. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
17.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
18. <div class="article-column__content">
19. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
20.  
21.  
22.  
23. <p>CIO.com (a sister publication) had <a href="https://www.cio.com/article/2096414/data-protection-activists-accuse-chatgpt-of-gdpr-breach.html" target="_blank">an intriguing story about ChatGPT</a> and a potential conflict with the European Union’s GDPR rules. The sad reality is that although the story accurately describes the EU issue, the GDPR kerfuffle amounts to barely a rounding error when it comes to generative AI (genAI) and how it is obliterating all compliance rules — especially those involving privacy.</p>
24.  
25.  
26.  
27. <p>Enterprise IT leaders have never had an especially strong mastery of IT visibility for apps, data and tools. But the instant a company welcomes genIA tools into its environment — an event that for most enterprises happened last year — they can kiss any beliefs that they still control their assets good-bye. And without comprehensive data control and strong data visibility, regulatory compliance is impossible.</p>
28.  
29.  
30.  
31. <p>Let’s start with the GDPR situation. As CIO.com explained it: “The EU’s strict privacy rules require that companies allow individuals access to personal information held about them, as well as ensuring that such data is accurate. This requires a long audit trail to every piece of information stored about European citizens. When it comes to AI-generated content, such trails often go cold. With regard to information generated by ChatGPT, (the entity suing) alleges there is no legal redress for so-called hallucinations when it comes to personal information.”</p>
32.  
33.  
34.  
35. <p>That’s true, but hallucinations are just the most obvious examples. The part of GDPR at issue here is the Right To Be Forgotten. If an EU citizen (5 million of whom live in the US) officially asks for something personal about them to be removed, companies are supposed to comply. </p>
36.  
37.  
38.  
39. <p>Long before genAI, including the large language models that underpin it, became popularized, enterprise IT teams were already struggling to comply with such rules. The usual culprits for enterprise IT visibility issues are cloud, IoT, mobile, third-parties, remote sites including home offices and all manner of Shadow IT. </p>
40.  
41.  
42.  
43. <p>The Right To Be Forgotten is simply not compatible with how modern enterprises function, especially in the United States. Let’s consider a typical scenario: you’re an analyst working for the marketing department and trying to make sense of some unusual customer patterns. It’s getting late, so you decide to finish number-crunching at home. So you back up the data to a personal cloud account for easy access at home later when you resume working. </p>
44.  
45.  
46.  
47. <p>The next morning, on the train heading to the office, you remember something you wanted to try with the data. You access that cloud folder on your phone, do a little more analysis and then save the files.</p>
48.  
49.  
50.  
51. <p>When you get back to your desk, you download that file to your work desktop machine and continue working on the latest files. </p>
52.  
53.  
54.  
55. <p>Think of the ways that data can go astray and be out of reach for IT. Your home computer uses a consumer-grade backup service, and overnight, those files were copied to that service. That consumer-grade backup service has its own offsite backup mechanisms, along with a separate disaster recovery service. That file with sensitive PII about customers is now in all those locations.</p>
56.  
57.  
58.  
59. <p>That sensitive data was also on your phone. <em>That</em> data also gets automatically backed up to that handset manufacturer, which also has its own backup and disaster recover arrangements. </p>
60.  
61.  
62.  
63. <p>Two days later, an EU citizen (who happens to be one of your customers) submits a right to be forgotten request and your team eventually learns of it. They delete the references they can locate on key enterprise systems, including a half-dozen corporate cloud environments they know about. </p>
64.  
65.  
66.  
67. <p>But what about all of those other locations? </p>
68.  
69.  
70.  
71. <p>That example involves just an employee trying to get work done. Let’s try one with a customer or a prospect. One of your senior sales representatives is working with another company on $1 billion sales deal. They start discussing sensitive contract points in text threads between them and will likely also review preliminary contract drafts.</p>
72.  
73.  
74.  
75. <p>Once the draft gets to a late stage, it goes to the legal department and everything is hopefully captured. But what about all of those text discussions between two personal smartphones? Compliance is not only about regulatory issues. What if the deal later goes bad and there is litigation? The opposing counsel will seek discovery, including all discussions about contract terms. Are you even remotely able to fully comply? (I’ll save you time: No, there is no way you can fully comply.)</p>
76.  
77.  
78.  
79. <p>That was all true back in 2019. In 2020, the pandemic hit and cloud and remote activity soared. In 2023, genAI tools — which had been around in various forms since the 1960s — grabbed headlines and was suddenly on the must-have list of every enterprise board member. The less about AI decision-makers knew, the more they wanted genAI.</p>
80.  
81.  
82.  
83. <p>Full data visibility was difficult in 2019, virtually impossible in 2020, and now, with genAI cropping up in just about every division and working group, it’s crossed the line into fully impossible</p>
84.  
85.  
86.  
87. <p>Why does it so fully obliterate data control? There are five relevant elements, all distinct, :</p>
88.  
89.  
90.  
91. <ol start="1">
92. <li>What enterprise data can genAI access?</li>
93.  
94.  
95.  
96. <li>Who (among employees, contractors, customers and anyone with any level of privileged access) can access that data? Is there some attempt, any attempt, to limit who can access what segments of that data?</li>
97.  
98.  
99.  
100. <li>How was the genAI system trained? What information did it examine to answer queries? Did any of that training information include data about EU citizens? (Yes, EU data was almost certainly within the training set.) </li>
101.  
102.  
103.  
104. <li>Is the genAI training on new data you share? Will it try and learn from your queries and potentially share that information with competitors?</li>
105.  
106.  
107.  
108. <li>What about the massive databases behind genAI tools. Can enterprises that license that system review the database? Can they delete details from it? If not — and the answer will almost always be “No” — how is GDPR compliance even possible? How is <em>any </em>compliance possible? </li>
109. </ol>
110.  
111.  
112.  
113. <p>With arrival of genAI virtually everywhere, the compliance genie is already out of the bottle.</p>
114. </div></div></div><category>Compliance, Data Privacy, GDPR, Generative AI</category></div>]]></description>
115. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2098398/genai-is-to-data-visibility-what-absolute-zero-is-to-a-hot-summer-day.html</link>
116. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2098398</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/iStock-1370928101.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="1247169" type="image/jpeg" />
117. </item>
118. <item>
119. <title>How many jobs are available in technology in the US?</title>
120. <pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2024 18:09:34 +0000</pubDate>
121. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
122. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
123.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
124. <div class="article-column__content">
125. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
126.  
127.  
128.  
129. <p>The unemployment rate for technology jobs in the US ticked down for the second month in a row in April, as the number of job listings for AI-related positions leaped to 11% of all postings, according to new employment data. And, 26% of all tech job postings in April were for positions in emerging tech or that require emerging tech skills, <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to CompTIA</a>, a nonprofit tech trade association. </p>
130.  
131.  
132.  
133. <p>Emerging skills include AI, blockchain, IoT, augmented & virtual reality. “None of these individually are generating huge volumes of job openings today, but we feel it’s worth paying attention to,” a CompTIA spokesperson said.</p>
134.  
135.  
136.  
137. <p>Employers listed nearly 179,000 new postings for tech positions last month. In total, there were an estimated 415,000 active tech job postings.</p>
138.  
139.  
140.  
141. <p>The unemployment rate for tech jobs inched down from 4% in March to 3.8% in April. That compares to the February figure of 4.5%. according to CompTIA data, which is based on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">latest jobs report</a>.</p>
142.  
143.  
144.  
145. <p>The BLS on Friday reported that the overall US unemployment rate (3.9%) remained largely unchanged from March, when it was 3.8%. Overall unemployment has ranged between 3.7% and 3.9% since August 2023, according to the BLS. The agency said 175,000 jobs were added in April.</p>
146.  
147.  
148.  
149. <p>Ger Doyle<strong>, </strong>head of recruitment service <a href="https://www.experis.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Experis North America</a>, said his organization is seeing “a cooling effect” in the job market. “Our real-time data paints a picture of a job market that is balancing out. We see increased demand in April in medical/health (16%), IT (11%) and executive management (7%), and all have shown growth from Q4 2023,” Doyle said.</p>
150.  
151.  
152.  
153. <p>Within tech, AI Safety and Compliance roles have seen a sizable increase (129%) since July 2023. <strong>“</strong>Employers are also raising expectations around IT skill sets for executives and legal functions, and AI/ML engineers are now expected to showcase a blend of technical and soft skills to remain competitive in the job market,” Doyle said.</p>
154.  
155.  
156. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-1.png?w=1024" alt="IT Jobs" class="wp-image-2098343" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-1.png?quality=50&strip=all 1382w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-1.png?resize=300%2C260&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-1.png?resize=768%2C667&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-1.png?resize=1024%2C889&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-1.png?resize=803%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 803w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-1.png?resize=193%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 193w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-1.png?resize=97%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 97w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-1.png?resize=553%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 553w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-1.png?resize=415%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 415w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-1.png?resize=288%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 288w" width="1024" height="889" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure><p class="imageCredit">CompTIA</p></div>
157.  
158.  
159.  
160. <p> <br>For college graduates, the road is tougher, according to Doyle; they’re dealing with an unemployment rate of 6.2%. That trend coincides with employees holding onto their current positions for longer durations, which aligns with a dip in consumer confidence — now at its lowest since July 2022, according to Experis’ data.  </p>
161.  
162.  
163.  
164. <p>In April, skills-based hiring in the tech marketplace was up sharply. CompTIA reported that 46% of all active tech job postings in the last month did not specify that candidates have a four-year degree. More employers, including the federal government, are <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1619357/skills-based-hiring-continues-to-rise-as-degree-requirements-fade.html">leaving behind college degree requirements</a> and embracing a skills-based hiring approach that emphasizes strong work backgrounds, certifications, assessments, and endorsements. And soft skills are becoming a key focus of hiring managers, even over hard skills.</p>
165.  
166.  
167. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Goldman-Sachs-AI-hiring.png?w=1024" alt="AI hiring" class="wp-image-2098346" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Goldman-Sachs-AI-hiring.png?quality=50&strip=all 2151w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Goldman-Sachs-AI-hiring.png?resize=300%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Goldman-Sachs-AI-hiring.png?resize=768%2C428&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Goldman-Sachs-AI-hiring.png?resize=1024%2C571&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Goldman-Sachs-AI-hiring.png?resize=1536%2C857&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Goldman-Sachs-AI-hiring.png?resize=2048%2C1143&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Goldman-Sachs-AI-hiring.png?resize=1240%2C692&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Goldman-Sachs-AI-hiring.png?resize=150%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Goldman-Sachs-AI-hiring.png?resize=854%2C476&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Goldman-Sachs-AI-hiring.png?resize=640%2C357&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Goldman-Sachs-AI-hiring.png?resize=444%2C248&quality=50&strip=all 444w" width="1024" height="571" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure><p class="imageCredit">Goldman Sachs</p></div>
168.  
169.  
170.  
171. <p>The percentage of postings that did not require a college degree rose markedly for five tech jobs in particular: network support specialists (86%), IT support specialists (73%), network and systems administrators (55%), web and UI/UX designers (51%) and database administrators (48%).</p>
172.  
173.  
174.  
175. <p>Even though tech unemployment again dipped, the layoffs that began in 2022 <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1617283/tech-layoffs-in-2023-a-timeline.html">have continued this year</a>, indicating a shift in desirable job positions. This year is expected to be a year of recovery for the IT industry. </p>
176.  
177.  
178.  
179. <p>“Employers and job seekers continue to navigate a shifting labor market,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “Skills-first approaches to hiring and talent development are even more important against this backdrop.” </p>
180.  
181.  
182.  
183. <p>Technology companies added an estimated 4,280 workers in April, CompTIA’s analysis of BLS data revealed. Growth was led by hiring in technology services and software development (+5,600) and cloud infrastructure (+900). Cloud infrastructure and data processing and hosting jobs have seen gains in nine of the past 12 months, while positions in tech and software services have risen in 10 of the past 12 months.</p>
184.  
185.  
186. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-2.png" alt="IT Jobs" class="wp-image-2098347" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-2.png?quality=50&strip=all 708w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-2.png?resize=266%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 266w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-2.png?resize=619%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 619w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-2.png?resize=149%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 149w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-2.png?resize=75%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 75w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-2.png?resize=426%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 426w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-2.png?resize=320%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 320w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CompTIA-jobs-graphic-2.png?resize=222%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 222w" width="708" height="797" sizes="(max-width: 708px) 100vw, 708px" /></figure><p class="imageCredit">CompTIA</p></div>
187.  
188.  
189.  
190. <p>Technology occupations throughout the economy, however, fell by 20,000 in April, a decline of 0.3%, according to CompTIA.</p>
191.  
192.  
193.  
194. <p>Martha Heller<strong>,</strong> CEO of executive tech talent search firm <a href="https://www.hellersearch.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heller Search</a>, said her data shows a softening in the IT job market.</p>
195.  
196.  
197.  
198. <p>“But the IT sector layoffs are mainly due to IT service providers, such as Microsoft and Salesforce, which are replacing those teams with AI developers and data scientists,” Heller said. “For IT sector business owners, this means they must re-platform all their products with AI integrations.  But for business leaders in every other sector, they have a very big pool of IT talent to choose from now.”</p>
199.  
200.  
201.  
202. <p>The real job growth story in technology hiring will continue to be AI, according to Heller, as companies race to implement the fast-evolving tech in support of digital transformation projects and to boost productivity and efficiency. Whether companies are ready to hire their own AI developers or need to modernize their legacy tech first, they will all need to continue to grow their technology teams or be left out of the AI boom, according to Heller.</p>
203.  
204.  
205.  
206. <p>Craig Crisler, CEO of IT talent outsourcing firm <a href="https://www.supportninja.com/">NinjaSupport</a>, agreed with Heller, adding that “generative AI is white hot and in demand” and so is the job market for it. “While many companies are on a hiring spree for AI, we’re also seeing a shortage in talent for folks with AI PhDs and data scientists, making them very expensive and difficult to find,” he said.</p>
207.  
208.  
209.  
210. <p>Companies, Crisler said, now have to walk a fine line between finding the talent they need and finding the revenue to pay for that new talent. “Some might get one or two really expensive hires and fill the rest of the team with cheaper talent, while some might fill out their entire team with mid-range salaries and go with a more balanced approach,” he said.</p>
211.  
212.  
213.  
214. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="march-2024">March 2024</h2>
215.  
216.  
217.  
218. <p>After a lengthy <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1617283/tech-layoffs-in-2023-a-timeline.html">spat of layoffs</a> spiked unemployment rates in recent months, the tech industry is poised to return to growth, according to analyses of the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report</a> released today.</p>
219.  
220.  
221.  
222. <p>Employers accelerated their hiring of technology workers and expanded their search for new tech talent in March, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.</p>
223.  
224.  
225.  
226. <p>Tech companies added an estimated 6,000 workers last month, according to CompTIA’s analysis of BLS data. Job growth was led by new hiring in technology services, software development, cloud infrastructure and related positions.</p>
227.  
228.  
229.  
230. <p>Technology occupations throughout the economy rose by 203,000 for the month. That pushed the unemployment rate for tech occupations in March back down a full half a point from 3.5% in February to 3.0%, <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report">according to CompTIA</a>.</p>
231.  
232.  
233. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CompTIA-graph-2.png?w=1024" alt="IT Jobs" class="wp-image-2084019" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CompTIA-graph-2.png?quality=50&strip=all 2353w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CompTIA-graph-2.png?resize=300%2C153&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CompTIA-graph-2.png?resize=768%2C392&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CompTIA-graph-2.png?resize=1024%2C522&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CompTIA-graph-2.png?resize=1536%2C783&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CompTIA-graph-2.png?resize=2048%2C1044&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CompTIA-graph-2.png?resize=1240%2C632&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CompTIA-graph-2.png?resize=150%2C76&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CompTIA-graph-2.png?resize=854%2C436&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CompTIA-graph-2.png?resize=640%2C326&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CompTIA-graph-2.png?resize=444%2C226&quality=50&strip=all 444w" width="1024" height="522" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure><p class="imageCredit">CompTIA</p></div>
234.  
235.  
236.  
237. <p>Employers added 191,000 new job postings for tech positions, an increase of 8,000 from the previous month and the highest volume since August 2023. In total, there were an estimated 438,000 active tech job postings in March.</p>
238.  
239.  
240.  
241. <p>“With all four key tracking metrics in the positive for the month, it’s a welcome return to stability in the tech employment data,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA.</p>
242.  
243.  
244.  
245. <p>By occupation category, software developers and IT support specialists saw the largest increases in openings from February to March. The job posting data also affirms that there are a variety of paths to a job in technology. CompTIA’s report shows that 46% of all tech jobs postings in March did not specify that candidates have a four-year degree.</p>
246.  
247.  
248.  
249. <p>Percentages were higher in certain job categories, such as IT support specialists (78%), network support specialists (66%) and web UI/UX designers (62%). Jobs in artificial intelligence (AI) or for occupations that require AI skills accounted for 41% of March postings in the emerging technologies sub-category.</p>
250.  
251.  
252.  
253. <p>Becky Frankiewicz, president of Manpower Group North America, took a more subdued view of the current tech market. “Our real-time data shows signs of a goldilocks labor market — hiring is slightly hotter than last year at this time, cooler than last month and warmer than pre-pandemic,” she said “This demonstrates remarkable resilience given the economic uncertainty we’re experiencing right now.”</p>
254.  
255.  
256.  
257. <p>Both the overall US unemployment rate, at 3.8%, and the number of unemployed people, at 6.4 million, changed little in March. The unemployment rate dropped one-tenth of a percent from February’s 3.9%.</p>
258.  
259.  
260.  
261. <p>Overall US unemployment has remained in a narrow range of 3.7% to 3.9% since August 2023, according to BLS data. While the unemployment rate changed little, the U.S. labor market added 303,000 jobs in March, which far exceeding the roughly 200,000 economists had predicted.</p>
262.  
263.  
264.  
265. <p>According to Janco Associates, a management consulting firm for the IT industry, the number of unfilled IT jobs fell from 202,000 in January to 117,000 in February — a drop of more than 42%.</p>
266.  
267.  
268. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Comptia-graph-1.png?w=1024" alt="IT Jobs" class="wp-image-2084020" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Comptia-graph-1.png?quality=50&strip=all 1395w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Comptia-graph-1.png?resize=300%2C258&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Comptia-graph-1.png?resize=768%2C661&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Comptia-graph-1.png?resize=1024%2C881&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Comptia-graph-1.png?resize=810%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 810w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Comptia-graph-1.png?resize=195%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 195w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Comptia-graph-1.png?resize=98%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 98w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Comptia-graph-1.png?resize=558%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 558w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Comptia-graph-1.png?resize=419%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 419w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Comptia-graph-1.png?resize=291%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 291w" width="1024" height="881" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure><p class="imageCredit">CompTIA</p></div>
269.  
270.  
271.  
272. <p>Tech demand remains stronger than last year at this time and was stronger in Q1 2024 than during the final three months of 2023.</p>
273.  
274.  
275.  
276. <p>“Demand for AI and machine learning engineers has continued to grow for the last few years, and we’re recognizing that with increased tech demand comes increased training and upskilling,” said Ger Doyle, senior vice president at ManpowerGroup and Head of Experis North America — a ManpowerGroup focused on recruitment of US tech talent.</p>
277.  
278.  
279.  
280. <p>“Humanizing tech roles is the key to continuing this growth, making the ladder for tech roles in reach and bringing attainable skills to employers and employees alike,” Doyle said.</p>
281.  
282.  
283.  
284. <p>In its “<a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/research/state-of-the-tech-workforce" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">State of the Tech Workforce 2024</a>,” CompTIA forecasts tech employment growth of 3.1% this year — a net gain of more than 300,000 new jobs. That compares to the 1.2% growth rate of 2023, which yielded about 117,000 net new hires.</p>
285.  
286.  
287.  
288. <p>Top projected occupations for this year, and their growth rates, include: data scientists and data analysts, up 5.5%; cybersecurity analysts and engineers, up 5.1%; software developers and engineers up 4.8%; software QA and testers, up 4.3%; computer and information research scientists, also up 4.3%; CIOs and IT Directors, up 3.6%; web developers, also up 3.6%; and web and digital interface designers, up 3.6%.</p>
289.  
290.  
291.  
292. <p>According to projections from the BLS statistics and job market analytics firm <a href="https://lightcast.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lightcast</a>, the tech workforce will grow twice as fast in the next 10 years as the overall US  workforce. The replacement rate for tech occupations during the 2024-2034 period is expected to average about 6% annually, or approximately 350,000 workers each year, totaling several million through 2034.</p>
293.  
294.  
295.  
296. <p>Growth in so-called “driver occupations” will expand even faster. Positions in the data science and data analyst, cybersecurity, software development, UI/UX and emerging tech categories, including artificial intelligence, will grow at the fastest rates on a percentage basis, according to CompTIA. “On a volume basis, core infrastructure positions in networking and cloud engineering, along with tech support positions, will continue to serve as the on ramp for many starting a career in technology,” the report stated.</p>
297.  
298.  
299.  
300. <p>Projections from CompTIA’s report indicate that 20 states and 14 metropolitan areas will exceed the average growth rate this year. Twenty-six metro markets are expected to at least double last year’s job growth rate, reflecting the diversity of tech hub concentrations across the US.</p>
301.  
302.  
303.  
304. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>February 2024</strong></h2>
305.  
306.  
307.  
308. <p>US unemployment in the technology sector increased by 0.2% to 3.5% last month, following an upward trend in joblessness in all sectors.</p>
309.  
310.  
311.  
312. <p>Technology occupations across the economy declined by an estimated 133,000 positions, according to <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow">a new report</a> from IT industry group CompTIA.</p>
313.  
314.  
315.  
316. <p>Overall, the US unemployment rate among all job markets rose by 0.2% to 3.9% in February, and the number of unemployed people increased by 334,000 to 6.5 million. A year earlier, the jobless rate was 3.6%, and the number of unemployed people was 6 million. While unemployment did tick up, February’s rate continued the longest stretch of unemployment below 4% in decades.</p>
317.  
318.  
319.  
320. <p>There were 275,000 jobs added to the US market last month, according to the US <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow">Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report</a> today. The data shows a significant uptick over January’s 229,000 jobs added to the workforce, but lower than December’s numbers, when 290,000 jobs were added.</p>
321.  
322.  
323.  
324. <p>“New hiring of tech services and software development personnel is the lone bright spot in February’s lackluster technology employment data,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at IT industry group CompTIA.</p>
325.  
326.  
327. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/03/comptia-unemployment-graphs-100962378-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/03/comptia-unemployment-graphs-100962378-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia unemployment graphs" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
328.  
329.  
330.  
331.  
332. <p>Overall tech industry employment increased modestly, employer job postings for future tech hiring were flat, tech occupations throughout the economy declined, according to CompTIA’s latest jobs report.</p>
333.  
334.  
335.  
336. <p>“We continue to see the lag effect of market developments working their way into government employment data,” Hebert said. “While employers across every sector of the economy demand tech talent spanning the continuum of tech job roles, there are pockets of employers recalibrating their staffing levels.”</p>
337.  
338.  
339.  
340. <p>IT business consultancy Janco Associates had a similar take on the lackluster IT job market performance in February. It said in its report today that hiring of IT Pros is hindered by the lack of qualified individuals and a slowing economic picture, which “will have a dampening impact on the growth of the IT job market size.</p>
341.  
342.  
343.  
344. <p>According to <a href="https://e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow">Janco’s data</a>, there are currently 4.18 million US workers employed as IT professionals. The rate of growth in the number of new IT jobs has slowed, the firm said.</p>
345.  
346.  
347.  
348. <p>“There now are just over 121,000 unemployed IT professionals. The IT job market shrank by over 48,600 jobs in calendar year 2023, Janco’s report stated. “Overall that is a flattening of the long term growth rate pattern of IT job market,” the firm said.</p>
349.  
350.  
351.  
352. <p>One of the more surprising results of the BLS report, however, was that the agency drastically revised its January job gains, which had previously been reported as a leap of 353,000 new jobs. The revised numbers dropped that by more 124,000 jobs.</p>
353.  
354.  
355.  
356. <p>Tech employers added 185,000 new job postings for positions in February, raising the total number of active tech job postings to more than 436,000, according to CompTIA’s data. California, Texas and Virginia had the largest volumes of tech job postings among the states. At the metro level, Washington, New York, Dallas, Chicago and Boston were the most active markets. </p>
357.  
358.  
359. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/03/comptia-job-posting-numbers-100962377-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia job posting numbers" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></figure></div>
360.  
361.  
362.  
363.  
364. <p>Open positions in artificial intelligence or jobs requiring AI skills continue to hover near the 10% threshold, while positions offering hybrid, remote or work from home options account for about 20% of all tech job postings, CompTIA’s report showed.</p>
365.  
366.  
367.  
368. <p>Technology companies added an estimated 2,340 workers last month, CompTIA’s analysis of BLS data showed. The technology services and software development sub-sector saw employment increase by 4,200 positions, but those gains were offset by staffing reductions in telecommunications and manufacturing.</p>
369.  
370.  
371.  
372. <p>Net tech employment spanning tech industry and tech occupation employment totaled more than 9.6 million workers, according to CompTIA’s data.</p>
373.  
374.  
375.  
376. <p>Over the next quarter — from April through June — the US is expected to lead all other nations in IT hiring, according to IT staffing firm Experis, a subsidiary of <a href="https://www.manpowergroup.com/" rel="nofollow">ManpowerGroup</a>.</p>
377.  
378.  
379. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/03/experis-job-numbers-100962379-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="experis job numbers" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></figure></div>
380.  
381.  
382.  
383.  
384. <p>Ger Doyle, head of IT staffing at <a href="https://www.experis.com/" rel="nofollow">Experis North America</a>, said while hiring data shows worker demand will remain strong, it will be “more balanced and concentrated.”</p>
385.  
386.  
387.  
388. <p>Nurses, software developers and front-line retail workers are the three most sought after roles in the U.S. today, according to Doyle.</p>
389.  
390.  
391.  
392. <p>“In the tech space, AI and machine learning engineers are seeing good growth since last year, with finance and consulting companies as some of the top employers of this specialist tech talent,” Doyle said.</p>
393.  
394.  
395.  
396. <p>While tech sector layoffs have made headlines over the past year Experis’s data shows the same companies laying people off are also hiring, including top tech companies such as Google, META, Amazon and Apple. However, consuntancies and financial services companies are also hiring – firms such as KPMG, Booz Allen Hamilton, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Slalom Consulting, according to Doyle.</p>
397.  
398.  
399.  
400. <p>While artificial intelligence and machine learning engineer hiring decreased by 1% in February, the demand for the roles has been trending upward since May 2023, Doyle said.</p>
401.  
402.  
403.  
404. <p>Wages are following suit, and have remained steady overall, with month-over-month increases in some sectors where remote and hybrid roles have increased, such as IT and business operations.</p>
405.  
406.  
407.  
408. <p>Hybrid job roles are strongest in the IT (38%) and finance (40%) sectors, according to Experis data.</p>
409.  
410.  
411.  
412. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="january-2024">January 2024</h2>
413.  
414.  
415.  
416. <p>The US added twice as many jobs in January as analysts had expected, though the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7% and tech layoffs continued to plague the IT industry.</p>
417.  
418.  
419.  
420. <p>In January, the US added 353,000 jobs, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">data published today by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics</a> (BLS). And for tech workers, the latest employment data suggests 2024 is off to a promising start, according to <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">an analysis by IT trade association CompTIA</a>.</p>
421.  
422.  
423.  
424. <p>Tech companies added nearly 18,000 workers last month, the second consecutive month of job growth. The unemployment rate for tech occupations remained at 3.3%, well below the overall national rate, according to CompTIA. Yet, overall, tech occupations, which span all industries, were down in January.</p>
425.  
426.  
427.  
428. <p>Tech companies added jobs in several primary sub-sectors:</p>
429.  
430.  
431.  
432. <ul>
433. <li>Technology services and software development (+14,500)</li>
434.  
435.  
436.  
437. <li>Cloud infrastructure (+2,100)</li>
438.  
439.  
440.  
441. <li>Tech manufacturing (most notably semiconductors) (+1,400)</li>
442. </ul>
443.  
444.  
445.  
446. <p>Also, on the rise – job openings in artificial intelligence (AI) and positions that offer hybrid, remote, or work from home options. AI job postings or jobs requiring AI skills increased by about 2,000 positions from December to 17,479 last month, CompTIA said.</p>
447.  
448.  
449.  
450. <p>Tech occupations across all markets and the broader economy, however, declined by an estimated 117,000 positions. “This month’s data is a helpful reminder of the many moving parts in assessing tech workforce gains or losses,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “The expansive tech workforce will simultaneously experience gains and losses reflecting employer short-term and longer-term staffing needs.”</p>
451.  
452.  
453. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/02/comptia-jan.-2024-data-100958658-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/02/comptia-jan.-2024-data-100958658-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia jan. 2024 data" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
454.  
455.  
456.  
457.  
458. <p>Employers listed more than 392,000 active tech job postings, with nearly 178,000 added last month alone. January’s total of active postings was 33,727 more than the December 2023 figure, the largest month-to-month increase in a year.</p>
459.  
460.  
461.  
462. <p>There was significant employer interest in filling positions in software development, IT project management, data analysis and science, IT support and systems analysis and engineering. And after several months of decline, the number of job postings offering hybrid, remote or work-from-home options exceeded 30,000 in January, up about 5,000 from December.</p>
463.  
464.  
465.  
466. <p>“Looking at the bigger picture, we continue to see a post-pandemic rebalancing,” said Becky Frankiewicz, president of staffing firm <a href="https://www.manpowergroup.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">ManpowerGroup NA</a>. “While hiring isn’t as strong as a year ago, it is better than pre-pandemic and has improved month-over-month.</p>
467.  
468.  
469.  
470. <p>“We’re also seeing an expected post-holiday hangover in retail and logistics, balanced by increases in IT, finance, accounting and engineering,” she continued. “Overall, more jobs are available now for each unemployed worker than there were before the pandemic, creating a stable environment for employers and employees.” </p>
471.  
472.  
473. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/02/hot-jobs-graphic-100958659-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/02/hot-jobs-graphic-100958659-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="hot jobs graphic" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
474.  
475.  
476.  
477.  
478. <p><a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1617283/tech-layoffs-in-2023-a-timeline.html">Layoffs in the tech sector</a> have been a thorn in the side of an otherwise healthy industry. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft collectively laid off tens of thousands of workers last year and were among a number of companies that announced planned layoffs for this year. Meta and Google and AWS are cutting back on more ambitious “moonshot” projects, as enterprises are still hesitant to spend big on large software buildouts, etc.</p>
479.  
480.  
481.  
482. <p>This week, iRobot <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/roomba-maker-irobot-layoffs-after-amazon-deal-falls-through-rcna136144" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">announced it would lay off about 31% of its 1,250 employees</a> after a deal to be acquired by Amazon fell through.</p>
483.  
484.  
485. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/02/layoffs.fyi-biggest-layoffs-100958654-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/02/layoffs.fyi-biggest-layoffs-100958654-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="layoffs.fyi biggest layoffs" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
486.  
487.  
488.  
489.  
490. <p>The number of employees laid off at tech companies more than tripled between December and January, according to industry tracker Layoff.fyi. So far this year, 115 tech firms have laid off 30,375 employees, <a href="https://layoffs.fyi/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">according to the site</a>.</p>
491.  
492.  
493.  
494. <p>Though layoffs remain below pre-pandemic levels, the number of US employees filing for jobless benefits last week <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2024-02-01/more-americans-apply-for-unemployment-benefits-but-layoffs-still-historically-low" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">reached an 11-week high</a>. And while the stock market <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/index/dow_jones?op=1" rel="nofollow">continues to soar</a>, tech companies appear worried.</p>
495.  
496.  
497.  
498. <p>Many segments of the market remain soft, according to Jack Gold, principal analyst with business consultancy J. Gold Associates. That is likely to continue for at least the next two quarters, he said.</p>
499.  
500.  
501.  
502. <p>“Tech layoffs might make the headlines, but our real-time data shows a more nuanced story. In many cases, the same companies that are laying people off are also still hiring — they’re just laser focused on hiring to meet demand,” said Ger Doyle, senior vice president of tech employment service Experis.</p>
503.  
504.  
505.  
506. <p>As an example, Microsoft and Amazon, which recently cut jobs in gaming and streaming, respectively, are simultaneously planning huge investments in AI, according to Doyle. </p>
507.  
508.  
509.  
510. <p>Experis’s data shows tech demand rebounded in January (up 26% compared to  December), with demand for AI/ML engineers growing 19% last month.</p>
511.  
512.  
513. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/02/layoffs.fyi-layoffs-by-industry-100958655-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/02/layoffs.fyi-layoffs-by-industry-100958655-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="layoffs.fyi layoffs by industry" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
514.  
515.  
516.  
517.  
518. <p>“AI hiring is through the roof due to betting on the future next big thing,” Gold said. “But that leaves many more mature industries vulnerable to scaling back. The thinking in many companies is, let’s cut back on ‘fringe’ stuff until we can determine if we’re going to be OK.”</p>
519.  
520.  
521.  
522. <p>Doyle said it’s important for employess to keep a focus on internal mobility. “We’re also seeing small and mid-size companies have their moment, scooping up tech talent that may have let go by the big hitters. It’s also important to remember that today every company is a tech company — Capital One, Doordash and Reddit are among the top hirers of AI and machine learning talent in the country today.</p>
523.  
524.  
525.  
526. <p>“Those with tech skills will still find themselves in high demand and able to call the shots on remote working, too…,” Doyle said.</p>
527.  
528.  
529.  
530. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="december-2023">December 2023</h2>
531.  
532.  
533.  
534. <p>Unemployment in the IT industry ticked up from 2% in November to 2.3% in December, according to an analysis of the latest jobs data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).</p>
535.  
536.  
537.  
538. <p>Tech occupations throughout the US economy declined by 79,000 positions last month, though the unemployment rate for tech occupations was still well below the overall national unemployment rate of 3.7%.</p>
539.  
540.  
541.  
542. <p>The up-and-down pattern in tech employment seen over the past few months continued in December, according to CompTIA, an IT trade association.</p>
543.  
544.  
545.  
546. <figure class="large">
547. <div class="embed-wrapper">
548. <div class="embed-container embed-youtube"><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HiwLqjCLU6Y?si=hplPjVGwEGlbyRaN" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"> </iframe></div>
549. </div>
550. </figure>
551.  
552.  
553.  
554.  
555. <p>Tech companies added the largest number of workers since April, but tech occupations throughout the economy declined, according to <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">CompTIA’s analysis of data</a> from the BLS.</p>
556.  
557.  
558. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/01/comptia-december-graphic-100952898-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/01/comptia-december-graphic-100952898-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia december graphic" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
559.  
560.  
561.  
562.  
563. <p>Job postings for tech occupations also fell. Active postings totaled nearly 364,000, including 142,295 newly added by employers in December, according to CompTIA.</p>
564.  
565.  
566.  
567. <p>There’s still strong demand for tech workers; US employers advertised 3.13 million IT job postings during 2023 for a wide range of positions including support, infrastructure, software, data, cybersecurity, and technology enablement.</p>
568.  
569.  
570.  
571. <p>In December, the top tech job postings by job openings in the US were:</p>
572.  
573.  
574.  
575. <ul>
576. <li>Software Developers and Engineers — 40,490;</li>
577.  
578.  
579.  
580. <li>IT Project Management, Data Analysts, Emerging, Other — 27,853;</li>
581.  
582.  
583.  
584. <li>IT Support Specialists — 16,526;</li>
585.  
586.  
587.  
588. <li>Systems Analysts and Engineers — 12,513;</li>
589.  
590.  
591.  
592. <li>Data Scientists — 10,293.</li>
593. </ul>
594.  
595.  
596.  
597. <p>(Not every “help wanted” ad results in a new hire; generally, the ratio is one new hire for every eight job postings, according to CompTIA.)</p>
598.  
599.  
600.  
601. <p>One area that saw marked hiring involved artificial intelligence (AI) roles. Employer hiring for AI and other specialized skills continued to exceed 10% of all tech job postings, CompTIA said.</p>
602.  
603.  
604.  
605. <p>The push for AI and generative AI hires might be having an adverse effect on entry-level IT positions, especially in customer service, telecommunications, and hosting automation, according to Victor Janulaitis, CEO of IT consultancy Janco Associates, Inc.</p>
606.  
607.  
608.  
609. <p>“CIOs and CFOs are looking to improve the productivity of IT by automating processes and reporting where possible,” Janulaitis said. “They are focusing on eliminating ‘non-essential’ managers, staff, and services. Experienced coders and developers still have opportunities.”</p>
610.  
611.  
612.  
613. <p>The highest demand continues to be for AI specialists, security professionals, programmers, and blockchain processing experts, according to Janulaitis.</p>
614.  
615.  
616.  
617. <p>Ger Doyle, senior vice president of IT staffing firm Experis, said he still sees “very strong demand” for full stack developers, data scientists, and AI experts. “Seventy-six percent of IT employers say they are facing difficulty finding the talent they need,” Doyle said.</p>
618.  
619.  
620. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2024/01/1704487271349-ef767e81-d5c4-40d8-961a-635cb5fd0b2e_1-100952895-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="1704487271349 ef767e81 d5c4 40d8 961a 635cb5fd0b2e 1" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></figure></div>
621.  
622.  
623.  
624.  
625. <p>“Supporting people to gain experience and develop new skills will be key to alleviating talent shortages and helping people build employability for the long term,” IT staffing firm ManpowerGroup said in a statement.</p>
626.  
627.  
628.  
629. <p>Overall, US employers anticipate measured hiring in the first quarter of 2024, while persistent talent shortages continue to impede hiring, according to the latest <a href="https://go.manpowergroup.com/meos" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Employment Outlook Survey</a> from staffing firm ManpowerGroup. With seasonal variations removed from the data, the Net Employment Outlook (NEO) for the U.S. is +35%. </p>
630.  
631.  
632.  
633. <p>(The NEO is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating an increase in hiring activity and subtracting the percentage of employers who expect a decrease in employment at their location in the next quarter.)</p>
634.  
635.  
636.  
637. <p>Globally, the US ties for second place in the world (+35%), outpaced by first-place ties, India and The Netherlands (+37%).</p>
638.  
639.  
640.  
641. <p>“Tech employment remains on solid footing,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement. “Despite the ongoing pattern of mixed signals in the labor market tracking data, the optimistic outlook continues to hold.”</p>
642.  
643.  
644.  
645. <p>Janulaitis saw it differently, however: “Layoffs at big tech companies continued to hurt overall IT hiring in 2023. CIOs are looking at a troubling economic climate and are evaluating the need for increased headcounts based on the technological requirements of their specific business operations. At the same time, with a mean total compensation of $100,000 for ITpPros, IT will continue to be a target for budget cutting.”</p>
646.  
647.  
648.  
649. <p>Talent mobility is set to be the key trend of the new year — employers need to look for potential vs past performance and help people make lateral moves within their organization, according to ManpowerGroup.</p>
650.  
651.  
652.  
653. <p>In December, overall US employment rose by 216,000 people, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">according to the BLS</a> . The overall unemployment rate remained unchanged from the previous month, with the number of unemployed workers was essentially unchanged at 6.3 million.</p>
654.  
655.  
656.  
657. <p>Employment in professional, scientific, and technical services continued to trend up, adding 25,000 jobs; the industry added an average of 22,000 jobs per month in 2023, about half the average monthly gain of 41,000 in 2022, according to the BLS report.</p>
658.  
659.  
660.  
661. <p>For all of 2023, the US added 2.7 million jobs. While the overall unemployment rate has remained under 4% over the past two years, last year ended with a higher unemployment rate (3.7%) than in 2022 (3.5%). Employment continued to trend up in government, healthcare, social assistance, and construction, while transportation and warehousing lost jobs.</p>
662.  
663.  
664.  
665. <p>“The 2024 labor market is all about balance and moderation — restoring equilibrium after four years of pandemic related swings,” said Becky Frankiewicz, president of the North America Region for staffing firm ManpowerGroup. “Today’s report…shows continued stabilization and an optimistic start to the New Year for employers and workers. Employers are holding onto their people and hiring where the demand exists.”  </p>
666.  
667.  
668.  
669. <p>Average hourly wage growth accelerated slightly in December, rising by 4.1% over the previous 12 months to $34.27 an hour and continued to beat inflation, boosting workers’ spending power, according to BLS data.</p>
670.  
671.  
672.  
673. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="november-2023">November 2023</h2>
674.  
675.  
676.  
677. <p>The number of new IT jobs being added to the US economy has continued to shrink over the past three months, even as the unemployment rate for tech workers has remained near historical lows.</p>
678.  
679.  
680.  
681. <p>The unemployment rate for tech workers dropped from 2.2% in October to about 2% in November, according to new data based on US Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p>
682.  
683.  
684.  
685. <p>Overall, US employment increased by 199,000 in November, and the national unemployment rate <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">edged down to 3.7%</a>, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. That tracks with October, when employment increased by about 150,000 jobs and the unemployment rate was 3.9%.</p>
686.  
687.  
688.  
689. <p>While there have been a plethora of <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1617283/tech-layoffs-in-2023-a-timeline.html">big employers announcing tech layoffs</a>, there has also been a redistribution of tech talent to midsize and small companies that “finally got their shot at hiring talent post-pandemic,” according to Becky Frankiewicz, president of ManpowerGroup, North America.</p>
690.  
691.  
692.  
693. <p>“This talent was scooped up almost in real time by smaller size businesses, so it remains quite difficult to fill tech roles in the country,” Frankiewicz said. “Now that every company is a tech company, we also saw tech talent absorbed into other sectors outside of tech — like retail and hospitality.</p>
694.  
695.  
696.  
697. <p>“We continue to see strong demand in business analyst roles and software developers as companies continue to work on readying projects for the new year and building out their apps for more clicks this season,” she added.</p>
698.  
699.  
700.  
701. <p>According to a report from business consultancy Janco Associates, the IT job market shrank by 12,000 open positions in the last three months, leaving 101,000 unemployed IT professionals. At the same time, close to the same number of tech positions remain unfilled.</p>
702.  
703.  
704.  
705. <p>“CIOs have started to halt hiring IT pros. Demand for contractors and consultants is slow due to economic uncertainty,” Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis said in the report. “On a bright side, there are still over 120K unfilled jobs for IT professionals.”</p>
706.  
707.  
708.  
709. <p>Year to date, the IT job market has shrunk by 24,900 positions, according to Janco’s report. Currently, about 4.18 million people are employed as IT professionals in the US, according to Janco.</p>
710.  
711.  
712. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/12/janco-it-job-gains-nov2023-100949153-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="janco it job gains nov2023" loading="lazy" width="400px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">
713. <p>Janco’s figures show a year-to-date loss of nearly 25,000 IT jobs.</p>
714. </figcaption></figure></div>
715.  
716.  
717.  
718.  
719. <p>In the past 18 months, the number of IT pros hired each month has moved from 105,00 to 57,000 in October 2023.</p>
720.  
721.  
722.  
723. <p>“2023 was not a good year for the size of the IT job market,” Janulaitis said. “We currently do not see any change in that trend. In our professional opinion, in 2024 the size of the IT job market will remain at about the same levels as the fourth quarter of 2023, with growth in size limited to minimal levels.”</p>
724.  
725.  
726.  
727. <p>The number of unfilled positions for IT pros has fallen from 148,000 to 101,000 in the past 18 months. “There still is demand; however, not at the peak of the post-pandemic hiring frenzy,” Janulaitis said.</p>
728.  
729.  
730.  
731. <p>Not all IT job reports were doom and gloom, however. CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and its workers, echoed ManpowerGroup’s findings, saying that hiring among SMBs is up — way up. And employer demand for AI talent boosted the share of job postings to 12%, the company stated.</p>
732.  
733.  
734.  
735. <p>Meanwhile, CompTIA’s numbers showed tech unemployment to be at 1.7%, well below ManpowerGroup’s figures, even as it estimated that tech occupations throughout the economy declined by 210,000 last month.</p>
736.  
737.  
738.  
739. <p>Tech occupations across the economy increased by an estimated 483,000 jobs, according to CompTIA. Tech firms added an estimated 2,159 workers, mainly in IT services and custom software development, <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">CompTIA’s Tech Jobs Report</a> showed.</p>
740.  
741.  
742.  
743. <p>“With the gains in employer hiring intent for AI talent, the job posting data is finally catching up to the hype,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer. “As an enabling technology, companies hiring for AI skills inevitably need to boost adjacencies in areas such as data infrastructure, cybersecurity, and business process automation.” </p>
744.  
745.  
746.  
747. <p>Employer hiring activity as measured by job postings for tech positions totaled 155,621 for November. Jobs associated with artificial intelligence (AI) made up 12% of the total, more than 18,000 postings. It’s the first time AI positions have surpassed the 10% threshold. Positions in emerging technologies or jobs that require emerging tech skills accounted for 26% of tech job postings last month.</p>
748.  
749.  
750. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/12/comptia-jobs-report-nov2023-100949154-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/12/comptia-jobs-report-nov2023-100949154-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia jobs report nov2023" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">
751. <p>Tech job postings continue to fall. (Click image to enlarge it.)</p>
752. </figcaption></figure></div>
753.  
754.  
755.  
756.  
757. <p>ManpowerGroup’s Frankiewicz said her company’s analysts anticipated a stabilization of the IT job market with real-time data showing impacts to all sectors, including “always-hot healthcare” and retail.</p>
758.  
759.  
760.  
761. <p>“In real time, we’re seeing double-digit declines in job postings month over month and year over year that we haven’t seen since 2020. This moderation is welcome for many employers — who are finding it easier to fill vacancies,” Frankiewicz said.</p>
762.  
763.  
764.  
765. <p>“Time to fill roles has dropped to 49 days in November, from an average of 122 days in 2023 to date. For highly skilled roles like software developer, the time to fill has dropped by more than half, from 106 days to 29,” she added.</p>
766.  
767.  
768.  
769. <p>“We’re also seeing signs of the heavy hitter big companies taking a back seat and midsize employers with 50-249 employees having their moment — a trend that began with tech talent and is now impacting across the board,” Frankiewicz said.</p>
770.  
771.  
772.  
773. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="october-2023">October 2023</h2>
774.  
775.  
776.  
777. <p>The national job rate for technology workers remained little changed in October, according to <a href="https://www.comptia.org/newsroom/press-releases/tech-job-gains-higher-than-expected-in-october-comptia-analysis-finds" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">an analysis of data</a> from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).</p>
778.  
779.  
780.  
781. <p>The unemployment rate for tech workers in October dropped from 2.2% in September to 2.1% last month, even as there has been a cooling in the broader US job market. Technology companies and employers throughout the economy added workers to their payrolls in October, according to <a href="https://www.comptia.org/" rel="nofollow">CompTIA</a>, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and its workers.</p>
782.  
783.  
784.  
785. <p>Tech occupations across the economy increased by an estimated 483,000 jobs, according to CompTIA. Tech firms added an estimated 2,159 workers, mainly in IT services and custom software development, <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">CompTIA’s Tech Jobs Report</a> showed.</p>
786.  
787.  
788. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/11/comptia-job-growth-100948135-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia job growth" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></figure></div>
789.  
790.  
791.  
792.  
793. <p>It was the second consecutive month of job growth in the sector — albeit at a modest pace.</p>
794.  
795.  
796.  
797. <p>“It’s fair to say tech employment gains for the month exceeded expectations, given the recent labor market swings,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement. “Companies continue to focus on the technologies and skills that deliver meaningful business value.”</p>
798.  
799.  
800.  
801. <p>California, Texas, Virginia, Florida and New York had the highest volumes of tech job postings among the states, CompTIA indicated. The Charlotte, Boston, San Diego, Cleveland and Phoenix markets were also active in October, with month-over-month increases in employer postings for tech jobs.</p>
802.  
803.  
804.  
805. <p>While the US market added 150,000 jobs in October, the overall unemployment rate rose from 3.8% to 3.9%, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of unemployed persons — 6.5 million — changed little in October. However, since their recent lows in April, those numbers are up by 0.5% and 849,000, respectively.</p>
806.  
807.  
808.  
809. <p>The uptick in unemployment and the slower pace of hiring pointed to a cooling of the employment market. In September, for example, 279,000 jobs were added to the US economy.</p>
810.  
811.  
812. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/11/janco-unfilled-it-jobs-graph-100948133-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/11/janco-unfilled-it-jobs-graph-100948133-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="janco unfilled it jobs graph" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
813.  
814.  
815.  
816.  
817. <p>Becky Frankiewicz, president of staffing firm ManpowerGroup’s North America region, credited the slowdown for employees being less likely to leave for new roles than they were at the height of the pandemic. Hiring, she said, is solid but settling down.</p>
818.  
819.  
820.  
821. <p>“Our real-time data shows that in many sectors, especially blue-collar and tech, the market is finding balance,” she said. “The post-pandemic hiring frenzy and summer hiring warmth has cooled and companies are now holding onto employees.”</p>
822.  
823.  
824.  
825. <p>The tech sector is also cooling from its torrid growth over the past two or more years, but there’s still demand for highly skilled positions including app developers, cyber security experts and data analysts, Frankiewicz said.</p>
826.  
827.  
828.  
829. <p>“The most in-demand functions remain steady — with most new roles posted in medical and healthcare, sales and IT,” she said.</p>
830.  
831.  
832.  
833. <p>After a spike in the number of openings for IT professionals in the early summer, the number of unfilled openings for IT professionals fell from 201,000 in August to 160,000 in September. That reflects a pullback from the peak of 254,000 opening in July, according to Frankiewicz.</p>
834.  
835.  
836. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/11/comptia-unemployment-rate-100948130-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/11/comptia-unemployment-rate-100948130-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia unemployment rate" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
837.  
838.  
839.  
840.  
841. <p>About 20% of job postings offered work from home or remote work as an option, according to CompTIA. One-quarter were for positions in emerging technologies or jobs that require emerging tech skills, including 16,000 associated with artificial intelligence (AI) jobs and skills. Employer hiring for AI positions and skills continues to trend upward, although it’s still a relatively small share of overall tech hiring activity.</p>
842.  
843.  
844.  
845. <p>Along with AI-skilled workers, software developers, IT support specialists, systems analysts, and data scientists are among the job roles in greatest demand, according to CompTIA.</p>
846.  
847.  
848.  
849. <p>Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Utah-based research firm Janco Associates, agreed AI and machine learning skills are in demand, though the number of coder openings is falling. At the same time, hiring of IT professionals is hindered by the lack of qualified individuals and a slowing economic picture.</p>
850.  
851.  
852.  
853. <p>“This will have a dampening impact on the growth of the IT Job Market size,” Janco stated in its latest <a href="https://e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">tech market jobs report</a>.</p>
854.  
855.  
856.  
857. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="september-2023">September 2023</h2>
858.  
859.  
860.  
861. <p>The US unemployment rate remained at 3.8% in September, but the market added 336,000 jobs, far surpassing analyst expectations, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers</a>.</p>
862.  
863.  
864.  
865. <p>Tech employment, however, was a laggard in the generally upbeat US employment report released today, according to analysis by the nonprofit trade association CompTIA. Key metrics of tech hiring activity all slipped in September, <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">its report showed</a>.</p>
866.  
867.  
868.  
869. <p>Tech jobs among all sectors across the economy fell by an estimated 20,000. The technology sector unemployment rate ticked up from 2.1% in August to 2.2% in September, but it remains well below the national rate of 3.8%, according to CompTIA.</p>
870.  
871.  
872.  
873. <p>Tech salaries also appeared to be on a downslope, according to <a href="https://hired.com/blog/highlights/2023-state-of-tech-salaries-released/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">an analysis</a> by job matching site Hired, which notes that US inflation-adjusted salaries have plummeted to a five-year low.</p>
874.  
875.  
876.  
877. <p>Meanwhile, tech sector companies reduced staffing by a net 2,632 positions last month, according to CompTIA’s analysis of BLS data.</p>
878.  
879.  
880.  
881. <p>Employer job postings for future tech hiring also fell to 184,077 in September, down from nearly 208,000 in August. (Future tech hiring is defined by CompTIA as expected open requisitions.)</p>
882.  
883.  
884.  
885. <p>“Demand for software positions continues to drive the largest volume of hiring activity. In the aggregate, volumes are equally large in positions spanning IT project management, IT support, data analytics, and systems/cloud infrastructure,” CompTIA’s report stated.</p>
886.  
887.  
888. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/10/comptia-jobs-graphic-100946868-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/10/comptia-jobs-graphic-100946868-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia jobs graphic" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
889.  
890.  
891.  
892.  
893. <p>Positions in emerging technologies or jobs requiring emerging tech skills accounted for 26.5% of all tech jobs postings last month, up from 22% in August. Within emerging tech job postings, 36% were associated with artificial intelligence (AI).</p>
894.  
895.  
896.  
897. <p>“There is no sugar-coating the off month of tech employment data,” Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer, said in a statement. “Despite the persistently high demand for tech skills on many fronts and positive forward-looking projections, there is a lag in hiring at the moment.”</p>
898.  
899.  
900. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/10/comptia-graphic-1-100946871-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/10/comptia-graphic-1-100946871-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia graphic 1" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
901.  
902.  
903.  
904.  
905. <p>Jim McCoy, senior vice president of staffing firm ManpowerGroup, echoed Hebert’s sentiments on tech employment, but he said one bright sector has been smaller firms that are still dealing with a skills gap.</p>
906.  
907.  
908.  
909. <p>“To be sure, large companies have pulled back hiring and even cut workers, especially in technology, as borrowing costs have spiraled higher,” McCoy said. “But many small and midsized businesses that struggled to attract workers are snapping up those laid off and drawing from a more plentiful labor supply as Americans sidelined by COVID return to the workforce.”</p>
910.  
911.  
912.  
913. <p>The BLS jobs report showed the average hourly earnings for all employees rose by 7 cents, or 0.2%, to $33.88. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings  have increased by 4.2%, the report stated. In September, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 6 cents, or 0.2%, to $29.06.</p>
914.  
915.  
916.  
917. <p>While hiring may be up overall, real wages in the technology sector appeared to be declining, according to a recent report from job matching site Hired.</p>
918.  
919.  
920.  
921. <p>In its annual State of Tech Salaries Report, released in late September, Hired said the tech talent market has seen dramatic shifts from 2022 to the first half of 2023, fueling tension and misalignment between recruiter and job candidate expectations.</p>
922.  
923.  
924.  
925. <p>Following a year of record-breaking inflation and market turbulence, local salaries in the US, including those for fully in-person or hybrid roles, have experienced their most significant year-over-year decline, dropping by 3% from $161,000 to $156,000. In contrast, salaries in the UK have seen a 4% increase, rising from £82,000 to £86,000, according to Hired.</p>
926.  
927.  
928. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/10/hired-graphic-1-100946869-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/10/hired-graphic-1-100946869-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="hired graphic 1" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
929.  
930.  
931.  
932.  
933. <p>When adjusted for inflation, local salaries decreased 9% from $141K in 2022 to $129K by mid-2023, while remote salaries decreased 6% from $143K in 2022 to $134K by mid-2023.</p>
934.  
935.  
936.  
937. <p>Amid the rise of generative AI and a tightening of corporate budgets, junior talent (workers with less than four years of experience) have experienced the most significant decrease in salaries — nearly 5% year-over-year — and demand, with posted roles on the platform lowering from 45% in 2019 to 25% in the first half of 2023, according to Hired’s report.</p>
938.  
939.  
940.  
941. <p>“Compared to last year, we are witnessing a seismic shift in tech employee and employer preferences. The surging demand for experienced tech talent on our platform and employers’ increasing reliance on AI tools point to an ever-growing skills gap. This challenge will only heighten as companies reduce their hiring locations amid their return to the office and limit their access to qualified talent,” said Josh Brenner, CEO at Hired.</p>
942.  
943.  
944.  
945. <p>“With the future talent pipeline at risk of a deficit, companies cannot afford to disregard high-quality talent at any level. Instead, they must embrace diverse candidates with transferable skills who can adeptly address industry challenges, especially amid rapid advancements driven by emerging technologies like AI,” Brenner added.</p>
946.  
947.  
948. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/10/hired-grahpic-2-100946870-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/10/hired-grahpic-2-100946870-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="hired grahpic 2" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
949.  
950.  
951.  
952.  
953. <p>The highest paid tech workers were engineering managers, particularly with the introduction of AI tools and increased cybersecurity challenges. Engineering managers earn on average $202,000 in the US and £118,000 in the UK — a notable 10% increase from £107,000 at the end of 2022. </p>
954.  
955.  
956.  
957. <p>Specialized engineers are the most in demand in 2023: Employers on Hired’s marketplace have a higher demand for specialized engineers, especially for AI applications such as ML, as well as cybersecurity, data, and back-end engineers.</p>
958.  
959.  
960.  
961. <p>AI isn’t an immediate threat to job security, but it could present challenges for job seekers in the coming years: While the majority of surveyed candidates (87%) currently do not view AI as the primary threat to their roles, a significant portion of employers (47%) project they will leverage AI to reduce headcounts by 2029.</p>
962.  
963.  
964.  
965. <p>Overall, there were job gains in leisure and hospitality, government, healthcare, professional services, scientific and technical services, and social assistance.</p>
966.  
967.  
968.  
969. <p>Employment in professional, scientific, and technical services increased by 29,000 jobs in September, in line with the average monthly gain of 27,000 over the prior 12 months, BLS data showed.</p>
970.  
971.  
972.  
973. <p>Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates, identified the 10 AI skills listed most often on client open job requisitions for IT professionals. The one AI skill that was included in more than 60% of those requisitions: ChatGPT.</p>
974.  
975.  
976.  
977. <p>“Since its launch in November of 2022, ChatGPT has been implemented by the greatest number of organizations,” Janulaitis said in <a href="https://itmanager.substack.com/p/it-pros-with-ai-skills-in-high-demand" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">a blog post</a>. “As a result, companies are recruiting IT professionals who have the skills to help them with using ChatGPT for content generation, task automation and scripting… and more.”</p>
978.  
979.  
980.  
981. <p>Other skills listed in open IT job requisitions: Natural Language Processing, TensorFlow, Image Processing, PyTorch, Generative AI content creation, Midjourney, AI Chatbot, Model Tuning, and Stable Diffusion.</p>
982.  
983.  
984.  
985. <p>PricewaterhouseCooper’s <a href="https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/workforce/hopes-and-fears.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey</a> found sizeable pockets of the global workforce eager to learn new skills, embrace artificial intelligence (AI), and tackle new challenges — even as many companies fail to tolerate debate and dissenting ideas, or even small-scale failures. Meanwhile, many workers are restless: fully 26% say they plan to quit their job in the next 12 months, up from 19% last year.</p>
986.  
987.  
988.  
989. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="august-2023">August 2023</h2>
990.  
991.  
992.  
993. <p>Though they remain low, unemployment figures have seesawed over the past six months, a phenomenon that has some tech industry experts scratching their heads trying to make sense of what may be the new norm.</p>
994.  
995.  
996.  
997. <p>Last month, unemployment in technology fields increased along with the overall US unemployment rate, which rose from 3.5% in July to 3.8% in August, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">new data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics</a> (BLS). At the same time, total nonfarm employment across all markets increased by 187,000 jobs in August.</p>
998.  
999.  
1000.  
1001. <p>The mixed messages in last Friday’s employment report carried over to the tech industry and workforce, according <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">an analysis by industry group CompTIA</a>.</p>
1002.  
1003.  
1004.  
1005. <p>Tech unemployment had dropped from 2.3% in June to 1.8% in July, as tech firms and employers in other industries added workers after a spate of <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1617283/tech-layoffs-in-2023-a-timeline.html">high-profile layoffs</a> in the tech industry.</p>
1006.  
1007.  
1008. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/09/comptia-hiring-graphic-100945562-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/09/comptia-hiring-graphic-100945562-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia hiring graphic" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1009.  
1010.  
1011.  
1012.  
1013. <p>The latest BLS report, however, found that employers across the US economy reduced tech occupations by an estimated 189,000 positions, pushing the unemployment rate for tech jobs up to 2.1% — almost where it was in June, CompTIA said.</p>
1014.  
1015.  
1016.  
1017. <p>“The usual caveats of monthly fluctuations in labor market data apply,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “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.”</p>
1018.  
1019.  
1020.  
1021. <p>Employer job postings for future tech hiring (a separate category tracked by CompTIA) totaled nearly 208,000 in August, a slight decline of 1.4% from the previous month. But job postings for information security analysts increased 19% from July to August to more than 12,000 postings. Other in-demand occupations include software developers, tech support specialists, computer systems analysts, and data scientists.</p>
1022.  
1023.  
1024.  
1025. <p>“With ‘pandemic paranoia’ about hiring lingering, companies are continuing to hold onto their workers, remembering how hard it was to rehire,” said Becky Frankiewicz, president of global staffing firm ManpowerGroup’s North America Region. “Essential workers we valued through the pandemic may not be feeling so essential, as real-time job postings for blue collar roles like operations and logistics/maintenance and repair are down 43% month over month” based on ManpowerGroup’s real-time data.</p>
1026.  
1027.  
1028. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/09/manpowergroup-hiring-trends-graphic-1-100945559-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/09/manpowergroup-hiring-trends-graphic-1-100945559-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="manpowergroup hiring trends graphic 1" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1029.  
1030.  
1031.  
1032.  
1033. <p>“This Labor Day is a great occasion to celebrate the resilience of the American worker,” she said. “Although we are seeing a slowdown, the labor market remains healthy, and we are optimistic about the future.”</p>
1034.  
1035.  
1036.  
1037. <p>Positions in emerging technologies or jobs requiring emerging tech skills, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and data science, accounted for 23% of all tech jobs postings in August. Among emerging tech job postings, 37% were associated with AI, with California, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and Virginia showing the highest numbers of AI-related job postings.</p>
1038.  
1039.  
1040. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/09/experis-hiring-trend-grahpic-100945557-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/09/experis-hiring-trend-grahpic-100945557-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="experis hiring trend grahpic" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1041.  
1042.  
1043.  
1044.  
1045. <p>New data from IT staffing firm Experis found that an increasing number of companies surveyed are either adopting or planning to adopt emerging technologies in their recruiting processes. That comes as more than three quarters (78%) of IT organizations <a href="https://go.manpowergroup.com/talent-shortage" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">report difficulty finding talent</a> with the right skills — a 17-year high.</p>
1046.  
1047.  
1048.  
1049. <p>According to Experis, 58% of employers believe AI and virtual reality <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1630182/ai-will-kill-these-jobs-but-create-new-ones-too.html">will create jobs, not kill them</a>. Additionally, cybersecurity, technical support, and customer experience remain high-priority IT staffing areas. Half of employers say they are training and upskilling their current workforce to address staffing challenges.</p>
1050.  
1051.  
1052. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/09/manpowergroup-talent-shortage-graphic-100945561-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/09/manpowergroup-talent-shortage-graphic-100945561-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="manpowergroup talent shortage graphic" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1053.  
1054.  
1055.  
1056.  
1057. <p>“The integration of AI, machine learning, VR/AR, and other emerging technologies is rapidly transforming industries and driving the need for an adaptable workforce,” said Experis Senior Vice President Ger Doyle. “We are seeing companies embrace these new technologies with many seeking to hire or upskill existing talent to take advantage of potential productivity gains. Smart employers know that embracing digitization<em> and</em> nurturing human talent will enhance their readiness to succeed in this era of rapid technological advancement.”</p>
1058.  
1059.  
1060. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/09/manpowergroup-hiring-grahpic-2-100945558-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/09/manpowergroup-hiring-grahpic-2-100945558-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="manpowergroup hiring grahpic 2" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1061.  
1062.  
1063.  
1064.  
1065. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="july-2023">July 2023</h2>
1066.  
1067.  
1068.  
1069. <p>The unemployment rate for tech jobs dropped from 2.3% to 1.8% in July, as technology companies and employers in other industry sectors added workers, according to analysis of US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.</p>
1070.  
1071.  
1072.  
1073. <p>It was the lowest tech-sector unemployment rate since January, <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">according to CompTIA</a><a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow">, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce. </a></p>
1074.  
1075.  
1076.  
1077. <p>The overall US unemployment rate also dropped slightly last month from 3.6% in June to 3.5%, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">BLS data</a>. About 187,000 non-farm jobs were added, less than the average monthly gain of 312,000 over the prior 12 months. In July, jobs grew in healthcare, social assistance, financial activities, and wholesale trade, according to the BLS.</p>
1078.  
1079.  
1080. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/08/comptia-job-postings-100944386-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/08/comptia-job-postings-100944386-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia job postings" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1081.  
1082.  
1083.  
1084.  
1085. <p>The overall unemployment rate has ranged from 3.4% to 3.7% since March 2022.</p>
1086.  
1087.  
1088.  
1089. <p>According to BLS data, employment in professional, scientific, and technical services continued to trend up in July with 24,000 positions filled.</p>
1090.  
1091.  
1092.  
1093. <p>Tech sector companies increased their staffing by 5,432 employees, according to CompTIA’s analysis of BLS data. Leading the way in new IT hires were custom software services and systems design;and PC, semiconductor and components manufacturing.</p>
1094.  
1095.  
1096. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/08/janco-it-salaries-100944387-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/08/janco-it-salaries-100944387-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="janco it salaries" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1097.  
1098.  
1099.  
1100.  
1101. <p>IT salaries <a href="https://e-janco.com/salary.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">were on the rise</a>, too, according to a mid-year analysis by business consultancy Janco Associates, as more companies invested in IT. The emphasis in recent years has been on both e-commerce and mobile computing. And with growing numbers of cyberattacks and data breaches, CIOs are looking to harden their sites and lock down data access to protect all of their electronic assets, according to Janco Associates.</p>
1102.  
1103.  
1104.  
1105. <p>The lone drag on the July data was in employer job postings for tech occupations, which slipped to from 236,000 in June to 204,400 for the month of July.</p>
1106.  
1107.  
1108.  
1109. <p>“Given the pace of tech hiring, it remains a fairly tight market for tech talent,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer for CompTIA, <a href="https://www.comptia.org/newsroom/press-releases/tech-employment-increases-in-still-tight-labor-market-comptia-analysis-finds" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">said in a statement</a>. “It continues to be an environment where employers must supplement recruiting efforts with proactive talent development strategies.”</p>
1110.  
1111.  
1112.  
1113. <p>While the drop in tech sector unemployment is notable, it’s not uncommon for rates to fluctuate, according to Herbert. Over the past 5.5 years dating back t0 January 2018, the tech unemployment rate saw a 1/2-point or higher rise or fall from the previous month 27 times, which translates to 40% of the time, he said in an email to <em>Computerworld</em>.</p>
1114.  
1115.  
1116.  
1117. <p>In comparison, the national unemployment saw the same kind of variation 22 times, or 33% of the time. Herbert said.</p>
1118.  
1119.  
1120.  
1121. <p>“Unfortunately, the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not provide data at a granular enough level to pinpoint the exact tech occupation categories driving changes in the unemployment rate,” Herbert said. “The employer job posting data indicates hiring activity is broad-based spanning all the major job families within tech.”</p>
1122.  
1123.  
1124. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/08/comptia-multi-chart-100944388-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/08/comptia-multi-chart-100944388-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia multi chart" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1125.  
1126.  
1127.  
1128.  
1129. <p>The way the BLS tracks job seekers also matters; it only keeps tabs on people actively looking for employment, Herbert noted.</p>
1130.  
1131.  
1132.  
1133. <p>“There could be scenarios whereby certain segments of workers go uncounted in the unemployment rate because they put their job search on pause — perhaps to re-evaluate their job search strategy, to pursue additional training, to recharge their batteries, etc.,” he said. “This could have the effect of artificially lowering the unemployment rate.”</p>
1134.  
1135.  
1136.  
1137. <p>There is a difference, however, between the long-term unemployed who might lack skills demanded in the labor market and those who voluntarily put a job search on hold. “My sense is tech workers in this position tend to fall in the latter category given most have in demand skills,” Herbert added.</p>
1138.  
1139.  
1140.  
1141. <p>Janco Associates painted a somewhat gloomier picture of the IT jobs landscape: it said that year to date, IT jobs shrank by 5,500 positions. That’s in contrast to 125,900 jobs <a href="https://e-janco.com/press/2023/2023-08-04-it-job-market-shrinks-5,500-ytd.html" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">created during the same period of 2022</a>.</p>
1142.  
1143.  
1144.  
1145. <p>The number of unfilled jobs for IT pros shrank from more than 200,000 in December to just over 120,000 at the end of July, Janco’s latest report showed. It argued that the growth of the IT job market stopped in January, with a loss of 2,600 positions, with other losses piling up in succeeding months.</p>
1146.  
1147.  
1148.  
1149. <p>“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals are poor at best,” Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis said in a statement.</p>
1150.  
1151.  
1152.  
1153. <p>In the second quarter of 2023, the “big losers” were computer system design jobs (down 10,500); telecommunications (down 5,500);  content providers (down 4,700); and other information service providers (down 6,600). Janulaitis said.</p>
1154.  
1155.  
1156.  
1157. <p>Many roles, especially in telecommunications and cloud providers are being automated and eliminated, he said. CIOs and CFOs are looking to improve the productivity of IT by automating processes and reporting where possible and focusing on eliminating “non-essential” managers, staff, and services.</p>
1158.  
1159.  
1160.  
1161. <p>“Experienced coders and developers still have opportunities. The highest demand continues to be for security professionals, programmers, and blockchain processing IT Pros,” Janulaitis said.</p>
1162.  
1163.  
1164.  
1165. <p>As part of an effort to boost return on investment, CIOs are looking to consolidate the cloud service providers they support.</p>
1166.  
1167.  
1168.  
1169. <p>“This will impact the job prospects at those providers,” Janulaitis said. “There continues to be a general belief there will be an economic downturn by many CIOs and CFOs. This is impacting all decisions around hiring new IT pros and increasing technology-related expenditures. This has impacted the salaries of IT pros with a major impact on the compensation of IT executives.”</p>
1170.  
1171.  
1172.  
1173. <p>Meanwhile, according to CompTIA, the strongest demand was for software developers and engineers, IT project managers, data analysts, IT support specialists and emerging technologies. Positions in emerging technologies or jobs that require emerging tech skills accounted for about 23% of all tech job postings in July.</p>
1174.  
1175.  
1176.  
1177. <p>Within the emerging tech category, 35% of job postings referenced artificial intelligence (AI) work and skills, CompTIA said. </p>
1178.  
1179.  
1180.  
1181. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="june-2023">June 2023</h2>
1182.  
1183.  
1184.  
1185. <p>IT workers are well positioned to not only keep their jobs but to get big bumps in pay when looking for new opportunities, according to analysis of jobs data released today by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).</p>
1186.  
1187.  
1188.  
1189. <p>Overall, the US unemployment rate dropped slightly from 3.7% in May to 3.6% in June, with about 206,000 jobs added, according to the BLS. The number of jobs added last month was down 100,000 from May.</p>
1190.  
1191.  
1192.  
1193. <p>Wages also increased as employers continued to struggle to find workers. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees grew 4.4% in June over the same period last year to $28.83, according to the BLS.</p>
1194.  
1195.  
1196.  
1197. <p>Tech sector companies increased headcount by 5,348 jobs last month, according to an <a href="https://www.comptia.org/newsroom/press-releases/tech-employment-eases-for-month-comptia-analysis-shows" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">analysis of BLS data</a> by industry group CompTIA. Among the six top tech occupation categories, three have shown positive gains through the first half of 2023: IT and custom software services and systems design; PC, semiconductor and components manufacturing; and cloud infrastructure, data processing and hosting.</p>
1198.  
1199.  
1200.  
1201. <p>Overall, however, tech occupations throughout the economy declined by an estimated 171,000, according to CompTIA. The unemployment rate for tech jobs edged up from 2% to 2.3%, still well below the national unemployment figure.</p>
1202.  
1203.  
1204. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/07/comptia-it-jobs-4-100943028-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/07/comptia-it-jobs-4-100943028-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia it jobs 4" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1205.  
1206.  
1207.  
1208.  
1209. <p>Software developers were in particularly in high demand, according to CompTIA. Job openings had dropped by more than 2,700 positions in May, but in June software development positions rose by more than 15,700 openings. Job openings for IT project managers and data scientists also lept in June, up by 8,633 and 3,929, respectively.</p>
1210.  
1211.  
1212.  
1213. <p>Other IT positions that saw marked increases included system analysts, IT support specialists, web developers, cybersecurity analysts and engineers, and database adminitrators, according to CompTIA.</p>
1214.  
1215.  
1216.  
1217. <p>Overall, tech-related employment mirrored June’s overall easing of the labor market nationally, <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">CompTIA said</a>. Tech occupations throughout the economy fell back and job postings for future hiring were down modestly, with jobs offering remote/hybrid work arrangements falling off even as opportunities to work with artificial intelligence rose in the emerging job market.</p>
1218.  
1219.  
1220.  
1221. <p>“The latest tech employment figures do lag some, but the underlying fundamentals remain unchanged. All signs point to a continuation of the growth trajectory for the tech workforce,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer, CompTIA, said in a statement.</p>
1222.  
1223.  
1224. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/07/comptia-it-jobs-2-100943026-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/07/comptia-it-jobs-2-100943026-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia it jobs 2" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1225.  
1226.  
1227.  
1228.  
1229. <p>Ahead of the BLS jobs report, HR software provider ADP released its own jobs report Thursday saying private sector jobs surged by 497,000 in June, well ahead of the 267,000 gain in May and much higher than the 220,000 analysts had estimated.</p>
1230.  
1231.  
1232.  
1233. <p>“According to the Department of Labor, [ADP’s] numbers were way off,” said Jamie Kohn, senior director of human resources research at Gartner. “I do think we’re seeing a slight slowdown in jobs at the moment, but there’s such a shortage of talent, companies are trying to keep up.”</p>
1234.  
1235.  
1236.  
1237. <p>Employment rates for prime age workers — 18- to 54-year-olds — is back to pre-Covid numbers and companies are reticent to make further cuts even as economists continue to chirp about a possible recession.</p>
1238.  
1239.  
1240.  
1241. <p>“We have data that shows on median, people are getting a 15% increase when they move from one job to another,” Kohn said. “They’re actually getting higher pay bumps than they thought they would.” On average, most job seekers expect an 8% increase in pay in a new job, according to a new Gartner survey.</p>
1242.  
1243.  
1244.  
1245. <p>Another trend putting pressure on the job market is an increasing number of Baby Boomer retirements, leaving management positions and other senior jobs unfilled.</p>
1246.  
1247.  
1248.  
1249. <p>“We’re about half way through Baby Boomer [generation] retirement. The market is likely to get tighter as the latter half of the Baby Boomer generation retires over the next decade or so. Some people also retired early during and coming out of the pandemic,” Kohn said. “I’m hearing from a lot of HR leaders who are trying to figure out how to convince people to delay retirement because they’re finding it hard to find people.”</p>
1250.  
1251.  
1252.  
1253. <p>IT workers in particular are in demand, Kohn said. The Gartner survey showed 78% of job market candidates have multiple offers on the table. That compares to overall job seekers, 72% of whom had multiple job offers.</p>
1254.  
1255.  
1256. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/07/comptia-it-jobs-3-100943027-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/07/comptia-it-jobs-3-100943027-medium.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia it jobs 3" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1257.  
1258.  
1259.  
1260.  
1261. <p>While organizations across all US industries are expected to boost hiring in the third quarter, employers in the IT market have the most aggressive hiring plans, according to global staffing firm ManpowerGroup.</p>
1262.  
1263.  
1264.  
1265. <p>Unmet demand for talent is highest in IT-related fields, with 78% of employers in IT reporting challenges in hiring, according to an earlier report from ManpowerGroup. This suggests that tech workers who find themselves laid off will soon be reabsorbed into the market.</p>
1266.  
1267.  
1268.  
1269. <p>ManpowerGroup’s real-time data is showing plentiful opportunities in logistics, job openings grew 25% this quarter, sales and business development were up 10%, medical (up 9%) and finance (up 8%).</p>
1270.  
1271.  
1272.  
1273. <p>“We’re seeing the relationship between employers and workers continue to evolve, particularly for workers with in-demand skills,” Becky Frankiewicz, ManpowerGroup’s regional president and chief commercial officer, said. “As ‘pandemic paranoia’ about hiring lingers, companies are holding on to their workers as layoffs calm and permanent roles are more in demand than temporary.”</p>
1274.  
1275.  
1276.  
1277. <p>Hybrid work is also on the uptick, with all industries offering more remote/hybrid roles month-over-month and tech remote work up 34%-40% in June, according to ManpowerGroup. And as the relentless advance of AI continues, employers are betting on people. Companies are investing in the talent and skills they have in house, with organizations re-skilling and up-skilling more than ever.</p>
1278.  
1279.  
1280.  
1281. <p>After some high-profile layoffs by tech companies this year and last, many IT workers are seeking employment in industries they consider more stable, such as financial services, according to Kohn.</p>
1282.  
1283.  
1284.  
1285. <p>Workforce participation by women remains lower than for men. A key reason for that is US employers are not as generous with flexible work, paid maternal leave and childcare assistance as their European counterparts.</p>
1286.  
1287.  
1288.  
1289. <p>“If you have to spend half or more of your income for childcare, no reason to go back to work,” Kohn said, adding that what’s needed is an overhaul of worker benefits rights by the federal government. Another wrinkle: US immigration has seen steep declines — even before the pandemic — further reducing the chance for a glut in job openings.</p>
1290.  
1291.  
1292.  
1293. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="may-2023">May 2023</h2>
1294.  
1295.  
1296.  
1297. <p>Like April before it, the month of May showed mixed results for tech employment in the US.</p>
1298.  
1299.  
1300.  
1301. <p>Technology companies shed an estimated 4,725 jobs — a figure that includes nontechnical workers — in May, according to an analysis of the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures by IT industry group CompTIA. Job postings for open technology positions also eased off, down to about 234,000 from April’s 300,000, according to <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">a new report from CompTIA</a>.</p>
1302.  
1303.  
1304.  
1305. <p>At the same time, however, the number of technology jobs throughout the economy rose by 45,000, according to the report.</p>
1306.  
1307.  
1308.  
1309. <p>Those mixed results for the tech workforce reflect the unpredictability of the overall labor market. US employers added a stronger-than-expected 339,000 jobs in May, but the overall US unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points to hit 3.7%, while the number of unemployed people rose by 440,000 to reach 6.1 million, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">BLS data released today</a>.</p>
1310.  
1311.  
1312.  
1313. <p>Responding to the BLS data, global staffing firm ManpowerGroup also commented on the mixed results for tech pros: “Our data shows cooling in IT, with posted roles down 12% compared to last month. Yet those let go are being quickly reabsorbed, often into midsize companies.”</p>
1314.  
1315.  
1316.  
1317. <p>Indeed, while the national unemployment rate has ranged between 3.4% and 3.7% since March 2022, the unemployment rate for tech occupations has hovered near 2% throughout that time frame. In fact, tech unemployment decreased slightly in May, from 2.1% to 2.0%, according to CompTIA’s analysis of the BLS data.</p>
1318.  
1319.  
1320.  
1321. <p>“Reassuringly, the positives for the month outweigh the negatives, confirming the tech workforce remains on solid footing,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA.</p>
1322.  
1323.  
1324.  
1325. <p>The most in-demand roles among tech job postings include software developers and engineers; IT project managers, data analysts, and other emerging tech roles; IT support specialists; systems analysts and engineers; and data scientists. Approximately 20% of job postings are in emerging tech fields or require emerging tech skills, including nearly 15,000 postings that mention AI skills, according to CompTIA.</p>
1326.  
1327.  
1328.  
1329. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="april-2023">April 2023</h2>
1330.  
1331.  
1332.  
1333. <p>Technology companies added 18,795 workers in April, the largest number since August 2022, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures and an industry analysis of that information.</p>
1334.  
1335.  
1336.  
1337. <p>The data revealed a mixed bag of results for tech workers last month. Technology jobs throughout the economy declined by 99,000 positions even as employer job postingspassed 300,000 — a level last reached in October, according to <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">a report from CompTIA</a>, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.</p>
1338.  
1339.  
1340.  
1341. <p>Both the overall US unemployment rate, at 3.4%, and the number of unemployed, at 5.7 million, changed little in April, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">BLS data released today</a>. The national unemployment rate has ranged between 3.4% and 3.7% since March 2022.</p>
1342.  
1343.  
1344.  
1345. <p>The unemployment rate for tech occupations inched up to 2.3% in April from 2.2% in March, still well below the national unemployment rate, according to CompTIA’s evaluation.</p>
1346.  
1347.  
1348.  
1349. <p>“It was another all-too-familiar month of mixed labor market signals,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “The surprisingly strong tech sector employment gains were offset by the pause in tech hiring across the economy.”</p>
1350.  
1351.  
1352. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/05/comptia-graphic-100940674-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/05/comptia-graphic-100940674-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia graphic" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1353.  
1354.  
1355.  
1356.  
1357. <p>Still, IT executives and managers are among the most highly paid workers in US corporations, according to a new report based on the latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).</p>
1358.  
1359.  
1360.  
1361. <p>A BLS report published last last month — the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/overview_2022.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Occupational Employment and Wages Summary</a> for 2022 — showed computer and information research scientists earn on average about $155,880 a year. Database architects are the second-highest earners with just over $136,540 in annual compensation. Software developers followed at $132,000 a year.</p>
1362.  
1363.  
1364.  
1365. <p>Putting upward pressure on wages has been a combination of scarce tech talent and low unemployement rates.</p>
1366.  
1367.  
1368.  
1369. <p>Computer and IT managers are among the most highly paid positions in the US, earning an average $173,670 across all industries and occupations; that’s even more than the top executives in all industries and occupations ($129,050), according to business consultancy Janco Associate.</p>
1370.  
1371.  
1372.  
1373. <p>In terms of employment in the tech industry, software developers held just over 1.5 million positions in the US, more than double the 700,000 positions held by computer user support specialists. Computer systems analysts, with 500,000 jobs, were in third place, according to <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1624400/janco-it-managers-earn-more-than-other-top-execs.html">Janco’s report</a>.</p>
1374.  
1375.  
1376.  
1377. <p>Late last month, job search website Lensa <a href="https://lensa.com/insights/the-future-of-work/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">published a research study</a> showing “computer occupations” are among the most in-demand jobs in the US, second only to “health diagnostic and treatment practitioners.” More than 3.1 million potential applicants clicked on open job positions in the IT arena, according to Lensa.</p>
1378.  
1379.  
1380.  
1381. <p>Overall, the number of workers not in the labor force who currently want a job increased by 346,000 over the month to 5.3 million, according to the BLS. “These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the four weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job,” the BLS said.</p>
1382.  
1383.  
1384.  
1385. <p>Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.6%, and the employment-population ratio, at 60.4%, were unchanged in April. These measures remain below their pre-pandemic February 2020 levels, 63.3%and 61.1%, respectively.</p>
1386.  
1387.  
1388.  
1389. <p>Global Staffing firm ManpowerGroup viewed the BLS data from April as a “promise of spring” for the job market, with a higher-than-expected 253,000 jobs added.</p>
1390.  
1391.  
1392.  
1393. <p>Employers continue to hire for in-demand skills while pulling back on non-essential headcount, the company said in a statement to <em>Computerworld</em>. The company also noted some negative trends that emerged with the BLS’s revisions to its March data showing 100,000 fewer jobs, “and the three-month average is tracking down.”</p>
1394.  
1395.  
1396.  
1397. <p>“Today, we’re seeing very concentrated demand with medical, IT, and sales representing 44% of all open positions,” Becky Frankiewicz. president of ManpowerGroup North America said. “That data includes all real-time available jobs across the country. [Job] openings are the lowest they’ve been in two years.”</p>
1398.  
1399.  
1400.  
1401. <p>Employers listed more than 300,000 job postings for tech positions in April, signaling demand for tech talent continues to hold up, according to CompTIA. In March, there were 316,000 tech job openings.</p>
1402.  
1403.  
1404.  
1405. <p>Within the tech sector, three occupation categories paced April hiring, led by IT services and custom software development (+12,700 additional jobs). Job gains were also reported in cloud infrastructure, data processing and hosting (+7,300 additional jobs) and PC, semiconductor and components manufacturing (+3,200 additional jobs).</p>
1406.  
1407.  
1408.  
1409. <p>Employer job postings for tech positions were widely dispersed geographically and by industry. Employers in administrative and support (32,861), finance and insurance (32,820) and manufacturing (31,959) were among the most active last month.</p>
1410.  
1411.  
1412.  
1413. <p>The number of tech job postings that specify remote work or hybrid work arrangements as an option continued to trend upward in April, with more than 65,000 positions across the country; software developers, IT project managers, data analysts and jobs in emerging technologies topped the list</p>
1414.  
1415.  
1416.  
1417. <p>Among metropolitan markets, Washington, DC, New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago had the highest volumes of tech job postings. And Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Boston and Seattle saw the largest month-over-month increases in postings, according to CompTIA.</p>
1418.  
1419.  
1420.  
1421. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="march-2023">March 2023</h2>
1422.  
1423.  
1424.  
1425. <p>Tech sector employment, which includes all workers on the payrolls of tech companies, declined in March by an estimated 839 jobs, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and IT industry group CompTIA.</p>
1426.  
1427.  
1428.  
1429. <p>Employer job postings for tech positions for March, however, increased by 76,546 month-over-month, for a total of 316,000 openings; the tech unemployment rate remained unchanged from February at 2.2%.</p>
1430.  
1431.  
1432.  
1433. <p>Technology employment across all industry sectors increased by an estimated 197,000 positions for the month, according to CompTIA’s analysis of <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">BLS data</a>. “This represents the highest level of employer hiring activity as measured by job postings in seven months,” CompTIA said in its <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Tech Jobs Report</a>.</p>
1434.  
1435.  
1436.  
1437. <p>More than 4.18 million people are now employed as IT professionals in the US, according to industry research firm Janco Associates.</p>
1438.  
1439.  
1440.  
1441. <p>“As a forward-looking indicator, the rebound in employer tech job postings is a notable positive,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer. “While caution is in order given the state of uncertainty, the data suggests segments of employers may be stepping back into the tech talent market.”</p>
1442.  
1443.  
1444.  
1445. <p>Overall, the US economy added 236,000 jobs in March, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">according to the BLS</a>, a slight slowdown compared to recent months; that could mean the jobs market may be responding to recent interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.</p>
1446.  
1447.  
1448.  
1449. <p>At the same time the number of jobs being added to the economy dropped slightly, the overall unemployment rate dipped a tenth of a point to 3.5%, remaining near <a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000?years_option=all_years" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">50-year historic lows</a>.</p>
1450.  
1451.  
1452. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/04/comptia-march-2023-graphic-100939516-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/04/comptia-march-2023-graphic-100939516-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia march 2023 graphic" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">
1453. <p>IT industry advocacy group CompTIA’s March Tech Jobs Report.</p>
1454. </figcaption></figure></div>
1455.  
1456.  
1457.  
1458.  
1459. <p>The total number of unemployed US workers, at 5.8 million, changed little in March; that measure has shown little net movement since early 2022, according to BLS data.</p>
1460.  
1461.  
1462.  
1463. <p>“The labor market posted solid if not spectacular gains,” Diane Swonk, chief economist and managing director at KPMG LLP, <a href="https://www.kpmg.us/insights/economic-data-analysis/march-2023-jobs-report.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">wrote in a blog post</a>. “Hiring in both the public and the private sectors slowed. Hiring by firms with less than 250 workers continues to drive gains in the private sector. Those firms are the most vulnerable to the recent tightening of credit conditions,”</p>
1464.  
1465.  
1466.  
1467. <p>Even as unemployment remains low, there have been a number of high-profile layoffs in the technology industry and elsewhere during the past six or so months; industry experts have said many organizations over-hired during the COVID-19 pandemic and are now having to trim their workforces, a so-called “course correction.”</p>
1468.  
1469.  
1470.  
1471. <p>This year, more than 168,000 workers have been laid off at tech firms, according to industry tracker <a href="https://layoffs.fyi/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Layoffs.fyi</a>.</p>
1472.  
1473.  
1474.  
1475. <p>Last month, job search site Indeed fired 15% of its workforce, or about 2,200 employees. The layoffs came from nearly every team and function within the company, CEO Chris Hyams said, and were in response to a job market that has cooled “after the recent post-COVID boom,” he said.</p>
1476.  
1477.  
1478.  
1479. <p>“US total job openings were down 3.5% year-over-year, while sponsored job volumes were down 33%,” Hyams said. “In the US, we are expecting job openings will likely decrease to pre-pandemic levels of about 7.5 million, or even lower over the next two to three years.”</p>
1480.  
1481.  
1482.  
1483. <p>While big tech firms such as Google and Microsoft may be letting workers go, the layoffs aren’t dominated by IT talent. Most of the layoffs are occurring on the business side of the corporate world. In fact, there are fewer IT workers than job openings — <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1620021/about-those-tech-layoff-headlines-most-companies-arent-firing-it-workers.html">a lot fewer</a>.</p>
1484.  
1485.  
1486.  
1487. <p>Positions for software developers and engineers accounted for the largest share of job postings in March, according to CompTIA. Employers are also in the market for IT support specialists, systems engineers and analysts, IT project managers, cybersecurity analysts, and engineers. About one in five tech job postings offer remote or hybrid work arrangements as an option.</p>
1488.  
1489.  
1490.  
1491. <p>A <a href="https://go.manpowergroup.com/talent-shortage" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">new report from global staffing firm ManpowerGroup</a> found that 77% of employers report difficultly filling job roles, representing a 17-year talent shortage high.</p>
1492.  
1493.  
1494.  
1495. <p>James Neave, head of data science at job search site <a href="https://url.avanan.click/v2/___https:/urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.adzuna.com_&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=_c1Ica6jDA7yLXEJSRoHlA&m=5EI9Q6odc1HB11j0GRXz0F0tlK9P7FYLdzlWfJUKjxU&s=wJ7zSvVu6qM8NWeEnQCYUH-AWMguqDxS71SmMS0vscw&e=___.YXAzOmlkYzphOm86NzBmZDAzZjA5NGIwODg3MzNhNjI0ZWUyOGE2NWE0NjQ6Njo1OTk4OmRmMmE4ZmQ3ZTA0NTY0MzI3YjBlMTRiNTYyMzViYjA0MGQ2NTUzOWQ4NzQ4OThlM2RiMDhjOTRmZWM3NTkzMjk6aDpU" rel="nofollow">Adzuna</a>, said despite the latest spate of layoffs, which include <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-layoffs-retail-development-preservation-teams-2023-4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/04/business/walmart-warehouse-layoffs/index.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Walmart</a>, job growth has exceeded expectations for 12 consecutive months, “the longest streak since 1998.</p>
1496.  
1497.  
1498.  
1499. <p>“Today’s closely watched jobs report gives another healthy reading on the job market and the strength of hiring,” he said invia email to <em>Computerworld</em>.</p>
1500.  
1501.  
1502.  
1503. <p>On Adzuna, advertised job vacancies in the U.S. totalled 8.3 million in March. As a result, organizations need to continue working to attract and retain highly qualified talent amid shortages and skills gaps, Neave said.</p>
1504.  
1505.  
1506.  
1507. <p>“To win workers, organizations are improving their benefits and providing care for the whole person in such a stressful economic time,” he said. “Boosting benefit offerings also helps to slow staff turnover and reduce the risk of burnout, improving morale as well as the bottom line.” </p>
1508.  
1509.  
1510.  
1511. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="february-2023">February 2023</h2>
1512.  
1513.  
1514.  
1515. <p>Tech sector employment fell by 11,184 positions in February, a modest reduction of 0.2% of the total tech industry workforce of more than 5.5 million.</p>
1516.  
1517.  
1518.  
1519. <p>Unemployment in the tech sector also jumped from 1.5% in January to 2.2%, in February, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow">data released today</a> by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and <a href="https://www.comptia.org/" rel="nofollow">CompTIA</a>, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.</p>
1520.  
1521.  
1522.  
1523. <p>The unemployment rate for tech occupations is still below the national rate of 3.6%, which saw a .1% increase from January.</p>
1524.  
1525.  
1526.  
1527. <p>The number of technology occupations in all industries declined by .6% or 38,000 positions, according to <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow">CompTIA’s report</a>. Tech occupations in the US economy still total more than 6.4 million workers. Among all tech industries, tech manufacturing added a net new 2,800 jobs, the fifth consecutive month of positive gains.</p>
1528.  
1529.  
1530. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/03/comptia-job-postings-by-industry-100938383-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/03/comptia-job-postings-by-industry-100938383-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia job postings by industry" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1531.  
1532.  
1533.  
1534.  
1535. <p>Employer job postings for tech positions also declined by about 40,000, to just over 229,000 in February. Most metropolitan markets experienced fallbacks from January to February, with a few exceptions, according to CompTIA.</p>
1536.  
1537.  
1538.  
1539. <p>“As expected, the lag in labor market data means prior layoffs announcements are now appearing in BLS reporting,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer for  CompTIA. “Context is critical. The recent pullback represents a relatively small fraction of the massive tech workforce. The long-term outlook remains unchanged with demand for tech talent powering employment gains across the economy.”</p>
1540.  
1541.  
1542.  
1543. <p>While there have been hundreds of highly publicized layoffs among tech companies, the vast majority of employees being fired are not in IT positions, <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1620021/about-those-tech-layoff-headlines-most-companies-arent-firing-it-workers.html">according to industry analysts</a>. In fact, there remains a dearth in tech talent to fill more than 145,000 IT job openings. </p>
1544.  
1545.  
1546.  
1547. <p>IT consultancy Janco Associates offered a somewhat more pessimistic view of the IT job market.</p>
1548.  
1549.  
1550.  
1551. <p>“Layoffs, for the most part, did not hit developers. Rather they were focused on data center operations, administrative and HR roles related to recruiting, and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). Some roles, especially in telecommunications and data center operations are being automated and eliminated,” Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. “Driving this is CIOs and CFOs who are looking to improve the productivity of IT by automating processes and reporting where possible. They are focusing on eliminating non-essential managers and staff. They will continue to hire coders and developers.”</p>
1552.  
1553.  
1554.  
1555. <p>The highest demand, Janulaitis said, continues to be for security professionals, programmers, and blockchain processing IT professionals. Other industry research shows data analysts and AI professionals are also in high demand. </p>
1556.  
1557.  
1558. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/03/janco-associates-unemployment-in-it-100938386-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/03/janco-associates-unemployment-in-it-100938386-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="janco associates unemployment in it" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1559.  
1560.  
1561.  
1562.  
1563. <p>“The general belief there will be an economic downturn is high for many CIOs and CFOs. This is impacting all decisions around hiring new IP pros and increasing technology-related expenditures,” Janulaitis said.</p>
1564.  
1565.  
1566.  
1567. <p>In 2022, 267,000 new jobs were added to the IT market. Those new jobs were in addition to the 213,000 jobs created in 2021.</p>
1568.  
1569.  
1570.  
1571. <p>In 2023, while there are more jobs being added, that number is declining. In January, for example, for the first time in 25 months, there was a net loss in the number of jobs in the IT Job Market. That trend is continuing, Janco said. In the first two months of 2023, the IT job market shrank by 44,900 jobs.</p>
1572.  
1573.  
1574. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/03/comptia-top-state-job-postings-100938385-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/03/comptia-top-state-job-postings-100938385-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia top state job postings" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1575.  
1576.  
1577.  
1578.  
1579. <p>“CIOs and CFOs have started to slow the rate of creating new IT jobs and hiring IT professionals,” Janco said in its report. “The three month moving average for IT job market growth trend for IT professionals shows a significant downward trend. Inflation and recessionary trends are driving this.”</p>
1580.  
1581.  
1582.  
1583. <p>Layoffs and economic uncertainty drove CIOs and CFOs to slow IT hiring in February, according to Janulaitis.</p>
1584.  
1585.  
1586.  
1587. <p>“Layoffs at big tech companies are having an adverse on overall IT hiring. More CIOs are looking at a troubling economic climate and are evaluating the need for increased headcounts based on the technological requirements of their specific business operations,”Janulaitis said.</p>
1588.  
1589.  
1590.  
1591. <p>The growth of the IT job market stopped with a decline of 10,000 jobs in January and 13,400 jobs in February, according to Janco. That was the first loss in the number of IT Pros employed in over 27 months. The three-month moving average of IT job market growth went negative with a trend line that shows a further decay in IT job market growth.”</p>
1592.  
1593.  
1594. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/03/comptia-top-industry-job-postings-100938384-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/03/comptia-top-industry-job-postings-100938384-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia top industry job postings" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1595.  
1596.  
1597.  
1598.  
1599. <p>Overall US employment rose by 311,000 jobs in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said. That was vastly higher than the 225,000 jobs predicted by economists polled by <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-news-today-03-10-2023/card/jobs-report-this-morning-what-to-know-6gI8jANForADnrxWBeQ2" rel="nofollow">the Wall Street Journal</a>. In January, about half a million jobs were added, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow">BLS data</a>.</p>
1600.  
1601.  
1602.  
1603. <p>The number of people quitting jobs (3.9 million) decreased, in February, while layoffs and other firings (1.7 million) increased. Even with the unemployment rate ticking up slightly, are still nearly two jobs (10.8 million) for every unemployed worker (5.9 million), according to a <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow">BLS data</a>. In 2022, the annual average number of job openings was 11.2 million.</p>
1604.  
1605.  
1606.  
1607. <p>Last month, U.S. consumer spending also rose to its highest level in over nearly two years.</p>
1608.  
1609.  
1610.  
1611. <p>Across all industries, the number of people who were without jobs for a short period of time (less than 5 weeks) increased by 343,000 to 2.3 million in February, offsetting a decrease in the prior month. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more), changed little in February and accounted for 17.6% of the total unemployed or 1.1 million people.</p>
1612.  
1613.  
1614.  
1615. <p>Job postings for technology positions rose the most in scientific and tech services industry sector (35,257), finance and insurance (24,735) and manufacturing (20,246).</p>
1616.  
1617.  
1618.  
1619. <p>Overall, in the US job market, the average hourly earnings grew 4.6% year-over-year, which was down from last year but above the pre-pandemic pace, BLS data showed.</p>
1620.  
1621.  
1622.  
1623. <p>The ongoing tech talent shortage also lifted IT salaries, but future pay increases will be less than expected, <a href="https://e-janco.com/salary.htm?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Dear++FIRSTNAME+%2C+IT+Median+Salary+now+over+%24101K&utm_campaign=Salary+Survey+Follow+up&vgo_ee=2PcGi9pZOqO4StRpSWfBB46PoBrzHozLLG6hm6AgcEQ%3D" rel="nofollow">according to Janco Associates</a>.</p>
1624.  
1625.  
1626.  
1627. <p>On average, IT salaries rose by 5.61% in 2022 and were expected to increase by as much as 8% this year, according to earlier reports by Janco. </p>
1628.  
1629.  
1630.  
1631. <p>“Many CIOs’ 2023 IT budgets planned to increase salaries for IT pros to address the inflationary pressures faced by employees are now being reviewed,” Janulaitis said. “Given these facts, we believe that median salaries for IT pros in 2023 will be 3% to 4% salary above 2022 levels, not the 7% to 8% that was budgeted.” </p>
1632.  
1633.  
1634.  
1635. <p>The mean compensation for all IT pros in 2023 is now $101,323; for IT pros in large enterprises it tops $102,000; and for executives it averages $180,000.</p>
1636.  
1637.  
1638.  
1639. <p>“Companies that do not live up to employees’ expectations may find that even if they are able to get candidates in the door, <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2022-03-09-gartner-survey-finds-only-29-percent-of-tech-workers-have-high-intent-to-stay-with-current-employer" rel="nofollow">those candidates leave</a> as soon as a better offer comes along,” Gartner Research analyst Mbula Schoen wrote in <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-03-07-do-recent-layoffs-mean-the-tech-talent-crunch-is-over" rel="nofollow">a Q&A post this week</a>.. “Additionally, there are increasingly opportunities for IT jobs outside traditional tech companies, so it’s important to look beyond just the tech provider community to truly grasp the state of the tech talent crunch.”</p>
1640.  
1641.  
1642.  
1643. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="january-2023">January 2023</h2>
1644.  
1645.  
1646.  
1647. <p>The unemployment rate in the technology job market decreased for the second month in a row, dropping to 1.5% in January from 1.8% in December.</p>
1648.  
1649.  
1650.  
1651. <p>Even with the marked drop in unemployment, it was a mixed bag for the technology marketplace, after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issued its <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow">January jobs report</a> on Friday. There was a decline in current employment and an increase in employer job postings for potential future hiring, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.</p>
1652.  
1653.  
1654.  
1655. <p>While the overall US unemployment rate dropped to a figure not seen since 1969 (to 3.4%, from 3.5% a month earlier), the number of technology workers hired in January fell into negative territory for the first time in more than two years. Technology occupations throughout the economy declined by 32,000 for the month, representing a reduction of -0.5%, according to CompTIA. Technology companies also shed 2,489 positions in January, according to CompTIA.</p>
1656.  
1657.  
1658. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/02/comptia-unemployment-rate-comparison-100937252-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/02/comptia-unemployment-rate-comparison-100937252-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia unemployment rate comparison" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1659.  
1660.  
1661.  
1662.  
1663. <p>Overall, however, the US added 517,000 jobs in January, according to BLS numbers.</p>
1664.  
1665.  
1666.  
1667. <p>The BLS also said on Friday it had significantly revised its November data, describing it as a “major revision reflecting content and coding changes.”</p>
1668.  
1669.  
1670.  
1671. <p>In November 2022, the BLS indicated U.S. technology companies added approximately 2,500 net new jobs versus the mistakenly reported decrease of 151,900 jobs in earlier reporting.</p>
1672.  
1673.  
1674. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/02/comptias-graphic-jobs-100937248-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/02/comptias-graphic-jobs-100937248-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptias graphic jobs" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1675.  
1676.  
1677.  
1678.  
1679. <p>“The change materially affects the sub-sector of tech companies providing search and platform services, while the revisions were a net positive for sub-sectors such as IT services and data,” CompTIA said.</p>
1680.  
1681.  
1682.  
1683. <p>ComTIA also uses employer online job posting data to predict the number of job postings for future tech hiring, and that number reversed last month’s dip and increased by 22,408 to 268,898 for 2023.</p>
1684.  
1685.  
1686.  
1687. <p>The fact that the unemployment rate in the tech market still dropped in January indicates many laid off workers were re-hired and absorbed back into the labor market, according to CompTIA. The tech unemployment rate is also an indication that many of the layoffs occurring within technology organizations are non-technical workers, such as sales, marketing or related business support positions.</p>
1688.  
1689.  
1690.  
1691. <p>Among industries, the highest volumes of job postings for tech positions were reported in the professional, scientific and technical services (40,712), finance and insurance (30,576) and manufacturing (24,269) sectors.</p>
1692.  
1693.  
1694.  
1695. <p>“Despite the unusual backward revision by the BLS and the routine fluctuations in monthly labor market data, much of the big picture tech employment picture remains the same,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA said in a statement. “Undoubtedly, some companies over- hired and are now scaling back. The low tech unemployment rate and steady hiring activity by employers confirms the long-term demand for tech talent across many sectors of the economy.”</p>
1696.  
1697.  
1698.  
1699. <p>While <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1614926/tech-layoffs-in-2022-a-timeline.html">tech companies shed employees</a> over the past few months in highly publicized reports, overall, 2022 saw an increase of about 264,500 new jobs to the IT job Market, according to IT industry consultancy Janco Associates.  Those new jobs were in addition to the 213,000 jobs created in 2021. </p>
1700.  
1701.  
1702.  
1703. <p>In January, the growth of the IT job market stopped with a decline of 4,700 jobs.  That was the first loss in over 27 months, according to Janco. The three-month moving average of IT job market growth went negative with a trend line that shows a further decay in IT job market growth. At the same time, there is an excess of 109,000 unfilled jobs for IT Pros due to a lack of qualified candidates.</p>
1704.  
1705.  
1706.  
1707. <p>A lack of qualified candidates has lead to increased demand for tech workers raising overall salaries for all IT positions by 5.6%, with small-and-medium-sized businesses seeing an average increase of 7.74% increase, with their median compensation increasing to $100,434 as reported in Janco’s <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/bcdfa2cd-9fb5-4b7b-b313-79b97b0de0c4?j=eyJ1IjoiemltMDMifQ.GIrWzTFjDapzaQM_MUzmqMQdjvsbew3yLl1rP2bx-aI" rel="nofollow">2023 IT Salary Survey</a>.</p>
1708.  
1709.  
1710.  
1711. <p>U.S.-based employers announced 102,943 cuts in January, a 136% increase from the 43,651 cuts announced in December, according to global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. That’s 440% higher than the 19,064 cuts announced in the same month in 2022, according to <a href="https://www.challengergray.com/blog/jan-23-recession-or-correction-highest-january-since-2009-highest-monthly-total-since-september-2020/" rel="nofollow">Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s report</a>. Forty-one percent of January’s job cuts were in tech.</p>
1712.  
1713.  
1714.  
1715. <p>Yet demand for those to fill jobs requiring tech skills is rising.</p>
1716.  
1717.  
1718. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/02/comptia-tech-job-postings-graphic-100937251-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/02/comptia-tech-job-postings-graphic-100937251-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia tech job postings graphic" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1719.  
1720.  
1721.  
1722.  
1723. <p>“That’s a ton of expertise missing from an industry that needs the brightest to get brighter,” said Vince Padua, CTO at <a href="https://www.axway.com/en" rel="nofollow">Axway</a>, a tech company that sells an API management platform.</p>
1724.  
1725.  
1726.  
1727. <p>And it’s going to get worse, he added, as 86% IT leaders expect an expertise gap increase in coming years.</p>
1728.  
1729.  
1730.  
1731. <p>“As cloud computing, AI and microservices are developed and adopted, the skills required to support them constantly evolve,” Padua said. “Companies need more employees with the right skills and experience – plus IT infrastructure and enterprise software experts with specialized skills in cybersecurity, data analytics and cloud architecture.”</p>
1732.  
1733.  
1734.  
1735. <p>IT jobs took the top spot in a list of the <a href="https://preview-app1.usw.www.idgesg.computerworld.com/article/3686195/tech-jobs-dominate-the-top-25-best-jobs-in-the-us-indeed-says.html" rel="nofollow">25 best jobs in the US</a>, according to online job site Indeed. The top job slot went to full stack developer, which offers a median annual salary of $130,000 and allows for a mostly remote or hybrid workplace..</p>
1736.  
1737.  
1738.  
1739. <p>Eight tech jobs were among the top 10 positions on Indeed’s list this year; that compares with just two tech jobs in the top 10 on <a href="https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/best-jobs-of-the-year" rel="nofollow">last year’s list</a>. In 2022, tech jobs were moving down the top jobs list; now, a year later, tech jobs are surging upward. This year, 11 of the top 25 jobs, or 44%, were tech positions. By comparison, in 2022, just 25% of the top 25 jobs were tech-related.</p>
1740.  
1741.  
1742.  
1743. <p>“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals are there but not in as broad in scope as in 2022. Layoffs, for the most part, did not hit developers.  Rather they were focused on data center operations, administrative and HR roles related to recruiting, and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion),” said Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis.</p>
1744.  
1745.  
1746.  
1747. <p>Some roles, especially in telecommunications and data center operations are being automated and eliminated, Janulaitis noted, but those operations will continue to hire coders and developers.</p>
1748.  
1749.  
1750. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/02/comptia-top-remote-positions-100937254-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/02/comptia-top-remote-positions-100937254-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="comptia top remote positions" loading="lazy" width="400px" /></a></figure></div>
1751.  
1752.  
1753.  
1754.  
1755. <p>The highest demand continues to be for security professionals, programmers, and blockchain processing IT professionals, according to Janco. Currently, there are over 109,000 unfilled jobs in the IT job market — a drop from 216,000 in November.</p>
1756.  
1757.  
1758.  
1759. <p>Janulaitis blamed continued concern over a possible recession as one reason organizations are eliminating jobs.</p>
1760.  
1761.  
1762.  
1763. <p>“More CIOs are looking at a troubling economic climate and are evaluating the need for increased headcounts based on the technological requirements of their specific business operations,” Janulaitis said.</p>
1764.  
1765.  
1766.  
1767. <p>According to the latest BLS data analyzed by Janco, there are now just over 4.2 million jobs for IT Professionals in the US., and layoffs at big tech companies are having an adverse on overall IT hiring.</p>
1768.  
1769.  
1770.  
1771. <p>“The possibility of the economic downturn is very likely and is impacting all decisions that increase technology-related expenditures. Work from home is being minimized as companies are requiring employees to be in the office at least 3 to 4 days a week,” Janulaitis said. “Mid-level managers are now having to justify most positions where the IT Pro is not working in the office.  Companies that are forced to hire replacements, do so with the caveat that payroll costs remain flat. “</p>
1772.  
1773.  
1774.  
1775. <p>The 2023 IT budgets increased salaries for IT pros to address inflationary pressures faced by employees.  Those are now being reviewed. Given those facts, Janco believes that median salaries for IT Pros in 2023 will be 3-4% salary above 2022 levels, not the 7% to 8% that was budgeted at the end of 2022.</p>
1776.  
1777.  
1778.  
1779. <p>“With this as a background, Janco has just revised downward its forecast for the growth of the IT Job Market in 2023 to just over 160,000 from 174,000 new jobs,” Janulaitis said. “That will be less growth than in 2021 and 2022 but still at high levels.”</p>
1780.  
1781.  
1782.  
1783. <h2 class="toc" id="december-2022">December 2022</h2>
1784. <p>Even as some <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1614926/tech-layoffs-in-2022-a-timeline.html">high-profile layoffs</a> have lead the news over the past few months, the US added 223,000 jobs in December, including 17,600 positions at tech companies, according to the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow">US Bureau of Labor Statistics</a> (BLS) and other research.</p>
1785. <p>Technology job gains were recorded in four of five sector categories. It’s the 25th straight month of net employment growth in the tech industry, according to <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow">a report</a> by CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.</p>
1786. <p>The overall US unemployment rate dropped from 3.7% in November 2022 to 3.5% in December, according to BLS data. In the technology sector, the unemployment rate dropped from 2% in November to 1.8% in December, according to CompTIA.</p>
1787. <p>“Another wave of positive tech employment data speaks to the many moving parts of a complex labor market,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in <a href="https://www.comptia.org/newsroom/press-releases/tech-employment-holds-steady-heading-into-2023-comptia-analysis-reveals" rel="nofollow">a statement</a>. “Despite the layoffs there continues to be more employers hiring tech talent than shedding it.”</p>
1788. <p>CompTIA’s analysis also showed that 30% of all tech jobs postings are for positions in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, or in roles requiring emerging tech skills.</p>
1789. <p>Within the tech sector, three occupation categories lead December hiring: IT services and custom software development (+7,200 jobs), other information services, including search engines (+6,600 jobs) and data processing, hosting and related services (+5,600 jobs).</p>
1790. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/01/comptia-tech-hiring-graphic-100936068-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/01/comptia-tech-hiring-graphic-100936068-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="comptia tech hiring graphic" width="1200" height="966" data-imageid="100936068" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1791. <p>The positive news was countered by a second consecutive month of lower employer job postings for future tech hiring. Future tech hiring is one metric CompTIA uses to predict how many job openings will be available over the next year. Future tech hiring declined for the second consecutive month, but still totaled more than 246,000 in December, down from 270,000 in November, 2022.</p>
1792. <p>Also, the organization cautioned, recent layoff announcements by technology companies may not show up immediately in government reports, such as today’s BLS “employment situation” report, a CompTIA spokesperson said.</p>
1793. <p>In spite of that, in the first quarter of 2023, the IT industry will lead all others in hirings, according to <a href="https://go.manpowergroup.com/hubfs/MPG_MEOS_Q1_2023_Global_Infographic.pdf" rel="nofollow">a new report</a> from global staffing firm ManpowerGroup.</p>
1794. <p>While companies are expected to hire fewer technology workers this quarter than the previous one (6% less) or even Q1, 2022 (14% less), ManpowerGroup’s survey of just under 39,000 employers in 41 countries revealed overall there will be a 23% increase in hiring.</p>
1795. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/01/manpowergroup-global-employment-outlook-2023-100936066-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/01/manpowergroup-global-employment-outlook-2023-100936066-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="manpowergroup global employment outlook 2023" width="1200" height="629" data-imageid="100936066" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">ManpowerGroup</small></figure>
1796. <p>When considering how staffing levels will change during the first quarter, employers in 39 of 41 countries and territories surveyed anticipate a net positive hiring outlook, the report stated.</p>
1797. <p>Organizations in the IT industry reported the most optimistic outlook for Q1, 2023 with an expected 35% increase in hiring; that was followed by Financials & Real Estate (28%), and Energy & Utilities (+26%).​</p>
1798. <p>Geographically, North American organizations expect to increase hiring by 31%; US organizations expect a 29% increase in hiring and Canadian organizations expect at 34% increase. Large organizations with more than 250 are more than twice as optimistic as small businesses (with less than 10 employees) to hire in the coming quarter with outlooks of 29% and 13%, respectively.</p>
1799. <p>Wanting to hire is one thing and actually being able to find tech talent is another. Currently, there is a dearth of tech talent available.</p>
1800. <p>Despite strong optimism to hire, the industry faces a talent shortage where 76% of IT industry employers report difficulty finding the hard and soft skills needed, according to ManpowerGroup’s survey.</p>
1801. <p>“This recovery is unlike any we have ever seen [and] demand for skills is at record highs in many markets, and unemployment levels remain high while workforce participation stagnates,” the report said.</p>
1802. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/01/manpowergroup-graphic2-100936067-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/01/manpowergroup-graphic2-100936067-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="manpowergroup graphic2" width="1200" height="1176" data-imageid="100936067" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">ManpowerGroup</small></figure>
1803. <p>Because of the lack of available talent, the lead time for filling an open IT position is now several months, according to a new report by business consultancy Janco Associates.</p>
1804. <p>“If the position to be filled is a replacement for some who has left the enterprise, training time has to be factored in. This is just one of the issues faced by CIOs,” Janco stated in its 2023 IT Salary Survey, which included interviews more than 142 CIOs, CFOs, and HR professionals to identify key CIO staffing Issues</p>
1805. <p>Organizations have addressed hiring challenges by <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1627748/how-tech-companies-are-responding-to-the-talent-gap.html">removing college degree</a> requirements from job postings and by creating <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1615373/the-new-way-to-hire-tech-workers-from-the-bottom-up.html">apprenticeship programs</a> to train new candidates.</p>
1806. <p>“With the limited labor supply of IT professionals, every hiring mistake is magnified,” Janco’s report stated.</p>
1807. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/01/janco-staffing-issues-graphic-100936069-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/01/janco-staffing-issues-graphic-100936069-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="janco staffing issues graphic" width="1200" height="652" data-imageid="100936069" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">Janco Associates</small></figure>
1808. <p>In Janco’s review of hiring failures based on survey responses, it found two factors that stood out over others. Interpersonal issues associated with these failures (29%) and poor corporate culture fit (28%) with the others. Those issues, Janco argued, can mostly be filtered out during the recruiting and interviewing process.</p>
1809. <h2 class="toc" id="november-2022">November 2022</h2>
1810. <p>For two straight years, the technology sector has added jobs every month.</p>
1811. <p>In November, US tech companies added 14,400 workers, and tech jobs in all industry sectors grew by 137,000 positions, according to <a href="https://www.comptia.org/newsroom/press-releases/strong-tech-employment-figures-counter-layoffs-narrative-comptia-analysis-shows" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">a new report</a> from CompTIA</p>
1812. <p>While the needle on overall US unemployment remained unchanged in November at 3.7%, for the technology sector it dropped to 2% from 2.2% in October, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Bureau of Labor Statistics figures</a> compiled by CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.</p>
1813. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/12/tech-unemployment-rates-100935134-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/12/tech-unemployment-rates-100935134-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="tech unemployment rates" width="1200" height="1052" data-imageid="100935134" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1814. <p>So far this year, tech industry jobs grew by 207,000 positions, according to BLS data.</p>
1815. <p>“The hotter-than-anticipated tech jobs report confirms there are still many more employers hiring tech talent than shedding it,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer. “It’s certainly premature to dismiss concerns over the health of the economy, but this should be a reassuring sign for the tech workforce.”</p>
1816. <p>The growth in the tech sector belies an economy beset by high inflation and what many still believe is an impending recession. And although inflation slowed to 7.7%, it is still well over <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/economy_14400.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">the 2% target</a> set by policymakers at the Federal Reserve Bank.</p>
1817. <p>In November, nearly <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1614926/tech-layoffs-in-2022-a-timeline.html">a dozen big name companies</a> announced layoffs — some in the thousands, including <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1615546/amazon-layoffs-now-expected-to-mount-to-20000-including-top-managers.html">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/11/17/cisco-job-tech-4100-layoff-san-jose-real-estate-meta-amazon-twitter/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Cisco</a> and <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hp-layoffs-2022-know-hpq-150926155.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">HP</a>. But experts believe the targeted layoffs, which have been ongoing over the past three months, are mostly a result of <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1615064/what-amazon-twitter-meta-and-others-got-wrong-with-layoffs.html">poor hiring strategies</a>.</p>
1818. <p>Due to a dearth of tech talent over the past two years, companies rushed to hire, bringing in a raft of tech workers with seven to 10 years’ experience and highly specialized skills.</p>
1819. <p>On top of that, the companies tended to pay two to three times more than what they would have for someone with less experience but with the right education, aptitude, and attitude to be part of a sustainable workforce, according to Tony Lysak, CEO of The Software Institute, which offers IT consulting and education services.</p>
1820. <p>“We need them, and can’t get them, so let’s pay more,” said Lysak, summing up how many companies have approached hiring during the past two years.</p>
1821. <p>According to IT employment consultancy Janco Associates, the latest BLS data shows there are now just shy of four million jobs for IT professionals in the US. Janco sees this trend of IT jobs increases continuing but at a slower pace in the future. Layoffs will continue as companies seek to improve productivity levels.</p>
1822. <p>“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals will continue to be positive but not as broad in scope as in the first three quarters of this calendar year,” Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. “CIOs and CFOs are looking to improve the productivity of IT. They are focusing on eliminating ‘non-essential’ managers and staff. They will continue to hire coders and developers. The highest demand continues to be for programmers, blockchain processing, and security professionals. There still are over 200K unfilled jobs in the IT job market.”</p>
1823. <p>IT salaries for existing IT staff and middle managers increased by just under 3% while new hires were paid 5% to 6% more than existing staff, according to Janco’s Mid Year 2022 IT Salary Survey. “In conversation with several CIOs, we observed that starting pay rates for new hires were in the 8% to 10% range a few months back, but this is not the case currently,” Janulaitis said.</p>
1824. <p>November hiring by technology companies was broad-based across occupation categories, led by IT services and custom software development (+8,100). Employment growth also occurred in data processing, hosting and related services (+4,100), other information services, including search engines (+2,100), and computer and electronic products manufacturing (+1,900).</p>
1825. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/12/tech-hiring-activity-by-job-type-100935135-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/12/tech-hiring-activity-by-job-type-100935135-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="tech hiring activity by job type" width="1200" height="1011" data-imageid="100935135" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1826. <p>Employer job postings for future tech hiring fell back in November, but still totaled nearly 270,000. Openings for software developers and engineers accounted for about 28% of all tech jobs postings. Demand for IT support specialists, systems engineers, IT project managers, and network engineers was also solid.</p>
1827. <p>While major tech hubs recorded the largest numbers of job postings for tech positions, ‘under the radar’ markets showed notable increases in employment opportunities, including Topeka, Kan.; Virginia Beach, Va.; Worcester, Mass.; and Riverside, Calif. Among industries, the professional, scientific, and technical services sector had the most tech job postings (41,188), followed by finance and insurance (35,132) and manufacturing (31,036).</p>
1828. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/12/top-states-for-tech-jobs-100935137-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/12/top-states-for-tech-jobs-100935137-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="top states for tech jobs" width="1200" height="936" data-imageid="100935137" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1829. <p>CompTIA’s analysis also showed 30% of all tech jobs postings are for positions in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, or in roles that require emerging tech skills.</p>
1830. <p>Janco’s report also shows corporate executives are challenged by inflation and the economic downturn. Those executives are reluctant to hire replacement employees at salaries that are significantly higher than those who left as part of <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1616553/the-great-resignation-why-workers-quit-and-how-companies-can-respond.html">the Great Resignation</a>. In their 2023 salary budgets for IT pros, “CIOs are trying to address the inflationary pressures faced by employees. We believe that starting salaries for IT Pros in 2023 will be 6% to 7% salary above existing levels,” Janulaitis said.</p>
1831. <h2 class="toc" id="october-2022">October 2022</h2>
1832. <p>Tech firms in October hired between 15,300 and 20,700 workers (depending on who’s doing the counting), marking roughly two straight years of hiring growth in the industry, according to two new employment reports.</p>
1833. <p>So far this year, tech industry employment has increased by 193,900 jobs, 28% higher than the same period in 2021, according to a <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">jobs report from CompTIA</a>, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce. </p>
1834. <p>In contrast, technology job postings by tech and non-tech companies had been on a five-month downward slide until last month. Tech workers employed throughout the economy, regardless of industry, declined by 116,000 last month, according to CompTIA. CompTIA’s report is based on the latest <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow">US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data</a>.</p>
1835. <p>“The data is roughly in line with expectations,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement. “Tech hiring activity remains steady, but there are undoubtedly concerns of a slowing economy.”</p>
1836. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/11/tech-occupation-job-postings-comptia-100934235-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/11/tech-occupation-job-postings-comptia-100934235-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="tech occupation job postings comptia" width="1200" height="966" data-imageid="100934235" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1837. <p>In October, the number of tech workers employed throughout all industries grew by 10,000 over the previous month, according to CompTIA.</p>
1838. <p>Most of the issues affecting the economy are due to supply chain problems, according to Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates, which also released <a href="https://e-janco.com/" rel="nofollow">its IT jobs report</a> on Friday.</p>
1839. <p>“If China opens up and supply chains will improve, that should lessen the recessionary pressures that are driving the tech giants to reduce staff,” Janulaitis said in a statement. “Also, the results of the election in the US will provide an opportunity to improve the economic climate.”</p>
1840. <p>Tech job postings reflect the total of “help wanted” ads companies listed last month. There were 317,000 such postings in October, according to CompTIA. It was the first time since April 2022 that the number of job postings increased over the prior month.</p>
1841. <p>CompTIA also noted that tech manufacturing employment is up 43% compared to the same period last year.</p>
1842. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/11/tech-industry-employment-comptia-100934233-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/11/tech-industry-employment-comptia-100934233-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="tech industry employment comptia" width="1200" height="981" data-imageid="100934233" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1843. <p>While the tech industry unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 2.2% in October from 2.1% in September, it remained well below the overall <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-job-growth-seen-smallest-nearly-two-years-october-unemployment-rate-up-2022-11-04/" rel="nofollow">US unemployment rate</a>, according to CompTIA’s report. The overall US unemployment rate also ticked up to 3.7% in October.</p>
1844. <p><a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow">CompTIA’s jobs report</a> differs somewhat from Janco Associates’s figures. Janco reported 15,300 new hires by tech companies in October; that compares to 13,700 job listings added by the tech industry the previous month.</p>
1845. <p>There are now a total of 3.98 million jobs for IT professionals in the US, according to the BLS data analyzed by Janco.</p>
1846. <p>“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals will continue to be positive, but not as broad in scope as in the first three quarters of 2022,” Janulaitis said in a statement. “CIOs and CFOs are looking to improve the productivity of IT.  That means they are focusing on eliminating “non-essential” managers and staff. They will continue to hire coders and developers.”</p>
1847. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/11/tech-job-openings-comptia-100934234-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/11/tech-job-openings-comptia-100934234-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="tech job openings comptia" width="1200" height="491" data-imageid="100934234" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1848. <p>The highest demand in IT will be for programmers, blockchain processing, and security professionals, according to Janulaitis. Much of the hiring will be limited to filling positions that have been approved and are unfilled — not staff expansion.</p>
1849. <p>Within the tech industry, the bulk of new hiring occurred in three sector categories, according to CompTIA:</p>
1850. <ul>
1851. <li>IT services and custom software development (+8,800)</li>
1852. <li>Other information services, including search engines (+6,800)</li>
1853. <li>Computer and electronic products manufacturing (+5,400)</li>
1854. </ul>
1855. <p>In Janco’s mid-year 2022 IT Salary Survey, it found IT salaries for existing IT staff and middle managers increased by just under 3%, while new hires were paid 5% to 6% more than existing staff.  “In conversation with several CIOs, we observed that starting pay rates for new hires were in the 8%-10% range a few months back, but this is not the case currently,” Janulaitis said.</p>
1856. <p>The <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1614776/are-in-office-mandates-killing-productivity.html">disparity in pay between veteran IT workers</a> and new hires is a point of contention and has likely led to some problems in worker motivation, according to Sinem Buber, lead economist with ZipRecruiter. When new employees are hired, they often come in with pay and benefits equal to or better than veteran employees. Even as companies have raised wages, it’s often across the board, ignoring seniority.</p>
1857. <p>“So, the link between hard work and raises is broken,” Buber said.</p>
1858. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/10/screen-shot-2022-10-13-at-3.12.11-pm-100933454-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/10/screen-shot-2022-10-13-at-3.12.11-pm-100933454-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="screen shot 2022 10 13 at 3.12.11 pm" width="1200" height="510" data-imageid="100933454" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1859. <h3 class="body" id="remote-work-hiring-trends-on-the-upswing">Remote work hiring trends on the upswing</h3>
1860. <p>Remote work shows no signs of slowing down, according to CompTIA. Employer job postings for tech positions that specify remote work or work-from-home options continue to increase, with a year-to-date rate of 34% compared to 27% in 2021, and 22% in 2020.</p>
1861. <p>Major tech hubs saw significant month-over-month increases in tech jobs postings, including Boston (+2,732), New York City (+1,459), San Francisco (+884) and San Jose (+864). The top industries for tech job postings were professional, scientific, and technical services (50,688); finance and insurance (35,500); and manufacturing (34,488), according to CompTIA.</p>
1862. <p>Positions for software developers and engineers led the October job postings (85,796). “There is also strong demand for IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and network engineers,” CompTIA said.</p>
1863. <h2 class="toc" id="september-2022-janco-analysis">September 2022: Janco analysis</h2>
1864. <p>IT job growth has continued each month for over a year, and in the last 12 months 202,800 jobs have been added, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor data, which was analyzed by IT consultancy Janco Associates.</p>
1865. <p>At the same time, CIOs and CFOs have started to slow the rate at which they’re creating new IT jobs and hiring due to inflation and recession fears, according to <a href="https://e-janco.com/press/2022/2022-10-06-it-hiring-slows.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Janco’s latest report</a>.</p>
1866. <p>“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals will continue to be positive, but not as broad in scope as in the first nine months of 2022,” said M. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates. “CIOs are still posturing to hire staff and expand technologies to address blockchain processing and security applications based on market conditions. However, most hiring will be limited to filling positions open due to attrition, not staff expansion.”</p>
1867. <p>U.S. tech firms added workers for the 22nd consecutive month, and companies across the economy hired an estimated 84,000 new tech workers in September, according to the latest <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Tech Jobs Report</a> from CompTIA.</p>
1868. <p>Job postings for new hiring were down 12% from August, but still totaled just over 300,000. Positions in software development and engineering, tech support, tech project management, systems engineering, and network engineering were in highest demand, according to CompTIA.</p>
1869. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/10/tech-postings-100933453-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/10/tech-postings-100933453-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="tech postings" width="1200" height="1013" data-imageid="100933453" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1870. <p>About 30% of all postings were for positions in emerging technologies or in jobs that require emerging tech skills. Positions that offer remote work or work from home as an option surpassed 109,000.</p>
1871. <p><a href="https://hired.com/state-of-tech-salaries/2022/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Another new report</a> by UK-based job search engine Hired showed that, unlike 2021, when companies were hiring faster than in years prior, the overall time to hire job seekers in 2022 slowed across the US, UK, and Canada. UK companies are now taking 68 days on average to fill open positions. US companies aren’t moving much faster, taking 60 days (up from 52 days in 2021). In Canada, it’s now 54 days. (Remote roles took 40 days to fill – that’s slower than in 2021, but the shortest time to hire overall, Hired said.</p>
1872. <p>“Why? It’s not clear yet,” Hired said in its report. “Are jobseekers taking longer to evaluate opportunities? Or are employers moving candidates through the funnel more carefully? While this indicates an increase in the time to fill roles, it doesn’t equal an overall slowdown in tech hiring.”</p>
1873. <p>Data from Hired indicates employers offering remote roles have a hiring edge over those requiring hybrid or on-site jobs. Since June 2021, candidates showed a preference for remote-only roles.</p>
1874. <p>In January, 18% of active jobseekers indicated they only wanted remote roles. By May, preference for “only remote” roles climbed to 31% of all active jobseekers on Hired’s platform, and rose another percentage point to 32% in June. By June, 93% of candidates showed a preference for remote or hybrid jobs.</p>
1875. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/10/janco-job-stats-100933452-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/10/janco-job-stats-100933452-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="janco job stats" width="1200" height="681" data-imageid="100933452" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">Janco Associates</small></figure>
1876. <p>Throughout the year, <a href="https://hired.com/salary-calculator/software-engineering/london?yoe=2-4&skills=HTML" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">IT salaries in the US and Canada</a> (except for junior candidates with less than two years of experience) saw significant growth. Mid-level US candidates with four to six years of experience saw the biggest jump from $146,000 to $154,000 between 2021 and 2022. Remote salaries for all candidates, except the most junior, also saw significant growth; on average they jumped by $7,000 to $8,000 from 2021 to 2022.</p>
1877. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/10/screen-shot-2022-10-13-at-3.12.11-pm-100933454-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/10/screen-shot-2022-10-13-at-3.12.11-pm-100933454-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="screen shot 2022 10 13 at 3.12.11 pm" width="1200" height="510" data-imageid="100933454" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1878. <h2 class="toc" id="september-2022-comptia-analysis">September 2022: CompTIA analysis</h2>
1879. <p>Tech companies added 25,500 workers last month, one of the strongest hiring months so far this year, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">new data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics</a> (BLS) and industry analysts.</p>
1880. <p>So far this year, employment in the tech industry has increased by 175,700 jobs, 46% ahead of 2021 — and 92% ahead of 2019, <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">according to CompTIA</a>, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce. (The total includes all employees —technical and non-technical — on the payrolls of tech companies.)</p>
1881. <p>“Stability in tech hiring continues to be an over-arching theme this year,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “Despite all the economic noise and pockets of layoffs, aggregate tech hiring remains consistently positive.”</p>
1882. <p>According to the latest BLS data, analyzed by IT consultancy Janco Associates, there are now 3.97 million jobs for IT Professionals in the US. For 24 months in a row, there has been an increase in the number of jobs added to the IT job market. Janco sees this trend continuing, according to its latest report released Friday.</p>
1883. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/09/screen-shot-2022-09-02-at-11.24.04-am-100931929-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/09/screen-shot-2022-09-02-at-11.24.04-am-100931929-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="screen shot 2022 09 02 at 11.24.04 am" width="1200" height="1104" data-imageid="100931929" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1884. <p>The unemployment rate for tech occupations rose to 2.3% in August from 1.7% in July, according to CompTIA. There are likely two reasons for it jump: the overall US unemployment rate increased, as well, and some large tech firms announced layoffs, Herbert noted.</p>
1885. <p>“The other component is we’ve seen a rebound in consumer confidence and worker confidence,” Herbert said. “So, it can also be attributed to tech workers feeling a renewed sense of confidence, and so they’ve quit their job and they’re looking for new opportunities. That was far more prominent earlier this year and last year with the ‘Great Resignation.’”</p>
1886. <p>The number of workers quitting their jobs remained above 4 million in August, according to BLS data. Since June 2021, more than 4 million people have quit every month, according to BLS data, giving rise to the trend known as <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1616553/the-great-resignation-why-workers-quit-and-how-companies-can-respond.html">the Great Resignation</a>. The trend reflects a deep dissatisfaction by many workers with their employment situations. The ongoing global pandemic pushed workers to rethink their careers, work/life balance, long-term goals, and working conditions.</p>
1887. <p>Overall employer job postings for tech positions eased in August to just under 320,000 from 372,000 in July, with 31% of jobs posted last month for positions in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and IoT, or in roles that require emerging tech skills, such as data analytics and automation software.</p>
1888. <p>“A lot of the technology is mature enough now that a lot of positions are implementing automation solutions, robotic process automation,” Herbert said. “Next-generation roles include cybersecurity, and broad categories of automation, so, marketing automation and HR automation.”</p>
1889. <p>From January through August 2022, tech job postings where employers specify remote work or work from home as an option were up 56% over last year —and up 281% from the pre-pandemic year of 2019, according to CompTIA.</p>
1890. <p>“The one thing that jumped out at me, to no surprise, was the trend toward remote work that I think is now in a semi-permanent state,” Herbert said.</p>
1891. <p>The increase in remote employment was highlighted by the leap in tech job postings in states such as Wyoming, Montana and Alaska, Herbert said.</p>
1892. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/09/screen-shot-2022-09-02-at-11.24.32-am-100931930-orig.jpeg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/09/screen-shot-2022-09-02-at-11.24.32-am-100931930-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="screen shot 2022 09 02 at 11.24.32 am" width="1200" height="480" data-imageid="100931930" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1893. <p>Even as hiring was up, the number of job openings dropped, indicating the pace of new job vacancies could be slowing, according to Janco Associates. Its data is based on the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">latest BLS statistics</a>.</p>
1894. <p>There is some slowing in hiring as fears of a significant downturn or recession are on the horizon, Janco’s report stated.</p>
1895. <p>“CIOs and CFOs now are more cautious than they were in the first quarter.  CIOs do not have a clear understanding of how a downturn will impact their bottom line.  Most still are hiring but at a slower pace,”Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis wrote in the report. “Some companies have stopped hiring and started laying off employees.”</p>
1896. <p>“With all that, the IT job market remains tight with an average of 200,000 IT professionals jobs that are not filled due to a lack of qualified candidates,” Janulaitis continued. “The number of unfilled IT jobs has peaked from over 260,000 in April to 210,000 in July. That should still be enough of a buffer to keep hiring of IT pros on a positive track.”</p>
1897. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/09/screen-shot-2022-09-05-at-11.01.16-pm-100931969-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/09/screen-shot-2022-09-05-at-11.01.16-pm-100931969-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="screen shot 2022 09 05 at 11.01.16 pm" width="1200" height="697" data-imageid="100931969" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">Janco Associates</small></figure>
1898. <p>Janulaitis also said new IT hires are on average receiving salaries that <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/salary.htm" rel="nofollow">are 5% to 6% above pay</a> for existing positions — and in some cases as much as 10% higher; The higher starting pay is needed to attract the best IT candidates. That salary disparity, however, is driving dissatisfaction and an increase in attrition rate among existing employees, according to Janulaitis.</p>
1899. <p>“The challenge CIOs face will be how to keep the balance between the existing budget, providing salary increases to existing employees that address inflation and higher commuting costs, and having sufficient resources available to achieve the enterprise’s technology and bottom line objectives,” Janulaitis said.</p>
1900. <p>The BLS doesn’t track tech industry jobs directly. Instead, the agency uses the “information sector” as a proxy for tech employment because there are tech jobs in most industries, and therefore technology is not an industry in and of itself.</p>
1901. <p>The nation’s unemployment rate <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow">rose from 3.5% to 3.7%</a> in August, with the number of unemployed rising by 344,000 to 6 million. </p>
1902. <p>Overall, the US economy added 315,000 jobs in August, which was more than economists had predicted, but still far less than the 526,000 positions added in July – a record month for jobs.</p>
1903. <p>Professional and business services added 68,000 jobs in August, according to the BLS. Within the industry, computer systems design and related services added 14,000 positions; management and technical consulting services grew by 13,000; and scientific research and development services increased by 6,000. Over the past 12 months, professional and business services has added 1.1 million jobs, according to the BLS.</p>
1904. <p>“CIOs and CFOs now are more cautious than they were in the first quarter. CIOs do not have a clear understanding of how a downturn will impact their bottom line,” Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates said in a report last week. “Most still are hiring, but at a slower pace. Some companies have stopped hiring and started laying off employees.”</p>
1905. <p>With all that, the IT job market remains tight, with an average of 200,000 IT professional jobs that are not filled due to a lack of qualified candidates, according to Janulaitis. If there is a major recession, many companies will choose not to fill those new open positions.</p>
1906. <p>“That should be enough of a buffer to keep the hiring of IT pros on a positive track,” he said.</p>
1907. <h2 class="toc" id="august-2022">August 2022</h2>
1908. <p>Despite a number of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/03/just-9percent-of-tech-workers-feel-secure-about-their-jobs-right-now.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">sizeable layoffs at high-profile companies</a> in recent months, the tech sector continued to lead all others in low unemployment rates in July, according to <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">a new report</a> from CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.</p>
1909. <p>Tech occupations across all industry sectors increased by an estimated 239,000 positions last month, according to an analysis of US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data by CompTIA.</p>
1910. <p>Tech industry employment saw a net gain of 12,700 workers, the 20th consecutive month of growth. So far this year, the tech sector has gained 143,700 jobs, an increase of 55% year-over-year, according to CompTIA. The unemployment rate for tech jobs was just 1.7% in July (1.3% for women, 1.8% for men), roughly half the overall US unemployment rate of 3.5%.</p>
1911. <p>Employer job postings for tech positions approached 484,000 in July, a slight decrease from the previous month but still at a near record level. Through the first seven months of 2022, US companies listed approximately 3.1 million jobs postings for tech positions, up 49% compared to 2021.</p>
1912. <p>“The tech jobs market has repeatedly outperformed in the face of real and perceived economic weakness,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement. “The data confirms that for every layoff announcement there are other employers stepping in to take advantage of tech talent hiring opportunities.”</p>
1913. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/08/tech-industry-unemployment-rate-graph-100931217-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/08/tech-industry-unemployment-rate-graph-100931217-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="tech industry unemployment rate graph" width="1200" height="1104" data-imageid="100931217" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1914. <p>Meanwhile, since June 2021, more than 4 million people have quit their jobs every month, according to BLS data, part of a trend known as <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1616553/the-great-resignation-why-workers-quit-and-how-companies-can-respond.html">the Great Resignation</a>. The trend  reflects a deep dissatisfaction by many workers with their employment situations. The ongoing global pandemic has enabled workers to rethink their careers, work/life balance, long-term goals, and working conditions.</p>
1915. <p>Some of the top reasons workers quit this year are unhappiness with how their employer treated them during the pandemic (19%), low pay or lack of benefits (17%), and a lack of work-life balance (13%), according to a survey by employment listing website <a href="https://www.joblist.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Joblist</a>.</p>
1916. <p>The BLS doesn’t track tech industry jobs directly. Instead, the agency uses the “information sector” as a proxy for tech employment because there are tech jobs in most industries, and therefore technology is not an industry in of itself. </p>
1917. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/08/top-tech-positions-for-remote-wfh-graph-100931215-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/08/top-tech-positions-for-remote-wfh-graph-100931215-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="top tech positions for remote wfh graph" width="1200" height="1029" data-imageid="100931215" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1918. <p>Within the tech sector, three occupation categories recorded job growth in July – other information services, including search engines (+6,800); data processing, hosting and related services (+4,100); and computer and electronic products manufacturing (+3,300). Hiring in the IT services and custom software development category was flat, while telecom-related occupations declined (-1,400), according to CompTIA.</p>
1919. <p>About one in five tech job postings in July were for positions requiring two years or less of experience. About half specified three to five years of experience, while 13% sought candidates with nine or more years of experience, CompTIA said.</p>
1920. <p>Many employers, even those in tech industries, <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1612670/companies-move-to-drop-college-degree-requirements-for-new-hires-focus-on-skills.html">are ending college degree requirements for many job openings</a>. Instead, organizations are focusing on the skills, experience, and personality traits of job candidates. The sea change opens up tech jobs to a more diverse pool of candidates.</p>
1921. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/08/comptia-reskilling-and-upskilling-graph-100931219-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/08/comptia-reskilling-and-upskilling-graph-100931219-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="comptia reskilling and upskilling graph" width="1200" height="704" data-imageid="100931219" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1922. <p>Software developers and engineers are the most in-demand positions employers are looking to fill — accounting for nearly 148,000 job postings last month. There is also a strong job market for IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and architects, and network engineers and architects. Positions in emerging technologies or jobs requiring emerging tech skills accounted for one-third of all postings in July.</p>
1923. <p>Faced with a dearth of workforce talent, many tech companies and others <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1627748/how-tech-companies-are-responding-to-the-talent-gap.html">are hiring through non-traditional approaches</a> that include coding bootcamps, low-code training, and a focus on population areas outside the norm.</p>
1924. <h2 class="toc" id="july-2022">July 2022</h2>
1925. <p>Over the past three months, IT job openings for entry-level positions have declined significantly, according to a new report.</p>
1926. <p>Job openings for entry-level tech workers declined from 29,500 in April to 24,000 in May and to 18,400 in June, according to IT employment consultancy Janco Associates.</p>
1927. <p>Janco’s report, which was compiled from US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and survey data, said the downward trend is the result of several factors — the most critical of which is an increasing belief among C-level executives that we are already or soon will be in a recession.</p>
1928. <p>In creating its May forecast for future IT hiring, Janco found that almost all 217 CIOs it surveyed are planning on:</p>
1929. <ul>
1930. <li>Limiting the extension of existing contracts for contract workers and consultants beyond the 3rd quarter of the year.</li>
1931. <li>Managing the full-time employee headcount to budgeted levels through the end of this year.</li>
1932. <li>Not replacing departing employees who do not have critical IT skills and/or enterprise-specific operational knowledge.</li>
1933. </ul>
1934. <p>“In our interviews, we have found that Wall Street has stopped hiring, and a number of job offers for recent IT college graduates have had offers that were extended pulled back,” Janco’s report stated. “The initial indicators from the monthly BLS data for June seem to be reinforcing those findings.”</p>
1935. <p>Janco’s report noted that some organizations have already started the process of layoffs.</p>
1936. <ul>
1937. <li>Netflix, PayPal, Getir, Klarna, Bolt, and Carvana instituted layoffs in May.</li>
1938. <li>Coinbase will cut 1,100 jobs, about 18% of its global workforce.</li>
1939. <li>Microsoft is slowing down its hiring “to better align its resources.”</li>
1940. <li>Meta (Facebook) and Twitter have frozen hiring for some departments.</li>
1941. </ul>
1942. <p>Gartner research shows that just 4% of US companies have started laying off employees, while 7% have frozen hiring and 15% have started to slow down hiring.</p>
1943. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/07/tech-hiring-trend-janco-associates-graphic-100929837-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/07/tech-hiring-trend-janco-associates-graphic-100929837-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="tech hiring trend janco associates graphic" width="1200" height="938" data-imageid="100929837" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">Janco Associates</small></figure>
1944. <p>Hiring is still robust for experienced IT pros —particularly for certain job titles, including security-related positions and in-demand technology, such as blockchain and e-commerce positions — but entry-level candidates are finding it more difficult to find new jobs, according to Janco.</p>
1945. <p>Overall, the number of open jobs in the US at the end of May was 11.3 million, a drop from 11.7 million in April, according to the BLS’s May <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow">Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report</a>. Despite the drop in open requisitions, the U.S. added 390,000 jobs in May; The unemployment rate also held at 3.6%, and there were almost two job openings for each unemployed American. The number and rate of workers quitting their jobs remained almost unchanged at 4.3 million and 2.8%, respectively.</p>
1946. <p>The impact of inflation and the potential of a significant downturn is not reflected in the preliminary budgets for 2023. Most CIOs and CFOs are trying to determine what they will do if that downturn occurs, Janco reported.</p>
1947. <p>Janco also publishes a biannual salary survey in January and July. The just-published <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/salary.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">survey results</a> showed that IT salaries were on the rise in the first six months of 2022. For the first time, median salaries for all IT pros in large enterprises exceeded $100,000.</p>
1948. <p>Midsized companies were offering the greatest salary increases, which averaged north of 4% for IT middle managers and staff. IT executives saw an average 3.04% salary increase this year.</p>
1949. <p>Large enterprises were more miserly, with staff receiving a 3.27% average increase and executives and middle managers earning a 3.47% and 1.20% average boost, respectively.</p>
1950. <p>The unemployment rate for tech occupations fell to a near-record low in May, and employer job postings for tech positions passed 443,000, according to an <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">analysis of the latest labor market data</a> by CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.</p>
1951. <p>“The already tight labor market just became even tighter as competition for tech talent reaches near-record levels,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “For any employer relying on the old hiring playbook, it’s time to rethink approaches to recruiting and retention.”</p>
1952. <p>Employers throughout the US economy are stepping up their search for tech workers and tech companies continue to expand payrolls, according CompTIA. Specifically, tech firms added 75,200 workers through the first four months of 2022.</p>
1953. <p>More than 190,000 new IT jobs will be created in 2022, according to IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. The IT job market now has more than 3.85 million positions in the US, with about 130,000 of those positions unfilled, <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/articles/2022/08-it-job-market.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Janco’s report stated</a>.</p>
1954. <p>Some of the top tech jobs in terms of hiring and pay include software developer/engineer, IT project manager, IT support specialist, systems engineer/architect, and network engineer/architect, according to <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">CompTIA’s jobs report</a>.</p>
1955. <p>Tech workers employed in the cloud space saw some of the greatest salary increases over the past year, according to <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220622005205/en/New-O%E2%80%99Reilly-Report-Reveals-Tech-Workers-Gain-Increased-Salary-and-Skills-Training-Through-Workplace-Learning" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">a new salary survey</a> from O’Reilly Media, an online IT training provider. According to the report, cloud-focused workers are the most sought-after tech talent as a growing number of organizations of all sizes utilize cloud tools and services.</p>
1956. <p>The survey revealed that cloud professionals are paid an average yearly salary of $182,000. Report findings also show the impact of the great reshuffle within the tech sector, with 20% reporting they’ve already changed employers over the last year, and 25% of respondents planning to find new employment with better compensation, raising a question of whether the great reshuffle will continue.</p>
1957. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/07/top-paying-it-jobs-100929840-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/07/top-paying-it-jobs-100929840-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="top paying it jobs" width="1200" height="716" data-imageid="100929840" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">Janco Associates</small></figure>
1958. <p>The average salary increase over the past year for cloud workers was 4.3%. The average salary for women, unfortunately, is 7% lower than the average salary for men, the survey also found.</p>
1959. <p>The highest-paid job titles include directors ($235,000) and executives ($231,000), followed by architects, “leads,” and managers ($196,000, $190,000, and $188,000, respectively).</p>
1960. <p>“During the pandemic, we witnessed millions of workers resign from companies in an effort to reconfigure their careers and take deliberate steps toward new job opportunities with higher wages and better alignment between their work and life goals,” said O’Reilly President Laura Baldwin. “With these workers in such demand, we anticipate the great tech exodus to continue unless employers step up with competitive pay, substantial benefits, remote work flexibility, and on-the-job learning and development.”</p>
1961. <h2 class="toc" id="june-2022">June 2022</h2>
1962. <p>Technology companies added workers for the 18<sup>th</sup> consecutive month and employer job postings for tech occupations reached a new high in May, according to <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow">an analysis of the latest employment data</a> by a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.</p>
1963. <p>Technology industry level companies added 22,800 net new workers in May. Through the first five months of 2022 employment increased by 106,700 positions and is 69% ahead of the same period versus 2021, according to an analysis of <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" rel="nofollow">the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report</a> by industry association CompTIA.</p>
1964. <p>Employer hiring activity as measured by job postings for tech positions totaled 623,627 for the month of May and nearly 2.2 million year-to-date, which represents a 52% increase versus the same period of the previous year.</p>
1965. <p>“The data speaks to the broad-based nature of the tech workforce,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, said in a statement. “It also speaks to the many factors affecting employment and situations where sectors or companies easing up on hiring may be offset by sectors or companies increasing hiring.”</p>
1966. <p>The unemployment rate for the IT sector did edge up slightly in May to 2.1% from 2.0% the previous month . The unemployment rate for tech occupations, however, remained remarkably low compared to the overall national unemployment rate of 3.6%.</p>
1967. <p>“In an analysis of the latest BLS data we have found the number of jobs created for IT professionals continues to grow. However, there are some clouds for IT pros’ job prospects six to twelve months in the future.” said M. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of  IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. “The primary driver is inflation and high energy costs which is causing concerns that the economy will slow later in the year and potentially have an extended recession in 2023.”</p>
1968. <p>Janco Associates, which did its own analysis of the BLS jobs report, found over the past year more than 20,000 new IT positions were added each month. That surge has begun to cool a bit with 17,000 new IT jobs created in May. </p>
1969. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/06/it-jobs-created-janco-graphic-100928729-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/06/it-jobs-created-janco-graphic-100928729-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="it jobs created janco graphic" width="1200" height="854" data-imageid="100928729" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">Janco Associates</small></figure>
1970. <p>All signs point to that growth continuing but at a slower rate of 13,000 to 14,000 new jobs added per month through out the rest of the year. By the end of 2022, Janco forecasted that 191,000 new IT Jobs will be added.</p>
1971. <p>Currently, there are more than 3.9 million unfilled IT job positions in the US, according to Janco.</p>
1972. <p>“That is driven by the fact that qualified candidates can not be found,” Janulaitis said. “The first sign that the growth of the IT job market is slowing will be the reduction in that number as companies will just pull back on trying to recruit those unfilled positions.”</p>
1973. <p>So far in 2022, the IT job market has grown by 93,400 jobs, which is 43,000 more  than the for the same period in 2021. If there is a downturn, as some predict, one of the reactions by CEOs will be to implement hiring freezes that will result in a decrease in the growth of the IT job market, according to Janulaitis.</p>
1974. <figure class="large "><a class="zoom" href="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/06/comptia-may-jobs-report-graphic-100928732-orig.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70" rel="nofollow"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/06/comptia-may-jobs-report-graphic-100928732-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="comptia may jobs report graphic" width="1200" height="1001" data-imageid="100928732" data-license="Supplied Art" /></a> <small class="credit">CompTIA</small></figure>
1975. <p>“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals will continue to be positive but not as broad in scope as last year. CIOs are still posturing to hire more staff and expand technologies to address blockchain processing and security applications based on market conditions,” Janulaitis said. “However recent events, increased energy cost, and the specter of high inflation will harm IT job market growth.”</p>
1976. <p>Positions for software developers and engineers (204,084) accounted for nearly a third of all employer tech job postings in May, an increase of more than 77,000 from April, according to CompTIA. IT project managers, IT support specialists, systems engineers and architects and network engineers and architects also saw market increase in hiring.</p>
1977. <p>One-third of all job postings were for positions in emerging technologies or jobs requiring emerging tech skills.</p>
1978. <p>Industries that saw some of the hottest hiring trends includeded scientific and technical services, finance and insurance, manufacturing, information, retail trade, health care and social assistance, public administration and educational services. The search for tech talent was widely dispersed across geographies, as well. Four metro areas (New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles and Washington) recorded tech jobs postings totals that surpassed 31,000 positions.</p>
1979. <p>Hiring in the IT services and custom software development category led May’s tech sector job growth with more than 13,100 new positions. Hiring in data processing, hosting and related services, computer and electronic products manufacturing and other information services, including search engines also increased. Conversely, jobs in telecommunications declined, according to CompTIA’s report.</p>
1980. <h2 class="toc" id="april-2022">April 2022</h2>
1981. <p>The IT job market size grew by 17,000 jobs in April, according to new data from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates.</p>
1982. <p>Over the past three months, 43,200 Jobs have been added to IT Job Market, a pace of expansion exceeds 2021, the firm stated in <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1618780/how-many-jobs-are-available-in-technology.html">its latest research post</a>.</p>
1983. <p>In 2021, 213,100 jobs were added to the IT Job Market. That not only replaced the jobs lost during the pandemic, but it also expanded the growth to a level that exceeded the pre-pandemic levels. (Janco bases its information on data from <a href="https://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag51.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">the US Bureau of Labor Statistics</a> — the BLS.) </p>
1984. <p>“In interviews with both CIOs and HR professionals, Janco has found that hiring IT professionals is at a record high level. This, even with inflation and the specter of a possible economic downturn,” Janco stated. “All signs point to that growth continuing.”</p>
1985. <p>While all IT jobs lost during the pandemic have been recovered, the hiring of IT professionals is now being hindered by a lack of qualified individuals, according to the latest statistics.</p>
1986. <p>The April monthly tech <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">jobs report released by the CompTIA</a> industry association showed the tech industry added 12,300 jobs from February to March, 2022. Software developers (3,613) and systems engineers/architects (3,126) led the pack in terms of new positions available.</p>
1987. <p>Software developers and engineers are far and away the most sought-after positions companies need to fill, with more than 115,000 job postings across the US, according to CompTIA. IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and architects, and network engineers and architects are also in high demand.</p>
1988. <p>“By all accounts this was an exceptionally strong start to the year for tech employment,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “The arms race in recruiting and retaining tech talent undoubtedly challenges employers in direct and indirect ways.”</p>
1989. <p>The unemployment rate for tech occupations fell to a near-record low, as tech firms added workers for the 16th consecutive month and employer job postings for tech positions surpassed 400,000 in March, according to an analysis of the latest labor market data by CompTIA.</p>
1990. <p>“The already tight labor market just became even tighter as competition for tech talent reaches near-record levels,” <a href="https://connect.comptia.org/newsroom/press-releases/2022/04/01/tech-unemployment-rate-at-near-record-low-on-strength-of-employer-hiring-activity-comptia-analysis-finds" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Herbert said in a statement</a>. “For any employer relying on the old hiring playbook, it’s time to rethink approaches to recruiting and retention.”</p>
1991. <p>IT jobs across the US increased by 19,000 in March. The unemployment rate for tech occupations is 1.3%, its lowest level since June 2019 and about one-third the current national unemployment rate (3.6%).</p>
1992. <p>Janco is forecasting more than 138,000 new IT jobs will be created in 2022. The IT job market now has more than 3.85 million positions in the US. As of December 2021, Janco reported 3.72 million IT positions in the US.</p>
1993. <p>“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals will continue to be positive, but not as broad in scope as in the last quarter of 2021,” Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. “CIOs are still posturing to hire more staff and expand technologies to address blockchain processing and security applications based on market conditions. However recent events, increased energy cost, and the specter of high inflation will harm IT job market growth.”</p>
1994. <figure class="large "><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2022/05/it-job-market-forecast-2022-03-100926278-large.jpg?auto=webp&quality=85,70&auto=webp&quality=85,70" border="0" alt="it job market forecast from Janco" width="1200" height="720" data-imageid="100926278" data-license="Supplied Art" /> <small class="credit">Janco</small>
1995. <figcaption>
1996. <p>IT job growth in recent years.</p>
1997. </figcaption>
1998. </figure>
1999. <p>According to the BLS, employment in computer and information technology occupations is <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/home.htm#:~:text=Employment%20in%20computer%20and%20information,add%20about%20667%2C600%20new%20jobs." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">projected to grow 13% from 2020 to 2030</a>, faster than the average for all occupations. IT is projected to add about 667,600 new jobs, with demand for those workers stemming from a greater emphasis on cloud computing, the collection and storage of big data, and information security, according to the BLS.</p>
2000. <p>The median annual wage for computer and information technology occupations was $94,729 in January 2021, which was higher than the median annual wage for all occupations ($45,760). In January 2022, the median wage for IT positions had increased to $96,667 – an uptick of about 2.05%.</p>
2001. <p>Conversely, new IT hires in the last quarter of 2021 were paid 5% to 6% more than existing staff, according to Janco.</p>
2002. <p>“In conversation with several CIOs, we learned that increases for new hires in the 9% to 12% range were not uncommon,” Janulaitis said. “ It is not uncommon for IT pros who are highly skilled and experienced (over 10 years) to be offered salaries at $125,000 and above. Salary disparity is a driver of dissatisfaction and an increase in attrition rate among existing employees.”</p>
2003. <h2 class="toc" id="december-2021">December 2021</h2>
2004. <p class="toc">Hiring of IT professionals is at record pace with 197,000 more IT jobs so far this year than at the same time last year, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).</p>
2005. <p>There has been growth in the IT job market each of the past eight months, according to IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. </p>
2006. <p>“Information-Technology leaders say they are boosting compensation packages and flexible work options to widen the pool of prospective job candidates, as demand surges for tech talent,” M. Victor Janulaitis, Janco’s CEO, stated on the company’s <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/articles/2021/2021-09-09-it-job-market-explodes.html" rel="nofollow">website</a>. </p>
2007. <p>To entice employees and retain existing tech staff, CIOs are offering flexible work options, such as a combination of in-office and remote work. The median salary for IT professionals is expected to grow to between $96,000 and $97,000, up from just over $94,600 in January and $95,600 in June, Janulaitis wrote.</p>
2008. <p>“Most CIOs have not recruited at this rate before. Janco attributes the hiring push of some CIOs to meet their company’s goals to recruit talent related to security, compliance and cloud computing, Those IT jobs are difficult ones to fill,” he said.</p>
2009. <p>In 2019, 90,200 new IT jobs were created. As a result of the global pandemic. By contrast, 33,200 were lost in 2020. In 2021, almost 150,000 jobs were added to the IT job market.</p>
2010. <p>All job markets included, nearly <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/people-not-in-labor-force.html?fbclid=IwAR0Nsvs-VoerYhQCIC3fsJneHalOk0ny0sR9tyoYEVdBGLOmdL3eSBJVX6Q" rel="nofollow">100 million working-age people were excluded</a> from the labor force in November 2021, according to Janco Associates, which is based on BLS data. Most, of course, are still in school, retired ill or disabled and unable to work, according to the BLS data. But, those excluded from the labor force also include 471,000 “discouraged workers,” which represents an increase from 460,000 last month. Among the reasons cited for not re-joining the workforce were the continued impact of vaccine mandates, travel restrictions, and new virus variants.</p>
2011. <p>Roughly 34.4 million people have quit their jobs this year as they reevaluate their work lives, according to job-search company Joblist. <a href="https://www.joblist.com/jobs-reports/q3-2021-united-states-job-market-report" rel="nofollow">A survey</a> of 26,000 employees recently published by Joblist showed nearly three-quarters of respondents said they were actively thinking about quitting. And, roughly 34.4 million people have quit their jobs this year during 2021 as they reevaluate their work lives.</p>
2012. <p>About 46% of the remaining workforce is considering leaving work because they’re not being allowed to work remotely, according to the <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index" rel="nofollow">Work Trend Index study</a> by Microsoft Corp.  </p>
2013. <p>“There are 94.438 million who just do not want work at all. That is a increase of almost 612,000 individuals from the same month last year,” according to Janco Associates’s website.</p>
2014. <p>Baby boomers retiring is another factor in the continued fall in the Labor Participation rate.</p>
2015. <p>Overall, though, the IT job market in the U.S. has added an average of about 13,000 positions during each month of 2021, up from a typical monthly average of between 5,000 and 8,000 jobs.</p>
2016. <p>Job growth in the US IT industry had slowed and took a dip in October, adding just 4,800 positions, according to the BLS data that were included in the<a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> figures from Janco Associates</a>. That was down from 8,900 positions added in the revised September figures.</p>
2017. <p>In October, the overall growth in IT positions was even as the highly infectious delta variant of COVID-19 continued to hinder overall job growth, mainly due to slowdowns in the restaurant, entertainment, and service sectors.</p>
2018. <p>The IT industry’s bigger challenge is finding qualified candidates for those IT jobs, Janulaitis said in a statement at the time. And the challenge won’t end soon, he said:</p>
2019. <blockquote>
2020. <p>From data that we have reviewed, shutdowns resulted in fewer computer science candidates graduating from universities and trade schools. Those in the pipeline for those degrees were reduced as well. One of the drivers of that trend was that the closing of borders limited the number of foreign nationals who could qualify for that training and education.</p>
2021. <p>Many of the new positions that CIOs are trying to fill are in new technologies. There is a shortfall of individuals who have the training and skills necessary. There are open positions that cannot be filled. … At the same, time attrition rates are on the rise in many IT organizations.</p>
2022. </blockquote>
2023. <p>US IT job growth was stronger earlier in the year, before the delta variant and the talent shortage: August saw a surge of 25,400 new jobs on the heels of about 18,500 in June and 9,900 in July (all are revised figures), reflecting continuing business recovery from the pandemic. In fact, IT job growth has occurred for 15 consecutive months, though it was uneven through May. I has averaged 13,000 new jobs each month so far in 2021.</p>
2024. <p>The IT job situation in the US continues to look very much like the pre-pandemic state: more positions than candidates. In fact, businesses would have filled more IT positions in September had they found enough qualified candidates, Janulaitis said. Finding web developers and cybersecurity and compliance pros remains the toughest task for CIOs, he said — and is causing HR to focus more on IT staff retention.</p>
2025. <p>That talent shortage has put even greater pressure on businesses to increase salaries, Janulaitis said — and US IT salaries had already been trending up in 2021.</p>
2026. <p>Janco still expects 2021 to have greater IT job growth — there were 189,000 new positions in 2021 as of Oct. 31, with two more months of hiring left in the year — than in any previous year, more than making up for jobs lost due to the pandemic. The last high was 2015, when 112,500 new positions were created. In 2018, 104,600 new IT positions were added; in 2019, the increase was 90,200; and in 2020, the industry lost 33,200 positions.</p>
2027. <p>There are now 3.72 million IT pro jobs in the US, Janco estimates.</p>
2028. <p>The monthly tech jobs <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">report released by the CompTIA industry association</a> also showed slower hiring growth in October. CompTIA calculated that there were 8,300 new US tech-sector jobs last month, down from September’s 18,700, August’s 26,800, July’s 10,700, and June’s 10,500 jobs. The US tech sector’s job numbers remain above their March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions, nudging just past 4.81 million in October 2021, according to CompTIA data.</p>
2029. <p>CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, with roughly 44% being technical and 56% being nontechnical; Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.</p>
2030. <p>CompTIA calculated the estimated unemployment rate for the tech sector at 2.1% in October, down from 2.2% in September but up from 1.5% in August and July. The current tech unemployment rate is within range of its 2018-19 lows, where it ranged from 1.2% to 2.4%. The national unemployment rate in October was 4.6%, down from 4.8% in September, according to the BLS.</p>
2031. <h2 class="toc" id="october-2021">October 2021</h2>
2032. <p>The job growth in the US IT industry slowed in September, adding 16,700 positions, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data reported in the <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates</a>. That’s down from 22,000 positions added in the revised August figures.</p>
2033. <p>Overall growth in IT positions comes even as the highly infectious delta variant of COVID-19 continued to hinder overall job growth, mainly due to slowdowns in the restaurant, entertainment, and service sectors.</p>
2034. <p>That August surge followed job growth of about 18,500 in June and 10,100 in July (both are revised figures), reflecting continuing business recovery from the pandemic in the US. In fact, IT job growth has occurred every month this year, though it was uneven through May, averaging 13,000 new jobs each month so far in 2021.</p>
2035. <p>The IT job situation in the US continues to look very much like the pre-pandemic state: more positions than candidates. In fact, businesses would have filled more IT positions in September had they found enough qualified candidates for them, Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. Finding web developers and cybersecurity and compliance pros remains the toughest task for CIOs, he said — and is causing HR to focus more on IT staff retention.</p>
2036. <p>That talent shortage has put even greater pressure on businesses to increase salaries, Janulaitis said — and US IT salaries had already been trending up in 2021.</p>
2037. <p>Janco expects 2021 to have greater IT job growth — 145,000 to 152,000 new positions — than in any year since 2015, when 112,500 new positions were created. In 2018, 104,600 new IT positions were added; in 2019, the increase was 90,200; and in 2020, the industry lost 33,200 positions.</p>
2038. <p>There are now 3.72 million IT pro jobs in the US, Janco estimates.</p>
2039. <p>The monthly tech jobs <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">report released by the CompTIA industry association</a> also showed slower growth in September hiring. CompTIA calculated that there were 18,700 new US tech-sector jobs last month, down from August’s 26,800, but still a jump over both July’s gain of 10,700 and June’s gain of 10,500 jobs. The US tech sector’s job numbers remain above their March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions, reaching 4.81 million in September 2021, according to CompTIA data.</p>
2040. <p>CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, with roughly 44% being technical and 56% being nontechnical, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.</p>
2041. <p>CompTIA calculated the estimated unemployment rate for the tech sector at 2.2% in September, up from 1.5% in August and July, and the same as in June. The current tech unemployment rate is within range of its 2018-19 lows, where it ranged from 1.2% to 2.4%. The national unemployment rate in September was 4.8%, according to the BLS.</p>
2042. <h2 class="toc" id="september-2021">September 2021</h2>
2043. <p>The job growth in the US IT industry accelerated in August, adding 25,400 positions, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data reported in the <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates</a>. That growth in IT positions comes even as the highly infectious delta variant of COVID-19 slowed overall job growth, mainly due to slowdowns in the restaurant and entertainment sectors.</p>
2044. <p>The August surge follows job growth of about 18,500 in June and 10,100 in July (both are revised figures), reflecting continuing business recovery from the pandemic in the US. In fact, IT job growth has occurred every month this year, though it was uneven through May.</p>
2045. <p>The IT job situation in the US continues to look very much like the pre-pandemic state: more positions than candidates. In fact, businesses would have filled more IT positions in August had they found enough qualified candidates for them, Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. Finding web developers and cybersecurity and compliance pros remains the toughest task for CIOs, he said — and is causing HR to focus more on IT staff retention.</p>
2046. <p>That talent shortage has put even greater pressure on businesses to increase salaries, Janulaitis said — and US IT salaries had already been trending up in 2021.</p>
2047. <p>Janco expects 2021 to have greater IT job growth — 132,000 to 152,000 new positions — than in any year since 2015, when 112,500 new positions were created. In 2018, 104,600 new IT positions were added; in 2019, the increase was 90,200; and in 2020, the industry lost 33,200 positions.</p>
2048. <p>There are now 3.7 million IT pro jobs in the US, Janco estimates.</p>
2049. <p>The monthly tech jobs <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">report released by the CompTIA industry association</a> also showed a surge in August hiring. CompTIA calculated that there were 26,800 new US tech-sector jobs last month, a jump over both July’s gain of 10,700 and June’s gain of 10,500 jobs. The US tech sector’s job numbers have now exceeded their March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions, reaching 4.79 million in August 2021, according to CompTIA data.</p>
2050. <p>CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, with roughly 44% being technical and 56% being nontechnical, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.</p>
2051. <p>CompTIA calculated the estimated unemployment rate for the tech sector at 1.5% in August, the same as in July and down from 2.2% in June. The current tech unemployment rate is approaching its 2018-19 lows, where it ranged from 1.2% to 2.4%. The national unemployment rate in August was 5.2%, according to the BLS.</p>
2052. <h2 class="toc" id="august-2021">August 2021</h2>
2053. <p>The job growth in the US IT industry continued at a steady pace in July, adding 11,200 positions, according to figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported in the <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates</a>. June saw an increase of 11,400, reflecting continuing business recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. In fact, IT job growth has occurred every month this year, though it was uneven in the first five months of the year.</p>
2054. <p>Today, the jobs situation looks very much like the pre-pandemic state: more positions than candidates. “With reopening, more organizations are actively recruiting,” Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. “In full-employment states, there are many positions for IT pros that remain unfilled due to the lack of qualified candidates.”</p>
2055. <p>That’s put pressure on businesses to increase salaries.</p>
2056. <p>Janco expects 2021 to have greater IT job growth — 108,000 new positions — than in any year since 2015, when 112,500 new positions were created. The year 2018 saw 104,600 new IT positions; 2019 saw 90,200; and 2020 saw a loss of 33,200 positions.</p>
2057. <p>There are nearly 3.7 million IT pro jobs in the US, Janco estimates.</p>
2058. <p>The monthly tech jobs <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">report released by the CompTIA industry association</a> calculated that there were 10,700 new US tech sector jobs in July, similar to June’s gain of 10,500 jobs and following gains the entire year. The US tech sector’s job numbers have now essentially matched their March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions, according to the CompTIA data.</p>
2059. <p>CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, with roughly 44% being technical and 56% being nontechnical, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.</p>
2060. <p>CompTIA calculated the estimated unemployment rate for the tech sector as 1.5% in July, down from 2.2% in June. The current tech unemployment rate is approaching its 2018-19 lows, where it ranged from 1.2% to 2.4%. The national unemployment rate in July was 5.4%, according to the BLS.</p>
2061. <h2 class="toc" id="july-2021">July 2021</h2>
2062. <p>The US IT industry has seen strong job growth so far in 2021, according to revised figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as reported in the <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates</a>.</p>
2063. <p>The BLS has adjusted its figures on job growth for all of 2021, bringing the total hires to 69,000 IT staffers through June. The agency had previously reported 47,700 jobs through May, a figure now revised upward to 57,100. June saw an additional 11,900 hires, and it’s possible the BLS could revise its figures again in future reports.</p>
2064. <p>Janco also confirmed previously reported preliminary data on US IT salaries from its own surveys. As the jobs market remains steady in its post-COVID recovery, IT salaries have started to increase as organizations struggle to fill some positions.</p>
2065. <p>That salary survey shows that IT execs in large enterprises are getting the largest salary boosts, with a median increase of 3.2%. Those in midsize enterprises are seeing median rises of 1.2%. For lower-level positions, IT pros do better at midsize enterprises than at large ones: Middle managers at large enterprises are seeing 0.6% boosts, while those at medium-sized firms are seeing 1.3% increases.</p>
2066. <p>IT staffers are seeing the least improvement — an ongoing phenomemon across all company sizes, in which IT execs continue to be rewarded more. Staffers at large enterprises are realizing 0.4% gains; those at midsize enterprises are seeing 0.7% gains. </p>
2067. <p>At its worst, more than 100,000 IT jobs were lost during the depths of the pandemic in spring 2020, though two-thirds of those came back as the year progressed. Still, 2020 ended with 33,200 fewer IT jobs in the US compared to 2019. With the 69,000 estimated job gains so far in 2021, the US IT job market at the end of June is at 16,700 ahead of the 2020 peak in February — and nearly 140,000 jobs ahead of the 2020 nadir in July.</p>
2068. <p>There are more than 3.6 million IT pro jobs in the US, Janco estimates.</p>
2069. <p>The monthly tech jobs <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">report released by the CompTIA industry association</a> calculated that there were 10,500 new US tech sector jobs in June, following gains in each previous month of 2021. The US tech sector’s job numbers have now essentially matched their March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions, according to the CompTIA data.</p>
2070. <p>CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, with roughly 44% being technical and 56% being nontechnical, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.</p>
2071. <p>CompTIA’s data does show a softening of hiring, with small reductions in job postings in several roles, such as for software developers and systems analysts, as well as in several cities, including Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and San Francisco. By contrast, postings grew for positions in San Jose, Calif. The data show more variability, indicating perhaps some settling of hiring activities.</p>
2072. <p>CompTIA calculated the estimated unemployment rate for the tech sector as 2.2% in June, down from 2.4% in May. The current tech unemployment rate is approaching its 2018-19 lows, where it ranged from 1.2% to 2.4%.</p>
2073. <h2 class="toc" id="june-2021">June 2021</h2>
2074. <p>As the US IT jobs market remains steady in its post-COVID recovery, salaries have started to increase as organizations struggle to fill some positions. That’s based on a survey to be releasd June 15 by IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. Janco provided <em>Computerworld</em> a preview of that survey.</p>
2075. <p>That salary survey shows that IT executives in large enterprises are getting the largest salary boosts, with a median rise of 3.2%. IT execs in midsize enterprises are seeing median rises of 1.2%. For lower-level positions, IT pros do better at midsize enterprises than at large ones: Middle managers at large enterprises are seeing 0.6% boosts, while those at midsize enterprises are seeing 1.3% rises.</p>
2076. <p>IT staffers are seeing the least improvement — an ongoing phenomemon across all company sizes, in which IT execs continue to be rewarded more — with those at large enterprises registering 0.4% gains and those at midsize enterprises seeing 0.7% gains. </p>
2077. <p>The US IT employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has been very volatile in 2021, with the agency reducing its prior-month estimates several times this year. The agency, for example, reduced its 2021 job gain count by 14,100 from earlier estimates. The BLS data shows a May rise in IT hires of 7,700, and — even with the downward BLS revisions for prior months — the net growth for US IT jobs this year stands at about 47,700, according to Janco’s analysis.</p>
2078. <p>At its worst, more than 100,000 IT jobs were lost during the depths of the pandemic in spring 2020, though two-thirds of those came back as the year progressed. Still, 2020 ended with 33,200 fewer IT jobs in the US compared to 2019. With the 47,700 estimated job gains so far in 2021, the US IT job market at the end of May is at 13,500 more than the 2020 peak in February — and nearly 150,000 ahead of the 2020 nadir in July.</p>
2079. <p>There are more than 3.6 million IT pro jobs in the US, Janco estimates.</p>
2080. <p>The monthly tech jobs <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">report released by the CompTIA industry association</a> calculated that there were 10,500 new US tech sector jobs in May, following gains in each previous month of 2021. CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, with roughly 44% being technical and 56% being nontechnical, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.</p>
2081. <p>Still, the US tech sector’s job numbers have not yet matched their March 2020 peak of 4.76 million positions. As of last month, there were 4.74 million, a number that continues to grow.</p>
2082. <p>CompTIA’s unemploment rate estimate for the tech sector stood at 2.4% in May, within its range over the last few months — versus 5.8% in May for the national rate for all industries. For previous months, CompTIA calculated a 2.5% tech unemployment rate in April, 1.9% in March, and 2.4% in February. The rise in the overall tech unemployment rate may reflect a loss of sales jobs in the tech sector, even as technologist jobs grew.</p>
2083. <p>CompTIA also saw the number of tech-related job listings jump in May, to about 365,000 versus the 307,000 estimated for April. Job postings have grown by about 158,000 so far in 2021.</p>
2084. <p>Software developers constituted the largest pool of listed openings at 112,200, with listings for IT support specialists coming in second at 28,200 and for system engineers and architects third at 27,200 — all represent significant increases from May.</p>
2085. <p>The top sector for tech job postings in May was manufacturing, which had 70,970 positions open. Professional and technical services followed at 58,783, then finance and insurance at 31,054, and information services at 20,244.</p>
2086. <p>The Washington, D.C. metro area had the most job postings, 21,611, followed by the New York metro area with 20,481; the Dallas metro area with 14,796; the Los Angeles metro area at 12,825; and the Atlanta metro area at 12,825. The San Francisco metro came in sixth at 11,918, just 117 more postings than in April. And the adjacent San Jose metro came in ninth at 8,746.</p>
2087. <p>The Chicago metro had the greatest decline in postings, with 10,526 postings — down 1,025 from April. On the West Coast, slight declines in job postings were recorded in the Los Angeles area (205 fewer), the Seattle area (51 fewer, for 80,080 in May), and the San Jose metro area (466 fewer, wiping out the 117 gain in the adjacent San Francisco metro).</p>
2088. <h2 class="toc" id="may-2021">May 2021</h2>
2089. <p>Nearly all the US IT jobs lost in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic have come back, with IT employment enjoying eight straight months of growth. Of course, some of the replacement jobs were in IT specialties other than the jobs lost, as there has been a steady trend of declining data center and telecommunications positions in favor of software development jobs; that was true, even before the pandemic.</p>
2090. <p>At its worst, more than 100,000 IT jobs were lost during the depths of the pandemic in spring 2020, though two-thirds of those came back as the year progressed. Still, 2020 ended with 33,200 fewer IT jobs in the US compared to 2019.</p>
2091. <p>So far in 2021, 30,400 IT jobs have been added, nearly erasing the 2020 net losses.</p>
2092. <p>And IT jobs in 2021 are set to continue to grow, according to the <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates</a>. It expects another 70,000 IT jobs to be available this year. Janco’s numbers come from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly reports.</p>
2093. <p>When adjusted for seasonality, March saw 6,500 new IT jobs, February saw 9,400, and January saw 14,400. The January and February numbers were revised up significantly from BLS’s original estimate of 8,500 and 6,000, respectively.</p>
2094. <p>The Janco figures jibe with a <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">report released by the CompTIA industry association</a>. It calculated that there were 9,700 new US tech sector jobs in March, following a gain of 7,700 in February and 19,500 in January. CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.</p>
2095. <p>Using a much broader definition of IT, including sales positions, CompTIA estimated that 50,000 IT-related jobs were added in March across all industries, following a 178,000-job gain in in February and a 78,000-job gain in January. That reflects an unemployment rate of 1.9%, down from 2.4% in February 2021 and the lowest rate since August 2019.</p>
2096. <p>Nationally, for all jobs, the US unemployment rate fell from 6.2% in February to 6.1% in March, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">according to the BLS</a>. But the national unemployment rate is closer to 9% if those who have given up looking are included, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/unemployment-united-states-coronavirus-pandemic-economy-abce0771dc4788e0dc252ad5f47e8f69" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">estimates Oxford Economics</a>; the BLS reports the level of these discouraged workers has remained steady.</p>
2097. <p>CompTIA also saw the number of IT-related job listings grow by about 30,000 in March, passing 307,000. That follows a rise of 44,300 listings in February and 26,000 in January.</p>
2098. <p>Software developers constituted the largest pool of listed openings at 93,000, with listings for IT support specialists coming in second at 25,800 and for system engineeris and architects third at 23,200.</p>
2099. <h2 class="toc" id="april-2021">April 2021</h2>
2100. <p>Nearly all the US IT jobs lost in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic have come back, with IT employment enjoying eight straight months of growth. Of course, some of the replacement jobs were in IT specialties other than the jobs lost, as there has been a steady trend of declining data center and telecommunications positions in favor of software development jobs; that was true, even before the pandemic.</p>
2101. <p>At its worst, more than 100,000 IT jobs were lost during the depths of the pandemic in spring 2020, though two-thirds of those came back as the year progressed. Still, 2020 ended with 33,200 fewer IT jobs in the US compared to 2019.</p>
2102. <p>So far in 2021, 30,400 IT jobs have been added, nearly erasing the 2020 net losses.</p>
2103. <p>And IT jobs in 2021 are set to continue to grow, according to the <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates</a>. It expects another 70,000 IT jobs to be available this year. Janco’s numbers come from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly reports.</p>
2104. <p>When adjusted for seasonality, March saw 6,500 new IT jobs, February saw 9,400, and January saw 14,400. The January and February numbers were revised up significantly from BLS’s original estimate of 8,500 and 6,000, respectively.</p>
2105. <p>The Janco figures jibe with a <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">report released by the CompTIA industry association</a>. It calculated that there were 9,700 new US tech sector jobs in March, following a gain of 7,700 in February and 19,500 in January. CompTIA calculates both technical and nontechnical positions at tech vendors, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.</p>
2106. <p>Using a much broader definition of IT, including sales positions, CompTIA estimated that 50,000 IT-related jobs were added in March across all industries, following a 178,000-job gain in in February and a 78,000-job gain in January. That reflects an unemployment rate of 1.9%, down from 2.4% in February 2021 and the lowest rate since August 2019.</p>
2107. <p>Nationally, for all jobs, the US unemployment rate fell from 6.2% in February to 6.1% in March, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">according to the BLS</a>. But the national unemployment rate is closer to 9% if those who have given up looking are included, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/unemployment-united-states-coronavirus-pandemic-economy-abce0771dc4788e0dc252ad5f47e8f69" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">estimates Oxford Economics</a>; the BLS reports the level of these discouraged workers has remained steady.</p>
2108. <p>CompTIA also saw the number of IT-related job listings grow by about 30,000 in March, passing 307,000. That follows a rise of 44,300 listings in February and 26,000 in January.</p>
2109. <p>Software developers constituted the largest pool of listed openings at 93,000, with listings for IT support specialists coming in second at 25,800 and for system engineeris and architects third at 23,200.</p>
2110. <h2 class="toc" id="march-2021">March 2021</h2>
2111. <p>As the overall US economy showed continued glimpses of recovery in February, the IT job market continued the rebound that began in the fall, though at a slower pace than in January.</p>
2112. <p>Growth last month was 13,700, according to the <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">latest figures from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates</a>. January saw 8,600 new IT jobs. When adjusted for seasonality, February saw 6,000 new IT jobs, and January saw 10,900, down dramatically from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS’) original estimate of 18,200.</p>
2113. <p>Still, the overall trend for IT — whose US jobs number 3.6 million — remains on an upward trajectory.</p>
2114. <p>The Janco figures jibe with a report released by the CompTIA industry association. It calculated that there were 7,700 new US tech sector jobs in February, following a gain of 19,500 in January. CompTIA calculates both technical and  nontechnical positions at tech vendors, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.</p>
2115. <p>Using a much broader definition of IT, including sales positions, CompTIA estimated that 178,000 IT-related jobs were added in February across all industries, following a 78,000-job gain in January. That reflects an unemployment rate of 2.4%, down from 3.0% in December 2020.</p>
2116. <p>Nationally, for all jobs, the US unemployment rate fell from an adjusted 6.3% in January to 6.2% in February, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf" rel="nofollow">according to the BLS</a>. But the national unemployment rate is closer to 9% if those who have given up looking are included, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/unemployment-united-states-coronavirus-pandemic-economy-abce0771dc4788e0dc252ad5f47e8f69" rel="nofollow">estimates Oxford Economics</a>; the BLS reports the level of these discouraged workers has remained steady.</p>
2117. <p>CompTIA also saw the number of IT-related job listings grow by about 44,300 in February, passing 277,000. That follows a rise of 26,000 listings in January. Software developers constituted the largest pool of listed openings at 88,000, with listings for systems engineers and architects coming in second at 22,700. But Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis expects that over the next several years, coders will find jobs scarcer as<a href="https://www.infoworld.com/article/3295882/where-low-code-development-works-and-where-it-doesnt.html"> low-code development</a> gains traction, even as demand for software developers overall increases.</p>
2118. <h2 class="toc" id="february-2021">February 2021</h2>
2119. <p>Even as the overall US economy struggled in January — adding just 6,000 private sector jobs and 49,000 jobs overall — the seasonally adjusted IT job growth last month was 18,200, according to the <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">latest figures</a> from IT employment consultancy Janco Associates. The past two months saw 55,000 new IT jobs, revised up from the 18,000 total reported a month earlier, based on revisions from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p>
2120. <p>Still, compared to January 2020, US IT jobs have decreased by 35,800, a loss of about 1%. Last spring, more than 100,000 IT jobs were lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, representing about 3% of the IT workforce.</p>
2121. <p>The Janco figures jibe with a report released by the CompTIA industry association. It calculated that there were 19,500 new US tech sector jobs in January. CompTIA calculates both technical and  nontechnical positions at tech vendors, whereas Janco looks at IT positions, including software developers, in all industries.</p>
2122. <p>Using a much broader definition of IT, including sales positions, CompTIA estimated that 78,000 IT-related jobs were added in January across all industry sectors. That reflects an unemployment rate of 2.4%, down from 3.0% in December 2020. Nationally, for all jobs, the US unemployment rate fell to 6.3% from 6.7%. But the national unemployment rate is closer to 9% if those who have given up looking are included, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/unemployment-united-states-coronavirus-pandemic-economy-abce0771dc4788e0dc252ad5f47e8f69" rel="nofollow">estimates</a> Oxford Economics.</p>
2123. <p>CompTIA also saw the number of IT-related job listings grow by about 26,000 in January, passing 232,000.</p>
2124. <p>Over the coming decade, Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis expects 11% growth in US IT jobs. “Most of the growth in the IT job market will be with software developers, quality assurance, and testers,” he said in a statement. “This will be driven by [work from home] as it is will be embraced by more enterprises in normal operations and internet-centric applications are developed and deployed.</p>
2125. <p>“The projected growth for that sector alone will be almost 18%,” he said.</p>
2126. <h2 class="toc" id="january-2021">January 2021</h2>
2127. <p>For the first time since the dot-com bust of 2000-2002, US IT salaries were flat in 2020, rising a negligible 0.08% to an average of $94,609 per year, according to the <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/salary.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">most recent survey of IT executives</a> by management consultancy Janco Associates. The year also ended with 55,900 fewer jobs than the US IT industry had on Jan. 1, 2020 — a drop of 1.5% for the year. (Last week, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS] revised its figures for 2020, resulting in a revised drop of 55,900 versus the 81,100 reported previously.)</p>
2128. <p>A separate survey by the industry association CompTIA, using BLS data, showed that the broad US tech industry <a href="https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">showed job growth</a> of 391,000 positions (22,000 of which were at tech vendors) in December 2020 — even as the US as a whole lost 140,000 jobs. About 44% of those tech sector jobs are for positions such as IT staff, software developers, and IT project managers; the rest are support positions such as sales, marketing, and management.</p>
2129. <p>Janco’s survey focuses specifically on IT jobs, mainly people in a CIO’s organization, whereas the CompTIA survey looks at the entire tech sector.</p>
2130. <p>The December growth in tech and IT jobs still left the broader tech sector below December 2019’s level, with 4.68 million jobs in December 2020, down from 4.73 million a year earlier. CompTIA’s survey shows a steady increase in tech jobs since July 2020, after a steep drop that began in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
2131. <p>The Janco survey showed that IT middle managers lost the most pay ground in 2020, with an average 0.08% salary reduction at large enterprises and 0.07% reduction at mid-sized enterprises. IT staff saw 0.03% average salary increases in large enterprises and 0.04% in medium enterprises. Executives did the best, of course: their salaries were up 0.59% in large enterprises and up 0.35% in medium ones.</p>
2132. <p>April and May were the worst months for US IT jobs in 2020, <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Janco’s data shows</a>. In those months, 116,000 IT pros lost their jobs due to COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. Hiring partially recovered in later months, but the total of 3.58 million US IT jobs in 2020 remained below 2019’s 3.64 million (but slightly above 2018’s 3.54 million).</p>
2133. <p>Janco notes that IT consulting and contract positions meant to augment IT staff were all but eliminated in 2020 and hiring growth stalled in the second wave of lockdowns that began in the fall as COVID-19 infections resurged. Those infection rates continue to grow in early 2021; Janco’s interviews with 101 US CIOs reveal that they don’t expect IT job or salary growth in 2021.</p>
2134. <p>Still, IT was fortunate in 2020 compared to many other industries. The COVID-19 pandemic devastated many industries, eliminating jobs at an unprecedented scale in the travel, hospitality, entertainment, and events businesses. Retailers with physical stores faced massive job losses as well, though manufacturing has largely bounced back. The US overall had <a href="https://www.bls.gov/cew/latest-numbers.htm" rel="nofollow">9.4% fewer jobs</a> as of June 30 (the latest data available) compared to 2019, the BLS reported. The tech unemployment rate has been roghly half that of the national rate throughout the pandemic, ending at 3% in December 2020 versus 6.7% for the economy as a whole, CompTIA reported.</p>
2135. <p>Despite those massive losses in multiple industries, the average US salary rose 2.6% in 2020, according to the <a href="https://www.payscale.com/payscale-index" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">PayScale salary survey</a>, which was last updated on Oct. 12. The latest data from the BLS, which covers the first half of 2020, showed an 8.6% average salary increase from a year earlier. Some of the salary increases reflect higher pay for grocery workers, delivery drivers, and warehouse workers whose jobs became more critical during the lockdowns and who were at greater risk of contracting the virus in their work.</p>
2136. <p>Of course, people who lost their jobs aren’t included in salary surveys, so those figures reflect the pay of the still-employed.</p>
2137. <p>CompTIA reports that software developers had the largest employment gains (4,700 hires) in December, triple that of the next-largest group, systems analysts (1,400 hires).</p>
2138.  
2139.  
2140.  
2141.  
2142.  
2143. <h2 class="toc" id="december-2020">December 2020</h2>
2144. <p>After three months of rebound, the US IT job market reversed course in November, shedding 8,300 jobs. That loss follows a 9,300-job gain in October, a 13,500 gain in September, and a 4,500 gain in August. For the year, the net loss of US IT jobs now stands at 81,100, still down from a peak high of 102,900 job losses this year as of August, according to the <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">most recent survey of IT executives</a> by management consultancy Janco Associates. </p>
2145. <p>In November, “the major loss of jobs for IT professions was in [small businesses] and consulting firms that service them; 7.5 million small to mid-size business are disproportionately impacted by shutdowns,” said Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis. He said many of these closures escape notice because they shut down before their debt levels require going through bankruptcy court.</p>
2146. <p>Large companies have also shuttered or retrenched, he said.</p>
2147. <p>Three quarters of the lost IT jobs in the US are concentrated in two segments, he said. One is data processing, hosting, and related services, the other is computer systems design and related services.</p>
2148. <p>“Hiring of IT professionals has all but stopped due to the uncertainty about the recovery,” Janulaitis said. And the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic this fall, and the likelihood that vaccinations will be largely complete only in summer 2021, suggests that IT jobs will be at risk for the foreseeable future, he said, as many businesses continue to shrink and many others put off anchoring until there’s more economic certainty.</p>
2149. <h2 class="toc" id="november-2020">November 2020</h2>
2150. <p>IT jobs lost at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and its lockdowns continue to recover slowly, with an additional 12,700 US jobs added in October — bringing the total recovered jobs since August to 27,800. Those autumn gains bring the loss of US IT jobs to 75,100 for the year, down from a high of 102,900 job losses as of August, according to the <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">most recent survey of IT executives</a> by management consultancy Janco Associates.</p>
2151. <p>The IT job market continues to struggle with the closure of many small- and medium-sized businesses and of many retail operations, in addition to broad cutbacks in all industries meant to preserve cash, said Janco CEO M. Victor Janulaitis.</p>
2152. <p>In addition, the percentage of data center jobs has dropped from 10% of the US IT workforce to 9% since the pandemic began, indicating more severe cutbacks in back-end IT services as part of a shift to the cloud.</p>
2153. <p>A separate <a href="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0009/8684/1143/files/FooteNewsRelease_4Q2020_ITSkillsCertsPayDataTrends_V1.doc.pdf?v=1604374067" rel="nofollow">report</a> by Foote Partners, which conducts salary surveys on IT jobs and certifications, shows a mixed bag for IT pros in 2020, with some skills increasing in compensation despite (or because of) the pandemic, and others losing value. On average, though, IT compensation has held steady.</p>
2154. <p>Gainers include a variety of positions involving security, Apache ZooKeeper distributed configuration, the <a href="https://www.infoworld.com/article/3066358/hbase-the-database-big-data-left-behind.html" target="_blank">Hbase</a> SQL database, the Ethereum blockchain, Oracle Coherence caching, Marketo marketing automation, the Apache <a href="https://www.infoworld.com/article/3293426/how-to-build-stateful-streaming-applications-with-apache-flink.html" target="_blank">Flink</a> stream-processing framework, natural language processing, master data management, and the <a href="https://www.infoworld.com/article/3336192/what-is-keras-the-deep-neural-network-api-explained.html" target="_blank">Keras</a> deep learning API.</p>
2155. <p>Decliners include BusinessObjects and Cognos application development, <a href="https://www.infoworld.com/article/2995928/google-paas-es-in-the-app-engine.html" target="_blank">Google App Engine</a> and <a href="https://www.infoworld.com/article/3222851/what-is-json-a-better-format-for-data-exchange.html" target="_blank">JSON</a> web development, Oracle Application Server, SAP Enterprise Business Applications, <a href="https://www.networkworld.com/article/2287941/sna-and-osi-vs%E2%80%94tcp-ip.html" target="_blank">SNA</a> networking, mobile device management, Cisco’s UCCX call center platform, <a href="https://www.infoworld.com/article/3220044/what-is-big-data-analytics-fast-answers-from-diverse-data-sets.html" target="_blank">big data analytics</a>, Windows NT, Suse Linux, and Tibco Enterprise Messaging Service.</p>
2156. <h2 class="toc" id="october-2020">October 2020</h2>
2157. <p>Although the  IT and telecommunications job market in the US is still expected to shrink by 64,000 jobs this year compared to 2019, the recovery of IT jobs lost during the early days of the pandemic continued for a second month. The <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">most recent survey of IT executives</a> by management consultancy Janco Associates shows that about 12,200 IT jobs were added in September following a net gain of 6,900 in August. </p>
2158. <p>At the outset of the pandemic, more than 105,000 US IT jobs were lost as companies retrenched in the face of COVID-19, more than erasing the 90,200 jobs added in all of 2019. Those losses have been partially addressed since through rehiring and new hires. As a result, over the last nine months, IT jobs were down by 85,000.</p>
2159. <p>However, Janco doesn’t forecast a recovery in the IT job marked until spring 2021, as the US economy suffers new waves of infections that slow or even reverse prior gains. In October, an additional wave of IT layoffs is expected as airlines furlough tens of thousands of workers now that federal job subsidies have ended for that industry.</p>
2160. <p>Companies are leery about expanding during uncertainties around government action, particularly the stalled stimulus efforts, said Janco president Victor Janulaitis. The November presidential election is another cause for companies to wait and see. “Spending for IT products and services has all but stopped as companies reevaluate the state of the economy globally as new waves of selected shutdowns occur,” he said.</p>
2161. <h2 class="toc" id="september-2020">September 2020</h2>
2162. <p><em>By Ken Mingis, Executive Editor, Computerworld</em></p>
2163. <p>Although the U.S. IT and telecommunications job market is still expected to shrink by 64,000 jobs in 2020 versus 2019, the worst may be over – and about a third of the IT jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to have come back by 2021. That’s according to the <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">most recent survey of IT executives</a> by management consultancy Janco Associates.</p>
2164. <p>For the first time in six months, August saw a net gain in the number of IT jobs: up 6,900. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised the number of IT jobs lost in July, showing 4,400 fewer jobs were lost than originally reported. Still, over the last 12 months, IT jobs fell by 81,800, nearly erasing the 90,200 jobs gained in 2019.</p>
2165. <p>“IT hiring will remain soft but improving slightly. …Major many companies are resuming existing operations slowly, but are holding back on any expansion until after the [Nov. 3] election,” said Janco’s latest report.</p>
2166. <p>But some sectors will continue to lose jobs, it noted, including the airline industry, which is poised to lay off tens of thousands of employees across all roles, not just IT, as federal COVID-related subsidies end on Sept. 30. Cities such as Portland, Ore. that have seen ongoing civil unrest due to protests over police killings of Black citizens will also see deferred hiring until the unrest subsides, Janco said.</p>
2167. <p>IT organizations remain cautious on spending, with very few new initiatives or expansions of current efforts being funded beyond the initial rampup in work-from-home and social-distancing technology investments at the start of the crisis.</p>
2168. <h2 class="toc" id="august-2020">August 2020</h2>
2169. <p>Coronavirus spikes in parts of the U.S. in July have worsened hiring conditions for IT professionals, and management consulting firm Janco Associates now doesn’t expect any rebound in hiring until late this year or early in 2021.</p>
2170. <p>Janco now estimates that just 25,000 new IT jobs will be created in 2020; there are now more than <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">163,000 fewer tech jobs than a year ago</a>. In July alone, another 10,900 IT positions disappeared, the company said.</p>
2171. <p>“We have found that a number of companies have already shuttered their doors or are expanding layoffs that impact the IT job market,” Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis said in a statement. “This includes oil and gas drillers like Whiting Petroleum and Diamond Offshore, retailers like J Crew, manufacturers like Briggs & Stratton, and grocers like Dean and DeLuca. As a result, IT professionals working for those companies are looking for new employment opportunities.</p>
2172. <p>“Until after the election…, when the public feels [it] can go back to a normal life [and]  more companies open their doors, hiring for new positions in IT will be limited at best,” he said. “In addition, the continued civil unrest is slowing confidence by the public, which in turn, hinders corporate confidence.”</p>
2173. <p>He noted the stalemate in Washington, D.C. over new efforts to prop up the U.S. economy, as several states deal with increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases.</p>
2174. <p>“Spending for IT products and services has all but stopped as companies reevaluate the state of the economy globally as new waves of selected shutdowns occur,” Janulaitis said. “With more companies adopting [work from home] to address ‘social distancing’ and avoid in-office contacts, fewer companies are taking an aggressive approach to any additional spending for IT products and services. It does not help that the U.S. Congress and the president are at a stalemate on pandemic relief.”</p>
2175. <h2 class="toc" id="july-2020">July 2020</h2>
2176. <p>The wave of IT layoffs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic did not end in May 2020 as expected, with June seeing 6,000 more layoffs as business uncertainties rose because of the increase in coronavirus infections in the U.S., according to new data from management consulting firm Janco Associates. The pandemic’s economic fallout had already led to about 117,000 job losses in U.S. IT positions in April and early May 2020.</p>
2177. <p>The increase in COVID-19 infections across most U.S. states in June prompted the additional layoffs, and Janco’s June survey of U.S. IT organizations shows that further layoffs – though at the relatively small scale seen in June – are expected given business uncertainties. That survey also said that salary increases for IT staffers are “a thing of the past.”</p>
2178. <p>The job losses were exacerbated by the extensive protests over the police killings of George Floyd and others, Janco said. That led to additional economic uncertainty, particularly in the retail industry hit by looting, leading to additional closings, deferred reopenings, and unexpected costs.</p>
2179. <p>In addition, a Trump Administration decision last month to pause the use of H-1B visas, which are commonly used to fill IT positions, will not help U.S. IT pros in the near term, Janco noted. Because it applies to new hires it does little to free up existing positions.</p>
2180. <p>IT organizations don’t expect to begin hiring again until late 2020 or early 2021, assuming that the infections are under control and the economic reopening interrupted in June can resume. Without a sustained reopening, companies won’t see demand for goods and services that provides the money for new and replacement hires.</p>
2181. <p>Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis now expects the net number of new U.S. IT jobs in 2020 will be about 30,000, versus the 94,500 it had expected before the epidemic struck. In 2019, the U.S. IT job market grew by 90,200.</p>
2182. <h2 class="toc" id="june-2020">June 2020</h2>
2183. <p>The wave of IT layoffs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has ended, according to new data from management consulting firm Janco Associates. The pandemic’s economic fallout resulted in about 117,000 job losses in U.S. IT positions in April and early May 2020.</p>
2184. <p>But Janco’s May survey of U.S. IT organizations shows that further layoffs are largely not expected. But neither is much IT job growth. IT organizations don’t expect to begin hiring again until late 2020, assuming that the gradual economic reopening now in progress continues and demand for goods and services resumes, providing the money for new and replacement hires.</p>
2185. <p>Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis expects that the net number of new U.S. IT jobs in 2020 will be about 35,000, versus the 94,500 it had expected before the epidemic struck. In 2019, the U.S. IT job market grew by 90,200.</p>
2186. <h2 class="toc" id="may-2020">May 2020</h2>
2187. <p>It’s not yet at the level of “Brother, can you spare a dime?” for IT workers, as it is for many workers in retail, entertainment, and hospitality. But as it becomes apparent the road to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will be take several years, IT pros are seeing layoffs in the U.S. and diminished prospects for future work, both as staff and as contractors.</p>
2188. <p>In April 2020, IT pros saw 102,300 layoffs in the U.S., according to management consulting firm Janco Associates. And Janco has now more than halved the <a href="https://www.e-janco.com/career/employmentdata.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">expected IT job growth</a> in 2020 that it predicted just a month ago – to 40,000 versus the earlier prediction of 95,400 IT jobs.</p>
2189. <p>Janco’s current projection for U.S. IT jobs this year is now 3.6 million, down from 2019’s 3.7 million U.S. IT jobs.</p>
2190. <p>Companies have essentially stopped filling IT positions and halted new contract work, Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis said, based on conversations with CIOs and CFOs. That means IT pros who lose their jobs will have little prospect of employment or contract work in 2020.</p>
2191. <p>“Until the public begins to feel they can go back to a normal lifestyle and companies open their doors, IT hiring will be nonexistent,” he said.</p>
2192. <p>Janulaitis noted that there had been a surge in IT contract work at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis to help set up work-at-home environments, from collabration tools to VPNs. “The demand for contractor help in this effort was high initially, but now is non-existent,” Janulaitis said. The <a href="https://computerworld.go-vip.net/article/1617639/how-the-covid-19-pandemic-is-starving-tech-startups-worldwide.html">tech startup sector is also in crisis</a>.</p>
2193. <p>Janulaitis does expect IT hiring to begin picking up at the end of the year. That’s in line with the current thinking for the economy as a whole; various U.S. Federal Reserve executives and economists have said they expect the current effective jobless rate of about <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/23/an-unemployment-rate-of-23percent-the-real-jobless-picture-is-coming-together.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">23%</a> to fall back but still be about 10% in 2021. The <a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">official jobless rate</a> stands at 14.7% – versus 3.5% in 2019 – but that count misses recent layoffs, laid-off people not looking for work during the crisis, and the self-employed.</p>
2194. <p>Broadly, expectations of a V-shaped recovery have given way to expectations of a prolonged decline and then slow recovery, since there is no vaccine for COVID-19, treatments and testing are not available at meaningful levels to determine who can work safely, it’s not known whether infected people develop immunity, and the ramifications of the various efforts now under way to reopen parts of society and economy remains unknown.</p>
2195. <p>The fate of IT positions is not immune from these general economic factors. “All of this has put IT professionals the same state as the rest of the labor market,”Janulaitis said.</p>
2196.  
2197. </div></div></div><category>5G, Careers, Financial Services Industry, Industry, IT Jobs, Remote Work, Salaries</category></div>]]></description>
2198. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/1618780/how-many-jobs-are-available-in-technology.html</link>
2199. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1618780</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/arrows-showing-upward-trend_growth_chart_graph-100747015-orig-1.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="54962" type="image/jpeg" />
2200. </item>
2201. <item>
2202. <title>With its new iPad, Apple’s Empire strikes back</title>
2203. <pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2024 16:36:19 +0000</pubDate>
2204. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
2205. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
2206.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
2207. <div class="article-column__content">
2208. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
2209.  
2210.  
2211.  
2212. <p>Like a breath of fresh air, Apple will now seek to shift negativity aside as it fights back against months of <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2097946/apple-earnings-about-that-iphone-slump-in-china.html">doom-laden speculation</a> and <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2097592/apple-confirms-it-will-open-up-the-ipad-in-europe-this-fall.html">regulatory inhibition</a>. For the rest of the year, the Empire strikes back.</p>
2213.  
2214.  
2215.  
2216. <p>This fight back has already begun, as the <a href="https://www.counterpointresearch.com/insights/iphone-15-pro-max-best-selling-smartphone-q1-2024/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">world’s best selling smartphone in Q1</a> is (and was) an iPhone. Battle now moves to Apple’s new iPad range, <a href="https://www.apple.com/apple-events/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">about to be updated</a> just in time to push No. 2 Samsung <a href="https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS52105224" target="_blank">firmly back into place</a>. The struggle will continue at WWDC, where we’ll learn more about how AI will be deployed across a <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2096725/apple-is-intensely-focused-on-its-global-ai-efforts.html">billion existing AI smartphones and other devices</a> and shifts up a gear toward year’s end with new iPhones.</p>
2217.  
2218.  
2219.  
2220. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What to think about</strong></h2>
2221.  
2222.  
2223.  
2224. <p>Enterprise purchasers will be keeping tabs on all of this activity. When it comes to the first salvo, they will be watching what Apple has to share about new iPads. While Apple will focus on use of its tablet as a creative/educational tool, enterprise purchasers will no doubt hope to find out:</p>
2225.  
2226.  
2227.  
2228. <ul>
2229. <li>What new tasks the device is now suitable for and the extent to which it is a viable replacement for outgoing Windows devices.</li>
2230.  
2231.  
2232.  
2233. <li>What iPad OS improvements will make the tablets <a href="https://www.applemust.com/with-ipad-os-16-apple-asks-whats-a-computer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more productive</a>.</li>
2234.  
2235.  
2236.  
2237. <li>The extent to which Apple’s vision for AI enables them to unleash new productivity features to employees or enables new consumer-facing business or communication opportunities.</li>
2238.  
2239.  
2240.  
2241. <li>New case studies to demonstrate iPad use in business. What’s been the impact of Starbucks and its investment in thousands of iPads for store management, for example?</li>
2242. </ul>
2243.  
2244.  
2245.  
2246. <p>Services will extend, connect, and augment all the new hardware and Apple has already predicted services will remain strong in the current quarter — hinting that management have already figured out how to achieve this goal. This could mean focused service enhancements, or new additions such as the sometimes rumored <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umAhNL5iJ1g" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">App Store for AI</a>. As Apple gets ready to make its ecosystem smarter, it’s noteworthy that its largest iPhone manufacturer, Foxconn, <a href="https://www.foxconn.com/en-us/press-center/press-releases/latest-news/1332" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported its best ever revenue</a> in April, citing “strong AI server demand.” Might there be a <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2024/04/23/apple-developing-its-own-ai-server-processor/#:~:text=Apple%20Reportedly%20Developing%20Its%20Own%20Custom%20Silicon%20for%20AI%20Servers,-Tuesday%20April%2023&text=Apple%20is%20said%20to%20be,the%20second%20half%20of%202025." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">connection</a>? And could elements of the plan emerge alongside the iPad?</p>
2247.  
2248.  
2249.  
2250. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What to expect from new iPads</strong></h2>
2251.  
2252.  
2253.  
2254. <p>Apple continues to align both the iPad and Mac user experience. In doing so, its approach has been to retain the best of both platforms, while unifying the experience where it makes sense. Stage Manager, which provides a new way to work on apps within project windows, exemplifies this as a UI that can exist on both devices, or none.</p>
2255.  
2256.  
2257.  
2258. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">What we think we know about the new <strong>iPad Pro</strong></h2>
2259.  
2260.  
2261.  
2262. <ul>
2263. <li>It will have a faster processor. There’s been speculation this could be an M4, but this seems counter-intuitive given that Macs only just made it to M3.</li>
2264.  
2265.  
2266.  
2267. <li>The 11-in. and 12.9-in. models get a 120Hz ProMotion OLED display. This is next-generation OLED tech said to promise higher brightness, deeper blacks, and higher contrast ratios. It might be described as the “best OLED display” you can get. </li>
2268.  
2269.  
2270.  
2271. <li>Availability of the 11-in. model could be limited, <a href="https://twitter.com/dsccross/status/1782877501930562041?s=61&t=OXxhWywKABRa90NOlB30kw">according to</a> display analyst Ross Young; both Pro devices should be thinner and with slimmer bezels than the current models.</li>
2272. </ul>
2273.  
2274.  
2275.  
2276. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">What we think we know about the new <strong>iPad Air</strong></h2>
2277.  
2278.  
2279.  
2280. <p>Apple’s also preparing a new iteration of my personal favorite, the iPad Air. Also equipped with a faster chip, the device will also be available in a larger 12.9-in. variant for the first time. The idea is for it to be a more budget-friendly large tablet for users who don’t need the Pro; it also means you can expect LCD displays, rather than OLED. The device will use an M2 chip rather than the current M1.</p>
2281.  
2282.  
2283.  
2284. <p>Neither the iPad nor iPad mini are expected to receive an update.</p>
2285.  
2286.  
2287.  
2288. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>A much smarter Apple Pencil</strong></h2>
2289.  
2290.  
2291.  
2292. <p>The expectations are that the new Apple Pencil will be a much smarter device. Built-in haptic feedback may deliver feedback that changes to reflect the medium — painting with oils will feel different than writing with a virtual pen. Claims are it will offer squeeze detection, erase, and support for Find My. (Apple published a clever online ad pre-launch that allowed visitors to its site to erase a colorful event logo posted there, so an erase function (likely enabled by a squeeze gesture) seems inevitable. </p>
2293.  
2294.  
2295.  
2296. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>One more thing</strong></h2>
2297.  
2298.  
2299.  
2300. <p>Given recent market rumors claiming Apple scaled back Vision Pro production, it seems possible that device will be <a href="https://www.applemust.com/apple-already-sells-ai-laptops-they-just-need-an-os-upgrade/">introduced in additional countries</a> now that the company has the stock it needs to furnish anticipated demand. </p>
2301.  
2302.  
2303.  
2304. <p><em>Please follow me on <a href="https://social.vivaldi.net/@jonnyevans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mastodon</a>, or join me in the <a href="https://mewe.com/join/appleholics_bar_and_grill" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AppleHolic’s bar & grill</a> and </em><a href="https://mewe.com/join/apple_discussions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Apple</em> <em>Discussions</em></a><em> groups on MeWe.</em></p>
2305. </div></div></div><category>Apple, iPad, Tablets</category></div>]]></description>
2306. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2098241/with-its-new-ipad-apples-empire-strikes-back.html</link>
2307. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2098241</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/carles-rabada-NXP7wGyUDeY-unsplash.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="1937086" type="image/jpeg" />
2308. </item>
2309. <item>
2310. <title>Can AI tools help reduce Zoom fatigue?</title>
2311. <pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2024 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
2312. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
2313. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
2314.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
2315. <div class="article-column__content">
2316. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
2317.  
2318.  
2319.  
2320. <p>I’m lucky. On average, I’m only on videoconference calls for about five hours a week. I have friends and colleagues who burn that many hours on camera every day!</p>
2321.  
2322.  
2323.  
2324. <p>I’ve been videoconferencing since the 1990s — when you needed a dedicated ISDN line and a $1,000 worth of audio-video gear to make it happen. Today, you open up your laptop and you’re ready to go, even if you’re in a McDonald’s. Back then, when it worked, it was exciting. Today…, not so much.</p>
2325.  
2326.  
2327.  
2328. <p>Though most people call it Zoom fatigue, you’ll find it on any videoconferencing platform. Another name for the same effect is MEGO, short for “My Eyes Glaze Over.”  You know how it goes. A combination of boredom, conversation drift, and a lack of meeting focus, and soon you’re as snoozy as grandpa after a big lunch.</p>
2329.  
2330.  
2331.  
2332. <p>Zoom and its rivals know all about this phenomenon. And lately, they’ve been trying to make meetings more lively and productive by combining visual tricks and AI. </p>
2333.  
2334.  
2335.  
2336. <p>The visual games have been with us for a while. Who could forget the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGOofzZOyl8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">I’m Not a Cat!</a>” meme when a misused filter made a lawyer appear as a white kitten with gray markings and large eyes during a civil forfeiture hearing on Zoom in February 2021? </p>
2337.  
2338.  
2339.  
2340. <p>Now, this kind of thing — for better or worse — has gotten more advanced. Apple Vision Pro users, for example, can now <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1611907/meetings-are-about-to-get-weird.html">use CGI avatars (Personas) in Zoom meetings</a>. Personas, you can remove the backgrounds of your meeting participants and “pin” their real-time avatars in your physical workspace. (I have no doubt that those avatars will soon be able to move around in your augmented reality space.)</p>
2341.  
2342.  
2343.  
2344. <p>I consider that more fun than practical for business meetings. But I can see how  <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1611712/microsoft-launches-mesh-3d-meetings-for-teams.html">Microsoft’s Mesh, when used with Microsoft Teams and spatial audio</a>, could be useful by allowing avatars to “step away” from the main meeting for private conversations.</p>
2345.  
2346.  
2347.  
2348. <p>Another meeting technology I could see seriously taking off involves having your avatar, but not you, attend a meeting. Thanks to the <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/09/21/announcing-microsoft-365-copilot-general-availability-and-microsoft-365-chat/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft 365 Copilot chatbot</a> and <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1634083/googles-duet-ai-now-available-for-workspace-enterprise-customers.html">Google’s Duet AI for Workspace</a>, we can already get meeting minutes from gatherings we didn’t actually attend. Why not make it “appear” that we’re there while we’re actually ordering a Big Mac? </p>
2349.  
2350.  
2351.  
2352. <p>Other tools, such as <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2093454/zoom-launches-workplace-an-ai-enabled-collaboration-space.html">Zoom’s AI Companion</a>, are already making meetings more productive by presenting meeting summaries, identifying action items, and prompting people to share the next steps. Personally, I’ve been doing this for a while by running <a href="http://otter.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Otter.AI</a>, my voice transcription program of choice, manually with videoconferencing programs. Today, <a href="https://otter.ai/zoom" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Otter AI Assistant for Zoom Meetings</a> can do this on auto-pilot. </p>
2353.  
2354.  
2355.  
2356. <p>All that’s neat and nifty, but I remain unconvinced they’ll help much. For example, if I had my avatar record a meeting to boil it down to what I needed to know and act on, why wasn’t it an e-mail in the first place? </p>
2357.  
2358.  
2359.  
2360. <p>Sure, if there’s a conversation — that’s different. But there’s no talk going on if our meetings are mostly attended by avatars. So what’s the point?</p>
2361.  
2362.  
2363.  
2364. <p>Avatars and AI aren’t really going to make videoconferencing meetings more productive. While they can be fun and helpful, they don’t address the real reasons so many meetings are deadly dull. </p>
2365.  
2366.  
2367.  
2368. <p>As my friend Alfred Poor (he’s my video meeting advisor and founder of <a href="https://the75percent.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The 75% Solution</a>), told me, “I firmly believe that there is no such thing as ‘Zoom Fatigue.’ Instead, I believe that people are observing ‘Bad Zoom Fatigue,’ which is not much different from ‘Bad Conference Room Meeting Fatigue’ that we’ve suffered from for generations. It’s just that the vast majority of Zoom (and Teams and Google Meet and webinars and all those other platforms) meetings are not prepared and executed with intention.”</p>
2369.  
2370.  
2371.  
2372. <p>Specifically, Poor believes you must properly organize “the meeting itself — ‘this meeting could have been an email’ — which requires analyzing the objectives along with the type and direction of information flow required to achieve those objectives.” </p>
2373.  
2374.  
2375.  
2376. <p>For example, if a meeting involves the boss simply telling people what’s what in the next quarter, it could just as well be a webinar rather than a videoconference. Or, if there’s a meeting to determine what will happen in the next quarter, it should involve only the people planning what’s what, not everyone and their assistant. Your aides-de-camp will be fine with meeting minutes and action items. </p>
2377.  
2378.  
2379.  
2380. <p>Yes, sometimes videoconferences are necessary and helpful. Yes, AI tools can make them more productive. And, yes, I, for one, would be happy to have a meeting where I was represented by an avatar of my dog Telly and my editor by his Lil Joe. That would be fun, at least once. But for videoconferences to really be useful, we need organization and planning, not technical tricks. </p>
2381. </div></div></div><category>Augmented Reality, Collaboration Software, Generative AI, Productivity Software, Videoconferencing, Zoom Video Communications</category></div>]]></description>
2382. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2097975/can-ai-tools-help-reduce-zoom-fatigue.html</link>
2383. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2097975</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cio_cw_stress_headache_frustration_overwhelmed_by_peopleimages_gettyimages-854972754_2400x1600-100802370-orig-1.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="456248" type="image/jpeg" />
2384. </item>
2385. <item>
2386. <title>Apple earnings: About that iPhone ‘slump’ in China</title>
2387. <pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2024 16:23:55 +0000</pubDate>
2388. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
2389. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
2390.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
2391. <div class="article-column__content">
2392. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
2393.  
2394.  
2395.  
2396. <p>If he hasn’t already, it’s past time for Apple CEO Tim Cook to gain a reputation for dry wit when it comes to handling preconceived opinion — he ladled out several helpings of this during Apple’s second-quarter fiscal call on Thursday. Though the company’s financials were down, they were still ahead of what Wall Street had anticipated. </p>
2397.  
2398.  
2399.  
2400. <p>Revenue for the quarter was $90.8 billion, down 4% from the same quarter last year, but Apple’s gross margins increased to 46.6%, mainly on the strength of solid services increases.</p>
2401.  
2402.  
2403.  
2404. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Cook states the facts </strong></h2>
2405.  
2406.  
2407.  
2408. <p>For me, one of his best lines during the presentation was captured in this exchange during analyst questions:</p>
2409.  
2410.  
2411.  
2412. <p><em><strong>Wells Fargo analyst: </strong> “I guess I’m going to go back to the China question. I guess at a high level, the simple question is, when we look at the data points that have been repeatedly reported throughout the course of this quarter, I’m curious, Tim, what are we missing? Where do you think people are missing Apple’s iPhone traction within the Chinese market?”</em></p>
2413.  
2414.  
2415.  
2416. <p><em><strong>Tim Cook: </strong>“I can’t address the data points. I can only address what our results are. And we did accelerate last quarter and the iPhone grew in mainland China. So that’s what the results were. I can’t bridge to numbers we didn’t come up with.”</em></p>
2417.  
2418.  
2419.  
2420. <p><strong>Translation: </strong>The analyst is confused because <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2091646/apples-iphone-slumps-as-consumers-wait-for-ai.html">all the industry data points</a> (IDC, Counterpoint, Gartner, Ming Chi Kuo) seem to have been inaccurate. Cook simply dismisses those estimates with the company’s actual results.</p>
2421.  
2422.  
2423.  
2424. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What happened in China?</strong></h2>
2425.  
2426.  
2427.  
2428. <p>What’s confusing here is that the company’s management report confirms weak iPhone sales in every segment — but in part this reflects one of those “difficult comparisons” the company likes to state. </p>
2429.  
2430.  
2431.  
2432. <p>Think back to this time last year, when Apple was just emerging from what had been a very difficult time operationally. In the run up to this quarter a year ago, COVID-19 had closed the iPhone factories, meaning lots of smartphones weren’t being made, and <a href="https://www.applemust.com/apples-iphone-sees-recovery-in-china-strength-in-india/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">order fulfillment was delayed</a>. Apple told us then that it realized about $5 billion in iPhones sales in the quarter that would have been made in the preceding one. </p>
2433.  
2434.  
2435.  
2436. <p>That’s not the case this year. “If you remove that $5 billion from last year’s results, we would have grown this quarter on a year-over-year basis,” Cook said. “And so that’s how we look at it internally from how the company is performing.” </p>
2437.  
2438.  
2439.  
2440. <p>If that’s true, it explains why Apple doesn’t seem especially concerned that its iPhone sales internationally did decline by 10% in revenue in the quarter. After all, the iPhone was the top-selling smartphone model in the US, urban China, Australia, UK, France, Germany, and Japan. The device also achieved 99% customer satisfaction according to Changewave.</p>
2441.  
2442.  
2443.  
2444. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Managing change</strong></h2>
2445.  
2446.  
2447.  
2448. <p>Even though Cook told us that iPhone sales grew in China, both the <em>Wall Street Journal </em>and <em>Nikkei</em> insist sales fell there. In fact, the two best-selling smartphones in mainland China during the quarter were the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro Max, Apple confirmed during the presentation. </p>
2449.  
2450.  
2451.  
2452. <p>Apple did concede that it has work to do on its other products, and iPhone sales were down in contrast to this time last year. Weakness was felt across multiple markets, and with the iPhone Apple’s biggest product, the impact of this and softening iPad sales contributed to revenue decline.</p>
2453.  
2454.  
2455.  
2456. <p>What is interesting is that in Japan and elsewhere in the APAC region, Apple sales seemed weak. That doesn’t mean there isn’t an appetite for the company’s products. Cook <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2093679/chasing-business-and-partnerships-apple-goes-apac.html">sees enthusiasm across the region</a>: “Everywhere I travel, people have such a great affinity for Apple, and it’s one of the many reasons I’m so optimistic about the future,” he said. He also expressed his confidence in the long-term Apple market in China.</p>
2457.  
2458.  
2459.  
2460. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What about enterprise use?</strong></h2>
2461.  
2462.  
2463.  
2464. <p>Apple made a handful of references to enterprise sales, the majority of which pertained to its latest device, the Vision Pro headset. The company reported that over half of the world’s Fortune 100 companies have already bought Vision Pro units to explore what the device can do for their business. </p>
2465.  
2466.  
2467.  
2468. <p>“We are seeing so many compelling use cases, from aircraft engine maintenance training at KLM to real-time team collaboration and immersive kitchen design at Lowes,” said Apple CFO Luca Maestri.</p>
2469.  
2470.  
2471.  
2472. <p>Apple also confirmed the ongoing rise of Macs in the enterprise. “More and more enterprise customers are embracing the Mac,” said Maestri.</p>
2473.  
2474.  
2475.  
2476. <p>In healthcare, Epic Systems, the world’s largest electronic medical record provider, recently launched its native app for the Mac, making it easier for healthcare organizations like Emory Help to transition thousands of PCs to the Mac for clinical use. “I think there’s a great opportunity for us around the world in enterprise,” said Cook.</p>
2477.  
2478.  
2479.  
2480. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>A note on Europe</strong></h2>
2481.  
2482.  
2483.  
2484. <p>Two points seemed interesting:</p>
2485.  
2486.  
2487.  
2488. <ul>
2489. <li>Apple anticipates solid services growth (which includes Europe) in the current quarter, despite the EU’s DMA act which is <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2097592/apple-confirms-it-will-open-up-the-ipad-in-europe-this-fall.html">forcing it to change its App Store business model</a>.</li>
2490.  
2491.  
2492.  
2493. <li>With those changes, Apple said it’s too early to tell whether consumers or developers will migrate outside the App Store; its focus for now is on complying with the EU law while “mitigating the impacts to user privacy and security” of doing so.</li>
2494. </ul>
2495.  
2496.  
2497.  
2498. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>One step beyond</strong></h2>
2499.  
2500.  
2501.  
2502. <p>Apple also discussed emerging markets. </p>
2503.  
2504.  
2505.  
2506. <p>Maestri: “…When we start looking at places like India, like Saudi, like Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia, the numbers are getting large. And we’re very happy because these are markets where our market share is low. The populations are large and growing. And our products are really making a lot of progress within those markets. The level of excitement for the brand is very high. So, it is very good for us.</p>
2507.  
2508.  
2509.  
2510. <p>“And then and certainly the numbers are getting larger all the time. And so the gap as you compare it to the numbers in China is reducing. And hopefully that trajectory continues for a long time.”</p>
2511.  
2512.  
2513.  
2514. <p>The takeaway from those statements tells me that, like any farmer, Apple is investing in future business growth and most certainly sees rapidly emerging markets as the bedrock for tomorrow’s success as mature markets atrophy.</p>
2515.  
2516.  
2517.  
2518. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What happens next?</strong></h2>
2519.  
2520.  
2521.  
2522. <p>Looking forward, Apple warned of low single-digit growth in the June quarter, with services predicted to continue to grow and the iPad to see double-digit growth. The company is expected to ship a new iPad as soon as next week. </p>
2523.  
2524.  
2525.  
2526. <p>That iPad may also introduce some new AI-driven tools, perhaps as a taster of what to expect at WWDC and their expected spread across the company’s products this fall. Discussing generative AI, Cook described it as a “very key” opportunity, stressed his confidence that the company has advantages to bring such tech to market, and promised “we will be talking more about it as we go through the weeks ahead”. So, <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2096725/apple-is-intensely-focused-on-its-global-ai-efforts.html">there’s a lot to look forward to</a>.</p>
2527.  
2528.  
2529.  
2530. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Apple’s data points</strong></h2>
2531.  
2532.  
2533.  
2534. <p>So, having established that there’s no data about Apple better than Apple’s own data, what data points did Apple share? You can review its <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/05/apple-reports-second-quarter-results/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">press release here</a> and financial statements <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/fy2024-q2/FY24_Q2_Consolidated_Financial_Statements.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a> and <a href="https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0000320193/ee662306-a551-4192-91d8-e9931452076e.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>. What follows are some details cherry-picked from within the company’s analyst call:</p>
2535.  
2536.  
2537.  
2538. <ul>
2539. <li>Apple reached revenue records in more than a dozen countries and regions, including in Latin America and the Middle East, as well as Canada, India, Spain, and Turkey.</li>
2540.  
2541.  
2542.  
2543. <li>It also achieved an all-time revenue record in Indonesia, “one of the many markets where we continue to see so much potential,” said Cook, who recently visited the nation.</li>
2544.  
2545.  
2546.  
2547. <li>Services hit an all-time revenue record, up 14% YoY at $23.9 billion. (It’s worth noting that recent data indicates Apple TV+ is the <a href="https://www.applemust.com/is-apple-tv-breaking-out-in-streaming-it-might-be/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fastest growing</a> streaming service in major markets.)</li>
2548.  
2549.  
2550.  
2551. <li>Mac sales by revenue grew 4% YoY. (Cook described the MacBook Air as “the best consumer laptop for AI”, which I take to mean “watch this space.”)</li>
2552.  
2553.  
2554.  
2555. <li>iPad revenue fell 17%, ahead of next week’s expected refresh.</li>
2556.  
2557.  
2558.  
2559. <li>Wearables, home, and accessory sales fell 10%.</li>
2560.  
2561.  
2562.  
2563. <li>Apple nodded toward CSR, confirming its plan to be completely carbon neutral across its business by 2030 and celebrating that it has reduced overall emissions by over 50% even while revenue (and therefore sales) increased 65% since 2015.</li>
2564.  
2565.  
2566.  
2567. <li>Apple expects gross margins in the June quarter of 45.5% to 46.5% (which is really high, even for Apple).</li>
2568.  
2569.  
2570.  
2571. <li>Apple predicts single-digit growth in comparison to last year in the upcoming June quarter. In 2023, it booked $81.8 billion in revenue for that period.</li>
2572.  
2573.  
2574.  
2575. <li>If you own Apple shares, you’ll get 25 cents per share on May 16.</li>
2576. </ul>
2577.  
2578.  
2579.  
2580. <p><em>Please follow me on <a href="https://social.vivaldi.net/@jonnyevans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mastodon</a>, or join me in the <a href="https://mewe.com/join/appleholics_bar_and_grill" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AppleHolic’s bar & grill</a> and </em><a href="https://mewe.com/join/apple_discussions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Apple</em> <em>Discussions</em></a><em> groups on MeWe.</em></p>
2581. </div></div></div><category>Apple, iMac, iPhone, Mobile</category></div>]]></description>
2582. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2097946/apple-earnings-about-that-iphone-slump-in-china.html</link>
2583. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2097946</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/shutterstock_editorial_115231372.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="10213109" type="image/jpeg" />
2584. </item>
2585. <item>
2586. <title>Microsoft begins to phase out ‘classic’ Teams</title>
2587. <pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2024 12:23:27 +0000</pubDate>
2588. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
2589. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
2590.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
2591. <div class="article-column__content">
2592. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
2593.  
2594.  
2595.  
2596. <p>Seven years after the launch of Teams, Microsoft has outlined plans to retire the initial, “classic” version of the <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1691412/microsoft-teams-its-features-how-it-compares-to-slack-and-other-rivals.html" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1691412/microsoft-teams-its-features-how-it-compares-to-slack-and-other-rivals.html">team chat app</a>. Support for Teams classic will end on July 1 and it will be discontinued a year later; atthat point, users will be unable to access the legacy client. </p>
2597.  
2598.  
2599.  
2600. <p>Microsoft released the new 2.1 version of Teams last October after several months in preview, claiming the new app is twice as fast and uses around 50% less memory than its predecessor. </p>
2601.  
2602.  
2603.  
2604. <p>The move represents the biggest change to the collaboration application since it arrived in 2017 to take on rival Slack. Since then, Teams has reached 320 million monthly users, according to recent data, having capitalized on the big uptick in video meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. That said, it hasn’t alwaysbeen well-liked by users.</p>
2605.  
2606.  
2607.  
2608. <p>While the two Teams versions have coexisted in recent months, Microsoft recently outlined its schedule to phase out classic Teams on its <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-classic-client-end-of-availability" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">admin site</a>. With the end of support coming,  no new features will be added going forward and Microsoft will cease to help customers resolve support issues. At this stage, customers will start to receive in-app messages informing them that their version of Teams is out of date. End of support was initially planned for March 31 before being pushed back.</p>
2609.  
2610.  
2611.  
2612. <p>Users will be unable to access or use the classic Teams as of July 1, 2025. Those using classic Teams on Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and macOS Sierra will see the end of availability occur earlier, on Oct. 23, 2024. </p>
2613.  
2614.  
2615.  
2616. <p>While there are advantages with the new version of Teams, some capabilities will disappear, too.  </p>
2617.  
2618.  
2619.  
2620. <p>Earlier this week, Microsoft outlined a host of changes that users might notice once they move to the new Teams. Some involve new ways to access existing tools, as well as several smaller features that will no longer be available: the activity tab in Teams chat, and Adaptive Card-based tabs in personal app tabs, for example.</p>
2621.  
2622.  
2623.  
2624. <p>The timeframe for retiring the classic Teams app seems abrupt, according to Raúl Castañón, senior research analyst at 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, and Microsoft appears to be pressuring customers to update to the new version. </p>
2625.  
2626.  
2627.  
2628. <p>“Some business might be slow to move to the new app because they may have planned to update at a later date, or because they might want to wait until Microsoft has worked out software bugs from the initial versions,” he said. </p>
2629.  
2630.  
2631.  
2632. <p>Classic Teams is one of several Microsoft products heading toward end of support. Windows 10 users will <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1611200/microsoft-to-offer-windows-10-extended-security-updates-to-business-and-individual-users.html">no long receive security or technical support</a> as of Oct.14, 2025, as Microsoft encourges users to migrate to Windows 11. Microsoft will also end support for <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2093653/microsoft-reminder-support-for-office-2016-and-2019-ends-next-year.html">Office 2016 and 2019 application suites</a>, and related productivity servers, on the same day.  </p>
2633. </div></div></div><category>Collaboration Software, Microsoft Teams, Productivity Software</category></div>]]></description>
2634. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2097880/microsoft-begins-to-phase-out-classic-teams.html</link>
2635. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2097880</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/dimitri-karastelev-1Y-hk45tyMs-unsplash.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="8204048" type="image/jpeg" />
2636. </item>
2637. <item>
2638. <title>Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall</title>
2639. <pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2024 17:26:38 +0000</pubDate>
2640. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
2641. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
2642.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
2643. <div class="article-column__content">
2644. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
2645.  
2646.  
2647.  
2648. <p>In the latest set of tweaks to bring itself into compliance with a <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2075606/apple-will-continue-to-enhance-its-dma-compliance.html">new European Union law</a>, Apple has confirmed significant changes to the deal <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1611678/as-apple-opens-the-app-store-a-little-in-eu-winners-and-losers-emerge.html">originally offered to developers</a> in the EU. Not only will it <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2096248/the-eu-has-decided-to-open-up-ipados.html">open up the iPad</a> in the same way as it is <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2092396/apple-sidles-into-sideloading-in-the-eu.html">opening up the iPhone in Europe</a>, but it is making significant changes to its Core Technology Fee that should benefit smaller developers.</p>
2649.  
2650.  
2651.  
2652. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Europe’s iPads will be opened up this fall</strong></h2>
2653.  
2654.  
2655.  
2656. <p>iPadOS will be opened up in Europe starting this fall, the company said in a <a href="http://developer.apple.com/news" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement on its developer website</a>. “This week, the European Commission designated iPadOS a gatekeeper platform under the Digital Markets Act,” Apple said. “Apple will bring our recent iOS changes for apps in the European Union (EU) to iPadOS later this fall, as required. Developers can choose to adopt the Alternative Business Terms for Apps in the EU that will include these additional capabilities and options on iPadOS or stay on Apple’s existing terms.”</p>
2657.  
2658.  
2659.  
2660. <p>Of course, once developers do choose to adopt Apple’s alternative terms, they can become liable to pay the company a Core Technology Fee (CTF). </p>
2661.  
2662.  
2663.  
2664. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Improvement to the CTF</strong></h2>
2665.  
2666.  
2667.  
2668. <p>The fee is designed to compensate Apple for the value it provides developers in terms of tools, tech, and services. There is good news for developers here in that Apple won’t double charge for this, which means users who install the same app on both iOS and iPadOS within a 12-month period will only generate one first annual install for that app. </p>
2669.  
2670.  
2671.  
2672. <p>While company critics continue to castigate this so-called “Apple Tax”, the company points out that under current data over 99% of developers in the EU will not be liable to any kind of CTF fee. Which rather implies that the 1% of developers who do pay the fee are able to make the most noise because they can afford the best marketing.</p>
2673.  
2674.  
2675.  
2676. <p>But let’s not dwell on that. Instead, let’s look at two additional changes the company has made to its approach. The first change is quite significant. </p>
2677.  
2678.  
2679.  
2680. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Helping sudden success</strong></h2>
2681.  
2682.  
2683.  
2684. <p>When Apple’s teams appeared in front of what seemed to be an EU kangaroo court to explain how it was approaching the DMA, one question from one developer rang true. That person spoke about how an app they made had become hugely successful overnight and explained that under Apple’s originally proposed CTF deal he would have been bankrupted by the fees at that time. Apple <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1612383/apple-tweaks-its-dma-compliance-strategy-in-europe.html">responded pretty quickly</a> with a range of tweaks.</p>
2685.  
2686.  
2687.  
2688. <p>At first, it introduced a new loophole developers in that situation could use to return to the original terms of business, which I saw as a kind of lifeboat. Today, it introduced a new tweak I think serve to blunt the pain of unexpected success:</p>
2689.  
2690.  
2691.  
2692. <p>As of now, small developers generating under €10 million in global annual business revenue that adopt the alternative business terms receive a three-year free on-ramp to the CTF to help them create innovative apps and rapidly grow business.</p>
2693.  
2694.  
2695.  
2696. <p>What that means is that within those three years, if a developer who has not previously exceeded one million first annual installs crosses the threshold for the first time, they won’t pay the CTF — even if they continue to exceed one million first annual installs during that time. “If a small developer grows to earn global revenue between €10 million and €50 million within the 3-year on-ramp period, they’ll start to pay the CTF after one million first annual installs up to a cap of €1 million per year.”</p>
2697.  
2698.  
2699.  
2700. <p>This sounds incredibly complicated, but basically means that if you are a small developer and happen to introduce an app that generates millions of installs they will not need to pay a fee until they scale their business so they can afford to do so. </p>
2701.  
2702.  
2703.  
2704. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="no-revenue-no-fee">No revenue? No fee</h2>
2705.  
2706.  
2707.  
2708. <p>Obviously, this doesn’t apply to those wealthy developers whose business has already scaled in that way — rightly, they still need to shoulder the burden to help nurture new dev talent. The one big caveat is that the developer must declare their revenue before their first app surpasses one million first annual installs in order to receive these benefits. Leave it too late and you’ll have missed the chance.</p>
2709.  
2710.  
2711.  
2712. <p>The other improvement is that developers who create free apps won’t suddenly be bankrupted because millions download the app. Apple explains: </p>
2713.  
2714.  
2715.  
2716. <p>“No CTF is required if a developer has no revenue whatsoever. This includes creating a free app without monetization that is not related to revenue of any kind (physical, digital, advertising, or otherwise). This condition is intended to give students, hobbyists, and other non-commercial developers an opportunity to create a popular app without paying the CTF.”</p>
2717.  
2718.  
2719.  
2720. <p>It is also important to point out something else. Only developers who achieve over one million first annual installs per year in the EU need to pay Apple’s Core Technology Fee. Not only that, but non-profit organizations, government entitles, and educational institutions approved for a fee waiver don’t pay it at all.</p>
2721.  
2722.  
2723.  
2724. <p>While Apple’s well-resourced critics will continue to attack the company’s approach, it’s hard to avoid the feeling that the company is making it crystal clear that it is not now (and probably never was) the small developers who propped up App Store profits, but the large developers now making the loudest complaints.</p>
2725.  
2726.  
2727.  
2728. <p>And that seems to me to be <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1634967/epic-vs-apple-is-not-about-freedom.html">food for thought</a>. I doubt those larger entities have any plans to give their apps away for free. Why should Apple be made to do so?</p>
2729.  
2730.  
2731.  
2732. <p><em>Please follow me on <a href="https://social.vivaldi.net/@jonnyevans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mastodon</a>, or join me in the <a href="https://mewe.com/join/appleholics_bar_and_grill" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AppleHolic’s bar & grill</a> and </em><a href="https://mewe.com/join/apple_discussions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Apple</em> <em>Discussions</em></a><em> groups on MeWe.</em></p>
2733. </div></div></div><category>Apple, iOS, iPad, Mobile, Mobile Apps</category></div>]]></description>
2734. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2097592/apple-confirms-it-will-open-up-the-ipad-in-europe-this-fall.html</link>
2735. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2097592</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/shutterstock_editorial_1792989253.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="1052723" type="image/jpeg" />
2736. </item>
2737. <item>
2738. <title>Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days</title>
2739. <pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2024 15:44:28 +0000</pubDate>
2740. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
2741. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
2742.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
2743. <div class="article-column__content">
2744. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
2745.  
2746.  
2747.  
2748. <p>Citing the surge in layoffs nationwide, <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1617283/tech-layoffs-in-2023-a-timeline.html" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1617283/tech-layoffs-in-2023-a-timeline.html">particularly within the IT workforce</a>, online technology learning platform Udacity is offering a free trial to access its entire catalogue of courses for the next 30 days. The courses includes certifications in skills such as programming, data science, artificial intelligence, digital marketing.</p>
2749.  
2750.  
2751.  
2752. <p>“Layoffs have affected hundreds of thousands of people in the United States in the past year,”  Udacity COO Victoria Papalian wrote in <a href="https://www.udacity.com/blog/2024/04/udacity-offers-laid-off-u-s-workers-free-access-to-full-catalog.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a blog post</a>. “Unfortunately, the unsettling trend continues. According to <a href="https://www.challengergray.com/blog/job-cuts-jump-in-march-2024-to-highest-total-since-january-2023-on-government-tech/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the Challenger Report</a>, US job cuts in March 2024 were the highest since January 2023, up 7% over February.”</p>
2753.  
2754.  
2755.  
2756. <p><a href="https://www.udacity.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Udacity</a>, which was founded as the outgrowth of free computer science classes offered in 2011 through <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stanford University</a>, said its free courses are part of its <a href="https://www.udacity.com/blog/2016/07/nanodegree-101.html" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.udacity.com/blog/2016/07/nanodegree-101.html">“Nanodegree” credential program</a>. They’re available to anyone laid off over the past year.</p>
2757.  
2758.  
2759.  
2760. <p>In its announcement, the company placed a particular emphasis on highly desired industry skills, such as generative artificial intelligence (genAI). According to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733323001828" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a recent study</a> led by the Oxford Internet Institute, “AI skills are particularly valuable as they have high levels of skill complementarity, increasing worker wages by 21% on average,” the company said in a statement.</p>
2761.  
2762.  
2763.  
2764. <p>“To capitalize on the [genAI] opportunity — for business as well as individual benefit — learning about various genAI techniques is not sufficient; professionals must be inspired by the many use cases for genAI in the business, and must gain experience in putting that knowledge into practice within organizational contexts,” Papalian said.</p>
2765.  
2766.  
2767.  
2768. <figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
2769. <iframe loading="lazy" title="Why tech workers are struggling to find jobs | Ep. 149" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QE_9Cbs2lEg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
2770. </div></figure>
2771.  
2772.  
2773.  
2774. <p>Online instructors include educators from various tech companies, such as Advocate Networks, Cape Analytics, DeepMind, LanceDB, Meta, NVIDIA,  SoFi, and UC Berkeley, as well as Udacity’s own instructors. The topics covered include AI, data science, analytics, project management, digital marketing, cloud computing, web development, and mobile development, as well as genAI for business leaders.</p>
2775.  
2776.  
2777.  
2778. <p>Students studying genAI will also have the opportunity to complete projects modeled on the realworld tasks and challenges in professional contexts.</p>
2779.  
2780.  
2781.  
2782. <p>The free courses are available for all levels of IT experience and take about 4 weeks to complete during an average of 10 hours a week. These are examples of some of the courses being offered:</p>
2783.  
2784.  
2785.  
2786. <ul>
2787. <li>Introduction to Python (Beginner)</li>
2788.  
2789.  
2790.  
2791. <li>Introduction to SQL (Beginner)</li>
2792.  
2793.  
2794.  
2795. <li>Digital Project Management (Beginner)</li>
2796.  
2797.  
2798.  
2799. <li>Generative AI Fundamentals (Intermediate)</li>
2800.  
2801.  
2802.  
2803. <li>Intro to Data Science (Advanced)</li>
2804. </ul>
2805.  
2806.  
2807.  
2808. <p>Students who can spend 20 hours a week learning can complete the following courses in 60 days:</p>
2809.  
2810.  
2811.  
2812. <ul>
2813. <li>Business Analytics Nanodegree program (Beginner)</li>
2814.  
2815.  
2816.  
2817. <li>AI Programming with Python Nanodegree program (Beginner)</li>
2818.  
2819.  
2820.  
2821. <li>Programming for Data Science with Python Nanodegree program (Beginner)</li>
2822.  
2823.  
2824.  
2825. <li>AI for Business Leaders Nanodegree program (Intermediate)</li>
2826.  
2827.  
2828.  
2829. <li>AWS Cloud Architect Nanodegree program (Advanced)</li>
2830. </ul>
2831.  
2832.  
2833.  
2834. <p>By spending 40 hours a week, the following Nanodegree programs that typically take four months to complete can be finished in a month:</p>
2835.  
2836.  
2837.  
2838. <ul>
2839. <li>Introduction to Programming Nanodegree program (Beginner)</li>
2840.  
2841.  
2842.  
2843. <li>Digital Marketing Nanodegree program (Intermediate)</li>
2844.  
2845.  
2846.  
2847. <li>Generative AI Nanodegree program (Intermediate)</li>
2848.  
2849.  
2850.  
2851. <li>AI for Trading Nanodegree program (Advanced)</li>
2852.  
2853.  
2854.  
2855. <li>Data Scientist Nanodegree program (Advanced)</li>
2856. </ul>
2857.  
2858.  
2859.  
2860. <p>Udacity students will also have the opportunity to receive feedback on their projects from mentors. The program, including all of Udacity’s tech projects, is now available to <a href="https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.udacity.com%2Fblog%2F2023%2F09%2Fall-access.html&data=05%7C02%7Clucas_mearian%40foundryco.com%7C958ce86e66e0467d97cc08dc12f3889f%7C6b18947b63e74323b637418f02655a69%7C0%7C0%7C638406084429740693%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=FE214EXej5Tc%2BU86OAI21pIOPc2rRfvvfzdQ00wqjD0%3D&reserved=0">All Access subscribers</a>.</p>
2861.  
2862.  
2863.  
2864. <p>“The experience of being laid off is stressful to say the least. And the subsequent job hunt is often no less stressful,” Papalian said. “Knowledge and training are critical to capturing the opportunities.”</p>
2865. </div></div></div><category>Education and Training Software, IT Jobs, IT Skills, Technology Industry</category></div>]]></description>
2866. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2097122/udacity-offers-laid-off-us-workers-free-access-to-its-courses-for-30-days.html</link>
2867. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2097122</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/female_student_education-100944888-orig-1.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="70440" type="image/jpeg" />
2868. </item>
2869. <item>
2870. <title>Why you’ll soon have a digital clone of your own</title>
2871. <pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2024 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
2872. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
2873. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
2874.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
2875. <div class="article-column__content">
2876. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
2877.  
2878.  
2879.  
2880. <p>Some of the most influential influencers on social media sites aren’t people, but computer-generated digital creations. And soon digital “people” will be commonplace in business. </p>
2881.  
2882.  
2883.  
2884. <p>In the past, fabricated fake folks were built the old-fashioned way — using Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) AI technology (the process behind video deepfakes). Nowadays, phony friends are build using LLM-based genAI tools.</p>
2885.  
2886.  
2887.  
2888. <p>One early digital influencer on Instagram, named <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lilmiquela/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lil Miquela</a>, has been 19 years old since 2016, is worth millions of dollars and was named one of the 25 most influential people on the Internet back in 2018, despite not being a person.</p>
2889.  
2890.  
2891.  
2892. <p>Other computer-generated influencers include <a href="https://www.instagram.com/magazineluiza/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lu do Magalu</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/shudu.gram/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shudu Gram</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/imma.gram/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Imma</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/iongottlich/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ion Göttlich</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kda_music/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">K/DA</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bermudaisbae/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bermuda</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thalasya_/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Thalasya</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/fit_aitana/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aitana Lopez</a>.</p>
2893.  
2894.  
2895.  
2896. <p>To me, the most fascinating dimension to the digital influencer phenomenon is the reaction of the public. Followers who presumably know these influencers are computer-generated actually leave comments on their posts, addressing the non-person as if they were capable of reading and understanding comments. </p>
2897.  
2898.  
2899.  
2900. <p>It’s unsettling to think that these commenters don’t know they’re talking to a fake person, and also unsettling to think they <em>do</em> know — and comment anyway. Some commenters are themselves virtual influencers (no doubt playing the Instagram game of performative engagement on the accounts one wishes to steal followers from).</p>
2901.  
2902.  
2903.  
2904. <p>This is a clue to the future: A huge chunk of the public appears to be indifferent to whether the person who is “influencing” them is real or fake. </p>
2905.  
2906.  
2907.  
2908. <p>Taking a cue from online AI influencers, businesses are starting to look at creating humans from scratch —or cloning existing humans in digital form. </p>
2909.  
2910.  
2911.  
2912. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The avatar age</strong></h2>
2913.  
2914.  
2915.  
2916. <p>While non-existent social media influencers gain millions of followers, Silicon Valley’s heaviest hitters are hard at work to perfect virtual humans for business users. </p>
2917.  
2918.  
2919.  
2920. <p>Of course, Apple, Microsoft and Meta are making huge strides with <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1611907/meetings-are-about-to-get-weird.html">real-time avatars for communication</a>. </p>
2921.  
2922.  
2923.  
2924. <p>Meta’s most advanced tech — still in the lab — was demonstrated last year in an <a href="https://twitter.com/lexfridman/status/1707453830344868204" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">amazing video conversation between Lex Fridman and Mark Zuckerberg</a>. </p>
2925.  
2926.  
2927.  
2928. <p>These technologies are being employed for real-time communication. Replacing video, a 3D representation of you copies your mouth movements to match your actual voice, as well as facial expressions and body language for real-time, live communication. </p>
2929.  
2930.  
2931.  
2932. <p>But another way to use these life-like puppets is to feed them a script, and let a computer-generated voice determine the mouth movements and all the rest. </p>
2933.  
2934.  
2935.  
2936. <p>TikTok is already developing an AI-powered feature <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/tiktok-considers-virtual-influencers-court-brands-and-they-re-not-only-ones" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">enabling virtual influencers to appear in video advertising</a> on the platform. And Microsoft recently talked up an <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/vasa-1/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AI system called VASA-</a>1, which can make what is basically a deepfake video, all from a single photograph and an audio clip. </p>
2937.  
2938.  
2939.  
2940. <p>Microsoft says it won’t release the technology to the public, citing concern about possible misuse, but the technology’s existence suggests a future where people will be able to create versions of themselves (or others) via free smartphone apps. </p>
2941.  
2942.  
2943.  
2944. <p>In fact, a company called <a href="https://www.synthesia.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Synthesia</a> (backed by Nvidia) offers 160 canned AI humans, listed on a menu from which customers can choose. Users write the script (or use Synthesia’s ChatGPT-based tool to auto-create the script), then the avatar “reads” the script using natural looking mouth movements, gestures and facial expressions. The result is a polished presentation in any of 130 languages, and the final presentation is user-editable.</p>
2945.  
2946.  
2947.  
2948. <p>Why do this? For starters, Synthesia claims its product cuts video presentation creation time by 90% and dramatically reduces cost. And, of course, the multi-language feature is fantastic for companies with global reach.</p>
2949.  
2950.  
2951.  
2952. <p>Now, Synthesia is working on technology designed to turn users into avatars — full-body digital clones that are hard to tell from the real person. </p>
2953.  
2954.  
2955.  
2956. <p>It starts with a full-body scan. From that point forward, the user has possession of a photorealistic digital double who can do all the presentations and other video content that would normally be done personally. The AI clone takes emotive cues from the words in the script, smiling during light moments, looking appropriately sad delivering bad news. The ability to convey non-verbal communication naturally is the result of Synthesia’s Express-1 AI model, which itself was trained using professional actors. </p>
2957.  
2958.  
2959.  
2960. <p>The benefit here is that you can give high-quality video presentations without a camera or a microphone — you can build it from an airplane or the beach. Plus, you speak 130 languages and never age. </p>
2961.  
2962.  
2963.  
2964. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>When your clone gets an AI brain</strong></h2>
2965.  
2966.  
2967.  
2968. <p>But far more interesting than an avatar that looks and acts like you is one that thinks and communicates like you — a virtual you with an AI brain for interacting with others on your behalf. </p>
2969.  
2970.  
2971.  
2972. <p>Meta is working on tech called “<a href="https://en.softonic.com/articles/avatar-ai-of-influencers-on-instagram-meta-is-working-on-it" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Creator A.I.</a>” that will enable real Instagram influencers to create fake digital AI versions of themselves to interact with fans through direct messages and comments. That initiative is a glimpse of the near future of business communication. </p>
2973.  
2974.  
2975.  
2976. <p>We’ve been talking about “digital transformation” for a decade. But it’s only recently when that transformation involved digitizing ourselves. </p>
2977.  
2978.  
2979.  
2980. <p>Businesses are now looking to embrace the concept of digital avatars for all the same reasons as other digital transformation initiatives: Higher productivity and lower costs. This process involves the cloning of existing people. </p>
2981.  
2982.  
2983.  
2984. <p>Any day now, an industry will emerge where your face and body are scanned, your voice is recorded and your communications are fed into the system, so it knows how you use words. From that point, a virtual version of you can leave high-resolution video messages from a simple command you give to your AI glasses. </p>
2985.  
2986.  
2987.  
2988. <p>In other words, you say: “Send Janet a message and let her know I’ll be late.” Then Janet receives a video of “you” telling her you’ll be late. When she asks where you are now, the digital video you will tell her based on your current location. When she tells the digital you that she can’t meet late today, and that we should schedule it for another time, the video you says: “Ok, no problem. How about tomorrow, same time?” You get a notification and, after your approval, the meeting is rescheduled on your calendar. </p>
2989.  
2990.  
2991.  
2992. <p>Likewise, when someone tries to video call you and you don’t answer, the virtual you can take your place and try to handle whatever business comes via the call.</p>
2993.  
2994.  
2995.  
2996. <p>Within a few short years, this technology will advance to the point where nobody can be sure whether they’re doing a video call with you or your AI clone. </p>
2997.  
2998.  
2999.  
3000. <p>Presentations, pitches, training and other forms of communication you’d normally be recorded doing will be created in far less time by simply uploading a script or even a cryptic, brief set of instructions or descriptions of what your digital self is supposed to communicate. And then the AI can create a solid, appealing, polished presentation delivered by you or, rather, your clone.</p>
3001.  
3002.  
3003.  
3004. <p>Whether the ubiquity of AI clones in business sounds creepy or exciting, I can tell you that it’s absolutely going to happen. </p>
3005.  
3006.  
3007.  
3008. <p>The embrace of virtual humans in a business context — as weird as that is — should be approached like any other major digital initiative: Define the strategy, identify specific needs, evaluate and select the right technologies and providers, estimate ROI, focus on data privacy and regulatory compliance and all the rest.</p>
3009.  
3010.  
3011.  
3012. <p>If you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t worry. Help is on the way. Soon you’ll have a clone of your own.</p>
3013. </div></div></div><category>Augmented Reality, Emerging Technology, Generative AI, Virtual Reality</category></div>]]></description>
3014. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2097112/why-youll-soon-have-a-digital-clone-of-your-own.html</link>
3015. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2097112</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/unknown-100958439-orig.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="471423" type="image/jpeg" />
3016. </item>
3017. <item>
3018. <title>Workers with these AI skills are getting cash premiums</title>
3019. <pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2024 18:02:40 +0000</pubDate>
3020. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
3021. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
3022.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
3023. <div class="article-column__content">
3024. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
3025.  
3026.  
3027.  
3028. <p>As companies are scramble to get ahead in the artificial intelligence (AI) arms race, one problem the face is finding and retaining AI talent.</p>
3029.  
3030.  
3031.  
3032. <p>For example, <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/meta-joins-the-ai-talent-war-with-quick-offers-emails-from-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Meta has been extending job offers</a> to candidates with AI experience without even interviewing them, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg went so far as to email researchers at Google’s DeepMind unit to recruit talent.</p>
3033.  
3034.  
3035.  
3036. <p>According to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733323001828" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733323001828" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a recent study</a> led by the Oxford Internet Institute, “AI skills are particularly valuable as they have high levels of skill complementarity, increasing worker wages by 21% on average.”</p>
3037.  
3038.  
3039.  
3040. <p>Foote Partners, a consulting and research firm, recently published its latest <a href="https://footepartners.com/collections/pay-index/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">IT skills and pay index</a>, which found, not surprisingly, that companies are paying premiums for workers with AI-related abilities.</p>
3041.  
3042.  
3043.  
3044. <p>Foote Partners recognizes 47 “critical A.I. skills,” and on average, employees who obtain those skills get a pay premium of 7% to 21%. Those premiums can come in different  forms, including bonuses and cash compensation.</p>
3045.  
3046.  
3047.  
3048. <p>“This is cash paid out, not as a salary increase but in addition to salary,” said David Foote, chief analyst at Foote Partners. “In fact, 28 of these core AI skills can add between 15% and 21% in pay, well above the 9.6% average premium across all 632 non-certified skills we report. They are very hot right now.”</p>
3049.  
3050.  
3051.  
3052. <p>Cash premiums for skills such as AI chatbot app developer and <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1627101/what-are-large-language-models-and-how-are-they-used-in-generative-ai.html">large language model</a> (LLM) tuning are paid out separately from salaries so that as needs are met and the value of those talents declines, the payouts can be reduced or eliminated.</p>
3053.  
3054.  
3055.  
3056. <p>“Perhaps the main difference with skills pay is, unlike a bonus, skills pay premiums are typically paid out at every pay period —  same as salary — instead of a lump sum at the end of year, which is more common with bonuses,” Foote said.</p>
3057.  
3058.  
3059.  
3060. <p>In addition, more than a dozen AI-related certifications “are showing real market value strength,” he said. Those skills include <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1620842/how-to-train-your-chatbot-through-prompt-engineering.html">prompt engineering</a>, neural networks, AI engineer, AI scientist, and AI model optimization.</p>
3061.  
3062.  
3063.  
3064. <p>According to Foote, a Certified Artificial Intelligence Scientist earns the highest pay premium, ranging 8% to 12%, with the average being 10% of base salary equivalent,. The next highest cash pay premium in this cluster is for a Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate, who can earn 9% of base equivalent in skills premium pay.</p>
3065.  
3066.  
3067.  
3068. <p>Averaging 8% of base salary equivalent in skills pay premium are: SAS Certified Professional: AI and Machine Learning; IBM Certified Specialist — AI Enterprise Workflow V1; Artificial Intelligence Engineer (AIE – all tracks); and Google Professional Machine Learning Engineer certifications.</p>
3069.  
3070.  
3071.  
3072. <p>“We’ve been tracking some of these AI-related skills for many years, updating every 90 days,” Foote said. “Others have been recently added. So, given all the volatility in the marketplace for skills cash pay premiums, there have been remarkable changes over time ,including most recently.”</p>
3073.  
3074.  
3075.  
3076. <p>Foote Partner’s findings are echoed elsewhere. Freelance work platform Upwork, which recently published its <a href="https://www.upwork.com/press/releases/upwork-unveils-most-in-demand-work-skills-in-2024" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2024 list of most in-demand skills</a>, found that the rise of AI — especially generative AI in the last couple of years — has changed the top skills businesses seek from independent professionals. In particular, <a href="https://www.upwork.com/hire/generative-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">generative AI modeling</a>, <a href="https://www.upwork.com/hire/machine-learning-experts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">machine learning</a> and <a href="https://www.upwork.com/hire/data-analysts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data analytics</a> are the top three fastest-growing data science and analytics skills, as well as among the most in-demand skills.</p>
3077.  
3078.  
3079.  
3080. <p>“In particular, skills in key programming languages commonly used in the development of AI — Python, Java, and SQL — rank among the top five most sought-after skills on the technical side in the US,” Ya Xu, head of data and AI at LinkedIn, said in <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/engineerings-new-world-work-look-todays-most-in-demand-ya-xu-1mmee/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a blog post</a>.</p>
3081.  
3082.  
3083.  
3084. <p>Machine learning skills can command at least a 10% premium compared to the average tech worker, according to a <a href="https://www.dice.com/technologists/ebooks/tech-job-report/skills.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">survey conducted at the end of 2023</a> by tech staffing firm Dice. “But this is a fast-moving market where the demand is growing rapidly,” said Art Zeile, CEO of Dice. “I predict that this premium will only continue to grow as the gap between supply and demand for AI talent grows, and offering benefits such as continuous professional development and training will be key to retaining this top talent.”</p>
3085.  
3086.  
3087.  
3088. <p>A key differentiator in the job interview process now involves how a tech professional has upskilled themselves in the face of the growing demand for AI, Zeile noted.</p>
3089.  
3090.  
3091.  
3092. <p>“Now is the time to ensure that their skill sets encompass [LLM] theory and programming architecture, areas that may have been overlooked or haven’t been delved into fully,” he said. “Recruiters are looking for tech professionals who are quick on their feet and able to adapt to changes with agility and curiosity.”</p>
3093.  
3094.  
3095.  
3096. <p>In January 2023, AI or machine learning-related skill sets were referenced on <a href="https://www.dice.com/technologists/ebooks/guide-to-ai-jobs-career/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">9% of tech job postings.</a> Just over a year later, in February 2024, that figure had climbed to nearly 14% of all tech job postings, according to Zeile.</p>
3097.  
3098.  
3099.  
3100. <p>“As AI continues to evolve, its impact on organizations will be most prominent in <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/these-are-the-jobs-most-likely-to-be-taken-over-by-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">key departments</a> such as research and development, data analytics, and operations,” Zeile said.</p>
3101.  
3102.  
3103.  
3104. <p>To secure top AI talent in these areas, Zeile advised that companies:</p>
3105.  
3106.  
3107.  
3108. <ul>
3109. <li>Invest in comprehensive recruiting strategies that show a full understanding of what a particular AI role actually requires — whether it’s machine learning, Python, or data science skills for tech jobs, or other content-centric skills such as copy writing and graphic design. </li>
3110.  
3111.  
3112.  
3113. <li>Establish competitive salaries and provide opportunities for professional growth and development. </li>
3114.  
3115.  
3116.  
3117. <li>Offer flexibility in the form of hybrid/remote work environments. Dice’s <strong><a href="https://www.dice.com/recruiting/ebooks/tech-sentiment-report/?utm_campaign=2023_technology_sentiment__report&utm_medium=press_release&utm_source=business_wire&utm_term=ungated_top_of_press_release&utm_content=link-to-content&Brand=dice" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2023 Tech Sentiment Report</a></strong> noted that remote work remains very important to tech professionals<strong>: </strong>73% of those surveyed said it is “extremely” or “very” important to have the opportunity to work remotely at least three days a week.</li>
3118. </ul>
3119.  
3120.  
3121.  
3122. <p>While Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft are among the top 15 companies hiring for AI talent right now, according to Dice, there are a variety of factors tech pros must consider determining if Big Tech is right for them.</p>
3123.  
3124.  
3125.  
3126. <p>“While these Big Tech companies offer many opportunities for individuals with AI skills, candidates should also consider startups and other industries that align with their career goals and work/life balance preferences that would also still give them the ability to learn and flex their AI muscles,” Zeile said.  “Ultimately, it is up to tech professionals to decide what companies most align with their values and what kind of industries they want to work in.”</p>
3127.  
3128.  
3129.  
3130. <p>Startups, Zeille said, often provide more room for innovation and growth, but may have less rigorous AI programs in place. At the same time, compensation at Big Tech companies might be higher, but work/life balance lower. Once a candidate has decided what is important to prioritize in their future role, they can job search accordingly. </p>
3131. </div></div></div><category>Generative AI, IT Jobs, IT Skills</category></div>]]></description>
3132. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2097040/workers-with-ai-skills-are-getting-these-pay-cash-premiums.html</link>
3133. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2097040</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/shutterstock_2148238949-3.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="25647887" type="image/jpeg" />
3134. </item>
3135. <item>
3136. <title>Atlassian Rovo brings AI smarts to enterprise search</title>
3137. <pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2024 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
3138. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
3139. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
3140.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
3141. <div class="article-column__content">
3142. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
3143.  
3144.  
3145.  
3146. <p>Atlassian has developed a new search tool  —  Atlassian  Rovo — that can surface data from a variety of third-party apps. Rovo, currently in preview, provides a chatbot interface to help workers access information across their organization,and even decipher workplace jargon. </p>
3147.  
3148.  
3149.  
3150. <p>“Atlassian Rovo is designed to unlock knowledge discovery and accelerate action across the organization,” said Jamil Valliani, head of product AI at Atlassian. “Think of Rovo as a large knowledge model for your company that allows team members to move and act faster.”</p>
3151.  
3152.  
3153.  
3154. <p>There are three key elements to Rovo: Search, Chat, and Agents. </p>
3155.  
3156.  
3157.  
3158. <p>Rovo Search expands on existing search functions in Atlassian apps, with the ability to access documents from a range of external sources in addition to data held in tools such as Jira and Confluence. This means surfacing information in third-party productivity tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Figma and GitHub, as well as file storage platforms such as Google Drive and Microsoft SharePoint.  </p>
3159.  
3160.  
3161. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Knowledge-Cards-.png?w=1024" alt="Atlassian Rovo knowledge cards" class="wp-image-2096804" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Knowledge-Cards-.png?quality=50&strip=all 1803w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Knowledge-Cards-.png?resize=300%2C146&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Knowledge-Cards-.png?resize=768%2C374&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Knowledge-Cards-.png?resize=1024%2C499&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Knowledge-Cards-.png?resize=1536%2C748&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Knowledge-Cards-.png?resize=1240%2C604&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Knowledge-Cards-.png?resize=150%2C73&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Knowledge-Cards-.png?resize=854%2C416&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Knowledge-Cards-.png?resize=640%2C312&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Knowledge-Cards-.png?resize=444%2C216&quality=50&strip=all 444w" width="1024" height="499" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>Atlassian Rovo can help surface information and answer questions about technical jargon based on access to coporate documents.</p>
3162. </figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">Atlassian</p></div>
3163.  
3164.  
3165.  
3166. <p>Atlassian also plans to let Rovo access data from in-house applications, including finance or HR apps.</p>
3167.  
3168.  
3169.  
3170. <p>One way to access Rovo search is via the search bar in various Atlassian apps. A list of search results containing related documents is presented, as well as more detailed “knowledge cards” that present information relating to a project, for instance, or a team. Here, the knowledge card might contain links to related files, as well as information on project status, listed contributors, and more.  </p>
3171.  
3172.  
3173.  
3174. <p>Rovo Search can also learn and explain unfamiliar jargon specific to an industry or individual business based on the organization’s documents. This enables Rovo to provide definitions for acronyms and terms that appear within a Confluence document, for exam-le. It’s proved to be a popular feature, Atlassian said, and is used by three-quarters of staff testing Rovo. </p>
3175.  
3176.  
3177.  
3178. <p>A semantic search function helps teams “connect with what they are looking for,” said Julie Mohr, principal analyst at Forrester, as well as “knowledge they didn’t know existed.” This helps employees “work the way they want to work with a comprehensive set of expressive tools — from video to pages, structured and unstructured, it is all knowledge,” she said. </p>
3179.  
3180.  
3181.  
3182. <p>Another way to search for information is via Rovo Chat. Similar to the conversational interfaces in Microsoft’s Copilot, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and others, the chatbot responds to user questions in natural language, with answers based on data held in documents across an organization. Links are provided to the original source.</p>
3183.  
3184.  
3185. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Chat.png?w=1024" alt="Atlassian Rovo Chat" class="wp-image-2096807" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Chat.png?quality=50&strip=all 1803w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Chat.png?resize=300%2C146&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Chat.png?resize=768%2C375&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Chat.png?resize=1024%2C500&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Chat.png?resize=1536%2C750&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Chat.png?resize=1240%2C605&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Chat.png?resize=150%2C73&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Chat.png?resize=854%2C417&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Chat.png?resize=640%2C312&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Chat.png?resize=444%2C217&quality=50&strip=all 444w" width="1024" height="500" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>Atlassian Rovo Chat uses genAI and a chatbot interface with natural language processing to deliver information to users.</p>
3186. </figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">Atlassian</p></div>
3187.  
3188.  
3189.  
3190. <p>Another aspect of Rovo that relies on generative AI is the addition of workflow automation “agents.” Accessible via the Rovo Chat sidebar, the Rovo Agents are tailored to a specific task. For instance, Rovo Agents can be designed to generate and review marketing content, collate feedback from various sources, or streamline processes such as clearing up Jira backlogs and organizing Confluence pages. </p>
3191.  
3192.  
3193.  
3194. <p>Users can create their own Rovo Agents using a no-code text interface or Atlassian’s Forge app development platform. Atlassian expects there will be around 20 pre-built agents available when Rovo launches. </p>
3195.  
3196.  
3197.  
3198. <p>Canva’s design software is an example of an Atlassian partner building its own agent. “There’s going to be a Canva agent that helps with generating simple artwork for social media posts, things that you don’t need an expert designer to do,” said Valliani. </p>
3199.  
3200.  
3201. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Agents-.png?w=1024" alt="Atlassian Rovo agents" class="wp-image-2096809" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Agents-.png?quality=50&strip=all 1803w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Agents-.png?resize=300%2C146&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Agents-.png?resize=768%2C375&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Agents-.png?resize=1024%2C500&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Agents-.png?resize=1536%2C750&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Agents-.png?resize=1240%2C605&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Agents-.png?resize=150%2C73&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Agents-.png?resize=854%2C417&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Agents-.png?resize=640%2C312&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rovo-Agents-.png?resize=444%2C217&quality=50&strip=all 444w" width="1024" height="500" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>Atlassian Rovo agents are tailored to specific tasks and can include agents built by third-party vendors.</p>
3202. </figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">Atlassian</p></div>
3203.  
3204.  
3205.  
3206. <p>“Generative AI  has so much potential in knowledge management,” said Mohr. “Atlassian is taking the power of Confluence and improving those capabilities with sound knowledge management practices combined, with new features that take advantage of genAI.”</p>
3207.  
3208.  
3209.  
3210. <p>Making it easier to access information across an organization also means there’s potential for users to access sensitive documents. Atlassian said Rovo will respect permissions around the content it has access to, with restricted data in third-party apps remaining private.</p>
3211.  
3212.  
3213.  
3214. <p>As with any API or integration, businesses should assess risks when connecting to external systems and ensure that adequate permissions are in place around documents, said Mohr. But those risks shouldn’t put businesses off from widening access to information held across their organization, she said.</p>
3215.  
3216.  
3217.  
3218. <p>“[T]hink of all the undiscovered knowledge, all the ideas that are locked up in folders and private stores,” said Mohr. “There is a cultural change that needs to take place, where people as well as the systems understand the value of free access to knowledge.” </p>
3219.  
3220.  
3221.  
3222. <p>Opening employee access to a wider range of information can “empower more collaboration and learning,” said Mohr, with businesses able to restrict access “when it is genuinely needed for regulatory or compliance purposes.”</p>
3223.  
3224.  
3225.  
3226. <p>Atlassian customers can join a waitlist to access Rovo in beta. The general availability date hasn’t yet been announced. </p>
3227.  
3228.  
3229.  
3230. <p>Rovo will be sold as an add-on alongside cloud editions of Atlassian products, with a flexible pricing model based on unique users. More details will be announced at the general availability launch.</p>
3231. </div></div></div><category>Atlassian, Chatbots, Generative AI, Productivity Software, Vendors and Providers</category></div>]]></description>
3232. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2096799/atlassian-rovo-brings-ai-smarts-to-enterprise-search.html</link>
3233. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2096799</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/dreamstime_m_169236571.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="528657" type="image/jpeg" />
3234. </item>
3235. <item>
3236. <title>Mosyle and Fleet bring new device management options to Apple enterprise</title>
3237. <pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2024 15:24:11 +0000</pubDate>
3238. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
3239. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
3240.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
3241. <div class="article-column__content">
3242. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
3243.  
3244.  
3245.  
3246. <p>Hot on the heels <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2088269/jamf-brings-powerful-new-compliance-tools-to-apple-it.html">of Jamf’s introduction of new compliance tools for Apple admins</a>, Mosyle and Fleet have rolled out improvements to their own competing device management offerings.  </p>
3247.  
3248.  
3249.  
3250. <p>What all these solutions have in common is that they meet an enterprise market that is rapidly adopting Macs, iPads, and iPhones, prompting fast-paced service enhancements across the Apple device management industry.</p>
3251.  
3252.  
3253.  
3254. <p>Like art, business technology also seems set on reflecting life. “Apple Macs, iPhones, and iPads are now commonly used as productive business tools in enterprises across many industries,” <a href="https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=US51779224" target="_blank">said Phil Hochmuth</a>, IDC research vice president for endpoint management and enterprise mobility. Apple itself understands this, and now offers a <a href="https://www.applemust.com/apple-has-designs-to-expand-its-reach-in-smbs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wide array of services and training</a> for business users.</p>
3255.  
3256.  
3257.  
3258. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The growing Apple enterprise pie</strong></h2>
3259.  
3260.  
3261.  
3262. <p>“IT organizations are increasingly required to deliver a cohesive Apple experience to end users across multipole device types, while providing deep integration to enterprise applications and IT infrastructure platforms,” Hochmuth said. “Apple-focused UEM and device management tools can help organizations keep these devices managed and secure.”</p>
3263.  
3264.  
3265.  
3266. <p>That’s true, and it’s also correct to believe vendors in the space are competing for a big slice of the IT spending pie. IDC predicts global IT and business services revenues will reach $1.28 trillion this year; while Apple device management and security solutions represent only a few drops of that spend, those drops are worth a lot. With increasing focus on managed device, zero-trust security, managed services, and integrated administration tools, Apple’s MDM partners can’t resist the opportunity.</p>
3267.  
3268.  
3269.  
3270. <p>That’s the situation we find ourselves in, so what’s new from Mosyle and Fleet?</p>
3271.  
3272.  
3273.  
3274. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Mosyle aims at managed service providers</strong></h2>
3275.  
3276.  
3277.  
3278. <p>Unashamedly aimed at managed service providers (MSPs), Mosyle Fuse MSP combines five management and security tools in one bundle. The tools include those for device management, endpoint security, internet privacy and security, identity, and application management.</p>
3279.  
3280.  
3281.  
3282. <p>In use, these tools let MSPs set and automatically apply policies across all their customers from one place. Mosyle also says it’s possible to break out individual service components when required — so VPN profiles can be managed separately from Apple Push Certificates, for example. Billing has also been simplified to ensure MSPs only pay for licenses their customers actually use. More information on the combined package is <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmsp.mosyle.com%2F&esheet=53958779&newsitemid=20240429737224&lan=en-US&anchor=msp.mosyle.com&index=2&md5=d2f6dc0e4ee86d0eb476faf638cdd106" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">available here</a>.</p>
3283.  
3284.  
3285.  
3286. <p>“Mosyle is committed to growing the Apple ecosystem and helping MSPs scale,” Alcyr Araujo, founder and CEO at Mosyle, said in a statement. “Mosyle Fuse MSP is designed to accomplish both — delivering an automated and scalable platform for MSPs that offers comprehensive security and management for Apple-focused customers across the globe.”</p>
3287.  
3288.  
3289.  
3290. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Fleet simplifies multi-platform fleet management</strong></h2>
3291.  
3292.  
3293.  
3294. <p>A relatively new entrant to the market, Fleet’s USP sits in its open-source roots and its positioning as a device management solution for <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1611686/fleet-adds-windows-support-to-its-apple-first-mdm-software.html">multiple operating systems</a>, including Apple, Windows, and Linux.</p>
3295.  
3296.  
3297.  
3298. <p>Fleet’s <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240430093203/en/Fleet-Rings-in-The-End-of-Invasive-IT-Notifications-with-Industry-First-Auto-Scheduling-of-Operating-System-Updates-for-macOS-Windows-and-Linux" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Maintenance Window</a> feature is designed to take the pain away from system upgrades on managed devices by figuring out the optimal time to apply updates through analysis of an employee’s own work calendar. The idea here is that when IT pushes an update at their fleet — Apple, Windows, or Linux — the system will not interrupt workflow or tie a computer up at the worst possible time.</p>
3299.  
3300.  
3301.  
3302. <p>That means your computer won’t restart to install something in the middle of a meeting or just before an important client appointment. “We’ve heard the complaints loud and clear and are doing something about one of the biggest problems in workplace productivity — disruptions caused by forced, unplanned OS updates,” said Fleet CEO  Mike McNeil.</p>
3303.  
3304.  
3305.  
3306. <p><em>Please follow me on <a href="https://social.vivaldi.net/@jonnyevans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mastodon</a>, or join me in the <a href="https://mewe.com/join/appleholics_bar_and_grill" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AppleHolic’s bar & grill</a> and <a href="https://mewe.com/join/apple_discussions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple Discussions</a> groups on MeWe.</em></p>
3307. </div></div></div><category>Apple, iOS, Mobile Device Management, Mobile Security</category></div>]]></description>
3308. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2097038/mosyle-and-fleet-bring-new-device-management-options-to-apple-enterprise.html</link>
3309. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2097038</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/shutterstock_323566982-1.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="14876705" type="image/jpeg" />
3310. </item>
3311. <item>
3312. <title>13 tricks for more efficient Android messaging</title>
3313. <pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2024 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
3314. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
3315. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
3316.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
3317. <div class="article-column__content">
3318. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
3319.  
3320.  
3321.  
3322. <p>No matter what type of Android phone you carry or how you usually use it, one thing is a near-universal constant:</p>
3323.  
3324.  
3325.  
3326. <p>You’re gonna spend a ton of time messing with messages.</p>
3327.  
3328.  
3329.  
3330. <p>The messages may be from clients, colleagues, or your cousin Crissy from Cleveland (damn it, Crissy!). But regardless of who sends ’em or what they’re about, they’re all popping up on your phone and cluttering your weary brainspace.</p>
3331.  
3332.  
3333.  
3334. <p>My fellow Android adorer, I’m here to tell you there’s a better way.</p>
3335.  
3336.  
3337.  
3338. <p>Google’s <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Android Messages app</a> has gotten surprisingly good over the years. That’s no big secret. If you only rely on what you see on the surface, though, you’re missing out on some of Messages’ most powerful and underappreciated efficiency-enhancing options.</p>
3339.  
3340.  
3341.  
3342. <p><strong>[Hey: Want even more advanced Android knowledge? </strong><a href="https://www.theintelligence.com/shortcut-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Check out my free <strong>Android Shortcut Supercourse</strong></a><strong> to learn tons of time-saving tricks for your phone!]</strong></p>
3343.  
3344.  
3345.  
3346. <p>Today, we’ll explore the Android Messages app’s most effective out-of-sight superpowers. They may not be able to cut down on the <em>number </em>of messages you send and receive on your phone (DAMN IT, CRISSY!), but they <em>will</em> help you spend less time fussing with ’em. And they might just help you have a more pleasant experience, too.</p>
3347.  
3348.  
3349.  
3350. <p>Let’s dive in, shall we?</p>
3351.  
3352.  
3353.  
3354. <p>(Before you splash forward, take note: The tips on this page are all specific to the Google Messages app, which <em>isn’t</em> the same as the superfluous and wildly unnecessary Messages apps made by the likes of Samsung, OnePlus, and Verizon and baked into devices associated with those companies. If you’re using a phone where the Android Messages app wasn’t preinstalled or set as the default, you can <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">download it from the Play Store</a> and give it a whirl. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you find.)</p>
3355.  
3356.  
3357.  
3358. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="android-messages-trick-1-custom-notifications-for-important-people">Android Messages trick #1: Custom notifications for important people</h2>
3359.  
3360.  
3361.  
3362. <p>We’ll start with what might be my favorite little-known trick within Google’s Android Messages app: With a couple quick adjustments, you can turn any of your contacts’ faces into a custom notification icon. That icon will then show up at the top of your phone whenever that person messages you for extra-easy visibility and access.</p>
3363.  
3364.  
3365.  
3366. <p>See?</p>
3367.  
3368.  
3369. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-notifications.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1024" alt="Android Messages: Custom contact icon" class="wp-image-2096390" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-notifications.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-notifications.jpg?resize=300%2C17&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-notifications.jpg?resize=768%2C43&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-notifications.jpg?resize=1024%2C57&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-notifications.jpg?resize=1536%2C85&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-notifications.jpg?resize=2048%2C114&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-notifications.jpg?resize=1240%2C69&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-notifications.jpg?resize=150%2C8&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-notifications.jpg?resize=854%2C47&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-notifications.jpg?resize=640%2C36&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-notifications.jpg?resize=444%2C25&quality=50&strip=all 444w" width="1024" height="57" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A quick bit of simple setup, and bam: Anyone’s face can become their notification icon (for better or for worse!) on your phone.</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael, IDG</p></div>
3370.  
3371.  
3372.  
3373. <p>The only catch is that your phone needs to be running 2020’s Android 11 operating system or higher for the feature to be available. (And honestly, if your phone isn’t running Android 11 at this point, you’ve got bigger fish to fry, Francesco.) Also, Samsung has screwed around with this system for no apparent reason — a <a href="https://theintelligence.com/32760/snooze-notifications-android/#:~:text=Snoozing%20Android%20notifications%20on%20a%20Samsung%20Galaxy%20device" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">frustratingly common theme</a> with Samsung’s heavily modified approach to Android, <a href="https://theintelligence.com/31342/android-notification-channels/#:~:text=On%20a%20Samsung,Samsung%2C%20that%E2%80%99s%20why!)" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">especially as of late</a> — so you may or may not be able to take advantage of this on a Galaxy gadget, depending on how recently its software has been <s>screwed up</s> updated. (Exaggerated sigh. <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1645024/galaxy-samsung-android-phones.html">What more can I say?!</a>)</p>
3374.  
3375.  
3376.  
3377. <p>On any reasonably recent Android device that sticks close to Google’s core Android interface, though, here’s how to make the magic happen:</p>
3378.  
3379.  
3380.  
3381. <ul>
3382. <li>The next time you get a message from someone, press and hold your finger to the notification.</li>
3383.  
3384.  
3385.  
3386. <li>That’ll pull up a screen that looks a little somethin’ like this:</li>
3387. </ul>
3388.  
3389.  
3390. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-priority-notifications-setting.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1024" alt="Android Messages: Priority setting" class="wp-image-2096392" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-priority-notifications-setting.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-priority-notifications-setting.jpg?resize=300%2C128&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-priority-notifications-setting.jpg?resize=768%2C329&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-priority-notifications-setting.jpg?resize=1024%2C438&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-priority-notifications-setting.jpg?resize=1536%2C657&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-priority-notifications-setting.jpg?resize=2048%2C876&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-priority-notifications-setting.jpg?resize=1240%2C530&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-priority-notifications-setting.jpg?resize=150%2C64&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-priority-notifications-setting.jpg?resize=854%2C365&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-priority-notifications-setting.jpg?resize=640%2C274&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-priority-notifications-setting.jpg?resize=444%2C190&quality=50&strip=all 444w" width="1024" height="438" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Android’s Priority conversation setting is the key to creating custom notifications that really stand out.</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael, IDG</p></div>
3391.  
3392.  
3393.  
3394. <ul>
3395. <li>Tap the “Priority” line, then tap “Apply” to save the changes.</li>
3396. </ul>
3397.  
3398.  
3399.  
3400. <p>And that’s it: The next time that person messages you, you’ll see their profile picture in place of the standard Messages icon in your status bar, and the notification will show up in a special section above any other alerts.</p>
3401.  
3402.  
3403.  
3404. <p>Hip, hip, hoorah!</p>
3405.  
3406.  
3407.  
3408. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="android-messages-trick-2-important-contact-prioritizing">Android Messages trick #2: Important contact prioritizing</h2>
3409.  
3410.  
3411.  
3412. <p>Ever wish you could keep your most important messaging threads at the top of the list for easy ongoing access?</p>
3413.  
3414.  
3415.  
3416. <p>Poof: Wish granted. No matter what kind of Android phone you’re holding or how needlessly meddled with its software may be, just hold your finger onto the conversation in question on the main Messages app screen, then tap the pushpin-shaped icon in the app’s upper bar.</p>
3417.  
3418.  
3419.  
3420. <p>You can pin up to three conversations that way, and they’ll always appear above all other threads in that main inbox view.</p>
3421.  
3422.  
3423.  
3424. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="android-messages-trick-3-swift-appointment-scheduling">Android Messages trick #3: Swift appointment scheduling</h2>
3425.  
3426.  
3427.  
3428. <p>The next time you’re working to plan a meeting or event with a fellow Homo sapien in Messages, make yourself a mental note of this:</p>
3429.  
3430.  
3431.  
3432. <p>Anytime someone sends you a message that includes a specific date and time, the Messages app will underline that text. See it?</p>
3433.  
3434.  
3435. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-event-scheduling.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1024" alt="Android Messages: Event scheduling" class="wp-image-2096393" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-event-scheduling.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-event-scheduling.jpg?resize=300%2C32&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-event-scheduling.jpg?resize=768%2C83&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-event-scheduling.jpg?resize=1024%2C110&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-event-scheduling.jpg?resize=1536%2C166&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-event-scheduling.jpg?resize=2048%2C221&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-event-scheduling.jpg?resize=1240%2C134&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-event-scheduling.jpg?resize=150%2C16&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-event-scheduling.jpg?resize=854%2C92&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-event-scheduling.jpg?resize=640%2C69&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-event-scheduling.jpg?resize=444%2C48&quality=50&strip=all 444w" width="1024" height="110" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">That underlined time is a covert link from an incoming message to your Android calendar agenda.</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael, IDG</p></div>
3436.  
3437.  
3438.  
3439. <p>You’d be forgiven for failing to realize, but you can actually <em>tap </em>that underlined text to reveal a shortcut for opening that very same day and time in your <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1618552/best-calendar-apps-android.html">Android calendar app</a> of choice. It’s a great way to get a quick ‘n’ easy glimpse at your availability for the time you’re discussing.</p>
3440.  
3441.  
3442.  
3443. <p>And if you then want to create a calendar event, just look for the “Create event” command that should appear right below that very same message. That’ll fire up a new calendar event for you on the spot, with the appropriate day and time already filled in.</p>
3444.  
3445.  
3446. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-create-event.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1024" alt="Android Messages: Create event" class="wp-image-2096391" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-create-event.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-create-event.jpg?resize=300%2C37&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-create-event.jpg?resize=768%2C94&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-create-event.jpg?resize=1024%2C125&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-create-event.jpg?resize=1536%2C187&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-create-event.jpg?resize=2048%2C249&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-create-event.jpg?resize=1240%2C151&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-create-event.jpg?resize=150%2C18&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-create-event.jpg?resize=854%2C104&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-create-event.jpg?resize=640%2C78&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-create-event.jpg?resize=444%2C54&quality=50&strip=all 444w" width="1024" height="125" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">That button to the left of the text suggestions is a spectacular time-saver for on-the-fly event creation.</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael, IDG</p></div>
3447.  
3448.  
3449.  
3450. <p>Don’tcha just love simple step-savers?</p>
3451.  
3452.  
3453.  
3454. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><strong>Android Messages trick #</strong></strong>4:<strong> Seamless message scheduling</strong></h2>
3455.  
3456.  
3457.  
3458. <p>If you’re ready to hammer out a response to a message right now but don’t want your reply to be sent for a while, follow <a href="https://theintelligence.com/32834/android-schedule-emails-text-messages/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the advice shared by a reader</a> in <a href="https://theintelligence.com/android-cw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">my Android Intelligence newsletter</a> recently and simply schedule your message for some specific future time.</p>
3459.  
3460.  
3461.  
3462. <p>The Android Messages app’s scheduling system is spectacularly useful. You can rely on it for setting reminders to be sent to clients, business-related messages to be pushed out the next morning, or context-free middle-finger emojis to be delivered to your cousin in Cleveland at ungodly hours in the middle of the night.</p>
3463.  
3464.  
3465.  
3466. <p>To tap into this productivity-boosting power, just type out your message normally — but then, instead of <em>tapping </em>the triangle-shaped send icon at the right of the composing window, press and <em>hold </em>your finger onto that same button when you’re done.</p>
3467.  
3468.  
3469.  
3470. <p>No reasonably sane person would possibly realize it, but that’ll pull up a hidden menu for selecting precisely when your message should be sent.</p>
3471.  
3472.  
3473. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-schedule-message.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1005" alt="Android Messages: Scheduled send" class="wp-image-2096397" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-schedule-message.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-schedule-message.jpg?resize=294%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 294w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-schedule-message.jpg?resize=768%2C783&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-schedule-message.jpg?resize=1005%2C1024&quality=50&strip=all 1005w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-schedule-message.jpg?resize=1507%2C1536&quality=50&strip=all 1507w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-schedule-message.jpg?resize=2010%2C2048&quality=50&strip=all 2010w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-schedule-message.jpg?resize=684%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 684w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-schedule-message.jpg?resize=165%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 165w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-schedule-message.jpg?resize=82%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 82w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-schedule-message.jpg?resize=471%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 471w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-schedule-message.jpg?resize=353%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 353w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-schedule-message.jpg?resize=245%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 245w" width="1005" height="1024" sizes="(max-width: 1005px) 100vw, 1005px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Send any message, anytime — no matter when you actually write it.</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael, IDG</p></div>
3474.  
3475.  
3476.  
3477. <p>And the person on the other end will have no way of even knowing you wrote the thing in advance.</p>
3478.  
3479.  
3480.  
3481. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><strong>Android Messages trick #</strong></strong>5:<strong> Important message saving</strong></h2>
3482.  
3483.  
3484.  
3485. <p>When you run into a message you know you’ll want to reference again, save yourself the trouble of trying to dig it back up later and instead star it on the spot to make it fast as can be to find in the future.</p>
3486.  
3487.  
3488.  
3489. <p>It couldn’t be much easier to do: Whilst viewing an individual message thread, just press and hold your finger onto the specific message you want to save, then tap the star-shaped icon that appears in the bar at the top of the screen.</p>
3490.  
3491.  
3492.  
3493. <p>Then, when you want to find the message again, tap the search icon at the top of the main Messages screen and select “Starred” from the menu that comes up. That’ll show you every message you’ve starred for exceptionally effortless resurfacing.</p>
3494.  
3495.  
3496.  
3497. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><strong>Android Messages trick #</strong></strong>6:<strong> Advanced message searching</strong></h2>
3498.  
3499.  
3500.  
3501. <p>Speaking of that Messages search system: Starring is sublime, but sometimes, you need to dig up an old message that you <em>didn’t</em> go out of your way to save.</p>
3502.  
3503.  
3504.  
3505. <p>The Android Messages app makes that even easier than you might realize. Tap that same search icon at the top of the app’s main screen — and in addition to searching your entire history message for any specific string of text, take note:</p>
3506.  
3507.  
3508.  
3509. <ul>
3510. <li>You can start typing out the name of anyone in your contacts, then select them from the suggestion that appears — and then type in some text to look for something specific only within messages from <em>that </em>one person.</li>
3511.  
3512.  
3513.  
3514. <li>You can use the options within the main Messages search screen to look specifically at images, videos, locations, or links people have sent you.</li>
3515.  
3516.  
3517.  
3518. <li>And you can combine any of those variables for even more granular finding — looking for links you sent to a particular client, for instance, or locations an out-of-town colleague sent to you.</li>
3519. </ul>
3520.  
3521.  
3522. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-search.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1024" alt="Android Messages: Search" class="wp-image-2096394" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-search.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-search.jpg?resize=300%2C161&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-search.jpg?resize=768%2C412&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-search.jpg?resize=1024%2C549&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-search.jpg?resize=1536%2C824&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-search.jpg?resize=2048%2C1099&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-search.jpg?resize=1240%2C665&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-search.jpg?resize=150%2C80&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-search.jpg?resize=854%2C458&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-search.jpg?resize=640%2C343&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-search.jpg?resize=444%2C238&quality=50&strip=all 444w" width="1024" height="549" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Android Messages app’s search system is chock-full of helpful info.</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael, IDG</p></div>
3523.  
3524.  
3525.  
3526. <p>How ’bout <em>them</em> apples?!</p>
3527.  
3528.  
3529.  
3530. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><strong>Android Messages trick #</strong></strong>7:<strong> Easier-to-read text</strong></h2>
3531.  
3532.  
3533.  
3534. <p>File this next Android Messages feature under “accidental discoveries”: The next time you find yourself squinting at something in a messaging thread on your phone, try a good old-fashioned zoom gesture on the screen — placing your finger and thumb together and then spreading ’em slowly apart.</p>
3535.  
3536.  
3537.  
3538. <p>You’d never know it, but the Messages app supports that standard gesture for zooming into a conversation. The inverse applies, too: When you’re ready to zoom back out and make everything smaller, just bring your two fingers closer together.</p>
3539.  
3540.  
3541.  
3542. <p>And if those actions <em>aren’t</em> working for you, tap your profile picture in the upper-right corner of the main Messages screen and select “Messages settings,” then make sure the toggle next to “Pinch to zoom conversation text” is in the on position.</p>
3543.  
3544.  
3545.  
3546. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><strong>Android Messages trick #</strong></strong>8:<strong> </strong>Custom conversation colors</h2>
3547.  
3548.  
3549.  
3550. <p>While we’re thinking about easier reading, a brand spankin’ new Android Messages trick that’s trickling out as we speak can let you create a custom color palette for any conversations you’ve got goin’.</p>
3551.  
3552.  
3553.  
3554. <p>That way, you can always remember that texts with your significant other are in, say, purple, whereas messages with your most important client are in red. (Best not to get those two threads confused.)</p>
3555.  
3556.  
3557.  
3558. <p>This one works only with messages sent using the modern RCS messaging platform, which basically means messages involving other people on Android at this point (though that <em>will</em> allegedly expand to include iFolk soon — <em>if </em>Apple actually follows through on its years-late promise to stop <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1616771/android-ios-messaging.html">deliberately dumbing down messages</a> between iPhone users and people on other platforms).</p>
3559.  
3560.  
3561.  
3562. <p>With any currently supported conversation, though, open up the thread within Messages — then:</p>
3563.  
3564.  
3565.  
3566. <ul>
3567. <li>Tap the three-dot menu icon in the screen’s upper-right corner.</li>
3568.  
3569.  
3570.  
3571. <li>Select “Change colors” from the menu that appears. (And if you aren’t seeing it yet, even in an RCS-enabled conversation, give it a few days and check back again. This one’s actively rolling out right now, so it should reach you soon — if it hasn’t already!)</li>
3572.  
3573.  
3574.  
3575. <li>Pick the color scheme you prefer, then tap the Confirm button at the bottom.</li>
3576. </ul>
3577.  
3578.  
3579. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1024" alt="Android Messages: Custom color" class="wp-image-2096395" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?resize=150%2C150&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?resize=300%2C298&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?resize=768%2C762&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?resize=1024%2C1016&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?resize=1536%2C1525&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?resize=2048%2C2033&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?resize=702%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 702w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?resize=169%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 169w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?resize=85%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 85w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?resize=484%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 484w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?resize=363%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 363w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-custom-colors.jpg?resize=252%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 252w" width="1024" height="1016" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Every Android Messages conversation can have its own distinctive color, if you take the time to set it up.</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael, IDG</p></div>
3580.  
3581.  
3582.  
3583. <p>Repeat for any other compatible conversations, and you’ll always know exactly what you’re looking at even with a fast glance — and without having to give it an ounce of active thought.</p>
3584.  
3585.  
3586.  
3587. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><strong>Android Messages trick #</strong></strong>9:<strong> Enriched inline media</strong></h2>
3588.  
3589.  
3590.  
3591. <p>You know a fantastic way to waste time? I’ll tell ya: moving from one app to another just to glance at something someone sent you (like those blasted Bangles video Crissy is always blasting your way).</p>
3592.  
3593.  
3594.  
3595. <p>Well, get this: Google’s Android Messages app can let you preview and even watch entire YouTube videos without ever leaving your current conversation — <em>and </em>it can give you helpful previews of web links right within the app, too.</p>
3596.  
3597.  
3598.  
3599. <p>The key is to make sure you’ve got the associated options enabled:</p>
3600.  
3601.  
3602.  
3603. <ul>
3604. <li>Tap your profile picture in the upper-right corner of the main Messages screen.</li>
3605.  
3606.  
3607.  
3608. <li>Select “Messages settings,” then tap “Automatic previews.”</li>
3609.  
3610.  
3611.  
3612. <li>Make sure the toggle next to “Show all previews” is on and active.</li>
3613. </ul>
3614.  
3615.  
3616.  
3617. <p>Now, the next time someone sends you a video link, you’ll see the video’s thumbnail and description right then and there, within the Messages conversation:</p>
3618.  
3619.  
3620. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1018" alt="Android Messages: Inline video" class="wp-image-2096398" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?resize=150%2C150&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?resize=298%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 298w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?resize=768%2C772&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?resize=1018%2C1024&quality=50&strip=all 1018w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?resize=1528%2C1536&quality=50&strip=all 1528w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?resize=2037%2C2048&quality=50&strip=all 2037w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?resize=693%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 693w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?resize=167%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 167w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?resize=84%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 84w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?resize=477%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 477w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?resize=358%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 358w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-video.jpg?resize=249%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 249w" width="1018" height="1024" sizes="(max-width: 1018px) 100vw, 1018px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Videos expanded in-line within Messages — easy peasy.</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael, IDG</p></div>
3621.  
3622.  
3623.  
3624. <p>With web pages, Messages will show you just enough of a preview to let you make an educated decision about whether you want to tap the link or not.</p>
3625.  
3626.  
3627. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1024" alt="Android Messages: Inline article" class="wp-image-2096400" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?resize=150%2C150&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?resize=300%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?resize=768%2C769&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?resize=1534%2C1536&quality=50&strip=all 1534w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?resize=2045%2C2048&quality=50&strip=all 2045w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?resize=1240%2C1240&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?resize=696%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 696w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?resize=168%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 168w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?resize=84%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 84w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?resize=479%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 479w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?resize=360%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 360w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-inline-link.jpg?resize=250%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 250w" width="1024" height="1025" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Web links gain useful extra context once you enable the right option within the Android Messages settings.</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael, IDG</p></div>
3628.  
3629.  
3630.  
3631. <p>Almost painfully sensible, wouldn’t ya say?</p>
3632.  
3633.  
3634.  
3635. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><strong>Android Messages trick #</strong></strong>10:<strong> </strong>Smarter shortcuts</h2>
3636.  
3637.  
3638.  
3639. <p>If I had to pick the simplest Android Messages trick for enhancing your efficiency, it’d be embracing the built-in shortcuts Google gives us for faster message actions.</p>
3640.  
3641.  
3642.  
3643. <p>From the main Messages screen, you can swipe left or right on any message to perform an instant action — archiving the conversation, permanently deleting it, or toggling it between read and unread status.</p>
3644.  
3645.  
3646.  
3647. <p>All you’ve gotta do is mosey your way back into the Messages app’s settings areas and tap on the “Swipe actions” item to set things up the way you want…</p>
3648.  
3649.  
3650. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-swipe-actions.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1024" alt="Android Messages: Swipe actions" class="wp-image-2096396" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-swipe-actions.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-swipe-actions.jpg?resize=300%2C213&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-swipe-actions.jpg?resize=768%2C545&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-swipe-actions.jpg?resize=1024%2C727&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-swipe-actions.jpg?resize=1536%2C1091&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-swipe-actions.jpg?resize=2048%2C1454&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-swipe-actions.jpg?resize=981%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 981w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-swipe-actions.jpg?resize=237%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 237w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-swipe-actions.jpg?resize=118%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 118w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-swipe-actions.jpg?resize=676%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 676w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-swipe-actions.jpg?resize=507%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 507w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/android-messages-swipe-actions.jpg?resize=352%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 352w" width="1024" height="727" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Step-saving swipes within Messages — now available for your customization.</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael, IDG</p></div>
3651.  
3652.  
3653.  
3654. <p>…and then, just remember to actually <em>use </em>those gestures moving forward. (That part’s on you.)</p>
3655.  
3656.  
3657.  
3658. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><strong>Android Messages trick #</strong></strong>11: Automated cleanup</h2>
3659.  
3660.  
3661.  
3662. <p>Certain services love to send confirmation codes via text messaging when you sign in or try to perform some action. It may not be the most advisable or effective form of extra security, but — well, it’s better than nothing. And for better or for worse, it’s a pretty common tactic.</p>
3663.  
3664.  
3665.  
3666. <p>Core security considerations aside, the most irksome part of these confirmation codes is having ’em clutter up your messages list at every Goog-forsaken moment. But the Google-made Android Messages app can actually take care of that for you, without any ongoing effort — if you take about 20 seconds to make the right tweak now.</p>
3667.  
3668.  
3669.  
3670. <p>Here’s the secret: </p>
3671.  
3672.  
3673.  
3674. <ul>
3675. <li>Tappity-tap that comely character in the upper-right corner of the main Messages screen (y’know, the one whose appearance has a striking resemblance to your oversized head).</li>
3676.  
3677.  
3678.  
3679. <li>Tap “Messages settings” in the menu that comes up, then select “Messages organization.”</li>
3680.  
3681.  
3682.  
3683. <li>Within that curiously created section, you’ll see only one option: “Auto-delete OTPs after 24 hrs.” OTP may not exactly be an everyday, universally known abbreviation, but fear not — for it <em>isn’t</em> an erroneous reference to an early 90s rap hit with equally ambiguous meaning. Nope: It stands for one-time password, which is the same thing we’re thinking about here.</li>
3684.  
3685.  
3686.  
3687. <li>Flip that toggle into the on and active position, then flip a finger of your choice to all the confirmation codes in your messages list and rest easy knowing they’ll be auto-purged a day after their arrival from that point forward.</li>
3688. </ul>
3689.  
3690.  
3691.  
3692. <p>Who’s down with OTP? Every last homie. (I apologize.)</p>
3693.  
3694.  
3695.  
3696. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><strong>Android Messages trick #</strong></strong>12:<strong> </strong>Instant reactions</h2>
3697.  
3698.  
3699.  
3700. <p>Slack-style reactions may seem silly on the surface, but they serve an important communication purpose in allowing you to quickly acknowledge a message without having to carry the conversation on further. Whether it’s a thumbs-up, a clapping hands symbol, or even perhaps an occasional burrito emoji, it really can be a handy way to say “Yup, got it” (or “Yup, want beefy goodness”) without having to use a single word.</p>
3701.  
3702.  
3703.  
3704. <p>You probably know you can summon a reaction within the Android Messages app by pressing and holding a specific message within a conversation and then selecting from the list of available emoji options — right? But beyond that, Messages packs an even faster way to issue a reaction in the blink of an eye.</p>
3705.  
3706.  
3707.  
3708. <p>And here it is: Simply <em>double-tap</em> your finger onto any individual message within a conversation. That’ll apply the heart reaction to it without the need for any long-press or symbol selection.</p>
3709.  
3710.  
3711.  
3712. <p>It’d be nice if there were a way to customize which reaction is used for that action by default — so that, obviously, we could all change it to the burrito emoji, since that’s what any sane person uses most often — but if and when a heart will do the job, now you’ve got a super-easy way to bring it into any conversation with a fast finger tap.</p>
3713.  
3714.  
3715.  
3716. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><strong>Android Messages trick #</strong></strong>13:<strong> Less annoying iPhone interactions</strong></h2>
3717.  
3718.  
3719.  
3720. <p>Last but not least in our list of magnificent Messages enhancements is something specific for your conversations with the Apple-adoring animals in your life. And it relates to those very same sorts of reactions we were just going over.</p>
3721.  
3722.  
3723.  
3724. <p>One obnoxious side effect of Apple’s “no one exists outside of iOS” mentality, y’see, is the way the iPhone’s equivalent of those reactions show up on Android. Plain and simple, they show up as — well, plain and simple text messages, instead of coming through as reactions.</p>
3725.  
3726.  
3727.  
3728. <p>Surely you’ve encountered this, right? Those pointless messages you get from iGoobers that say stuff like “Loved ‘Please stop texting me, Crissy'”?</p>
3729.  
3730.  
3731.  
3732. <p>Well, get this: Google’s Android Messages app is actually able to intercept those absurd platform-specific reactions and turn ’em into <em>standard </em>reactions instead of plain-text interruptions. And it’ll take you all of 12 seconds to enable the option:</p>
3733.  
3734.  
3735.  
3736. <ul>
3737. <li>Head back into the Messages app’s settings.</li>
3738.  
3739.  
3740.  
3741. <li>Tap “Advanced.”</li>
3742.  
3743.  
3744.  
3745. <li>Look for the line labeled “Show iPhone reactions as emoji” and make sure the toggle next to it is in the on position.</li>
3746. </ul>
3747.  
3748.  
3749.  
3750. <p>All that’s left is to breathe a heavy sigh of relief — and to send Crissy a well-deserved burrito reaction.</p>
3751.  
3752.  
3753.  
3754. <p><em>Hey: Don’t let the learning stop here. </em><i>Get six full days of advanced shortcut knowledge with my free <strong><a href="https://theintelligence.com/shortcut-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Android Shortcut Supercourse</a></strong>. You’ll discover tons of time-saving tricks!</i></p>
3755. </div></div></div><category>Android, Google, Messaging Apps, Mobile Apps, Smartphones</category></div>]]></description>
3756. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/1612778/google-android-messages.html</link>
3757. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">1612778</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/google-android-messages-.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="125247" type="image/jpeg" />
3758. </item>
3759. <item>
3760. <title>LLM deployment flaws that catch IT by surprise</title>
3761. <pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2024 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
3762. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
3763. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
3764.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
3765. <div class="article-column__content">
3766. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
3767.  
3768.  
3769.  
3770. <p>For all of the promise of <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1627101/what-are-large-language-models-and-how-are-they-used-in-generative-ai.html">LLMs (large language models)</a> to handle a seemingly infinite number of enterprise tasks, IT executives are discovering that they can be extremely delicate, opting to ignore guardrails and other limitations with the slightest provocation. </p>
3771.  
3772.  
3773.  
3774. <p>For example, if an end user innocuously — or an attacker maliciously — inputs too much data into an LLM query window, no error message is returned and the system won’t seemingly crash. But the LLM will often instantly override its programming and disable all guardrails. </p>
3775.  
3776.  
3777.  
3778. <p>“The friction is that I can’t add a bazillion lines of code. One of the biggest threats around [LLMs] is an efficient jailbreak of overflow,” said Dane Sherrets, a senior solutions architect at HackerOne. “Give it so much information and it will overflow. It will forget its systems prompts, its training, its fine-tuning.” (AI research startup Anthropic, which makes the <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/claude" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Claude</a> family of LLMs, wrote <a href="https://www-cdn.anthropic.com/af5633c94ed2beb282f6a53c595eb437e8e7b630/Many_Shot_Jailbreaking__2024_04_02_0936.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a detailed look at this security hole</a>.) </p>
3779.  
3780.  
3781.  
3782. <p>Consider the case of a publicly held company that has to severely restrict access to not-yet-reported financials. Or a military contractor that needs to limit access to weapons blueprints to those with a specific clearance level. If an LLM becomes overloaded and ignores those restrictions, the consequences will be severe.</p>
3783.  
3784.  
3785.  
3786. <p>And that’s just one of the ways that LLM guardrails can fail. These systems are generally cloud-based, controlled by the vendor who owns the license to those particular LLM algorithms. A few enterprises (weapons manufacturers working for the government, for example) take the LLM code and solely run it on-premises in an air-gapped environment, but they are the rare exceptions.</p>
3787.  
3788.  
3789.  
3790. <p>IT leaders deploying LLMs have uncovered other subtle but serious flaws that put their systems and data at risk and/or fail to deliver useful results. Here are five major LLM issues to be aware of — and avoid — before it’s too late.</p>
3791.  
3792.  
3793.  
3794. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="llms-that-see-too-much">LLMs that see too much</h2>
3795.  
3796.  
3797.  
3798. <p>One massive flaw in today’s LLM systems — which Microsoft acknowledged on March 6 when it <a href="https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/copilot-for-microsoft-365/introducing-restricted-sharepoint-search-to-help-you-get-started/ba-p/4071060" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">introduced a new SharePoint feature for use with its Copilot LLM</a> — is the ability to access a wide range of SharePoint files that are not intended to be shared. </p>
3799.  
3800.  
3801.  
3802. <p>With Copilot, “when you enable access for a user, it replicates the access that they have. It can then access anything that they have access to, whether they know it or not,” said Nick Mullen, the IT governance manager for a Fortune 500 insurance company.</p>
3803.  
3804.  
3805.  
3806. <p>“The SharePoint repository runs in the background, but it also has access to anything that is public in your entire ecosystem. A lot of these sites are public by default,” said Mullen, who also runs his own security company called <a href="https://sanguinesecuritysolutions.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sanguine Security</a>.</p>
3807.  
3808.  
3809.  
3810. <p>Available in public preview, the new feature is called <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/restricted-sharepoint-search" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Restricted SharePoint Search</a>. Microsoft says the feature “allows you to restrict both organization-wide search and Copilot experiences to a curated set of SharePoint sites of your choice.”</p>
3811.  
3812.  
3813.  
3814. <p>The current default option is for public access. According to Microsoft’s support documentation, “Before the organization uses Restricted SharePoint Search, Alex [a hypothetical user] can see not only his own personal contents, like his OneDrive files, chats, emails, contents that he owns or visited, but also content from some sites that haven’t undergone access permission review or Access Control Lists (ACL) hygiene, and doesn’t have data governance applied.” Because Alex has access to sensitive information (even if he’s not aware of it), so does Copilot.</p>
3815.  
3816.  
3817.  
3818. <p>The same problem applies to any corporate data storage environment. IT must thoroughly audit users’ data access priveleges and lock down sensitive data before allowing them to run queries with an LLM.</p>
3819.  
3820.  
3821.  
3822. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="llms-with-the-keys-to-the-kingdom">LLMs with the keys to the kingdom</h2>
3823.  
3824.  
3825.  
3826. <p>Part of the problem with LLMs today is that they are often unintentionally given broad or even unlimited access to all enterprise systems. Far worse, Mullen said, is that most of the current enterprise defensive systems will not detect and therefore not block the LLM, even if it goes rogue. </p>
3827.  
3828.  
3829.  
3830. <p>This means that enterprises have “the most powerful and intuitive search engine that can search across everything,” he said. “Historically, that type of internal scanning would fire off an alert. But LLMs are different. This is an entirely new threat vector that is extremely difficult to detect. EDR [endpoint detection and response] is not going to pick it up because it’s behaving as expected. Right now, there is not a good way to secure that. Depending on who is compromised, an attacker could gain access to a treasure trove.”</p>
3831.  
3832.  
3833.  
3834. <p>Added Mullen: “LLMs are very temperamental, and people are getting a little bit ahead of themselves. The technology is so new that a lot of the risks are still unknown. It’s a scenario where it’s not going to be known until you see it. It’s the law of unintended consequences. [IT is] turning [LLMs] on and giving them access to an insane amount of resources, which should give every organization pause.”</p>
3835.  
3836.  
3837.  
3838. <p>Artur Kiulian, the founder of <a href="https://www.polyagent.co/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PolyAgent</a>, a nonprofit research lab focused on AI issues, sees many enterprises embracing LLMs too quickly, before the proper controls can be put into place.</p>
3839.  
3840.  
3841.  
3842. <p>“Most enterprises that are implementing LLMs are at the stage of experimentation,” Kiulian said. “Most companies use the guardrails of <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1620842/how-to-train-your-chatbot-through-prompt-engineering.html">prompt engineering</a>. It’s not enough. You need permission-based controls. Most enterprises are simply not there yet.”</p>
3843.  
3844.  
3845.  
3846. <p>HackerOne’s Sherrets agreed with how risky LLMs are today: “It can interact with other applications. It’s terrifying because you are giving black box control over doing things in your internal infrastructure. What utilities is the LLM touching?”</p>
3847.  
3848.  
3849.  
3850. <p>David Guarrera, a principal with EY Americas Technology Consulting who leads GenerativeAI initiatives, is also concerned about the risks posed by early enterprise LLM deployments. “There are a lot of new emerging attacks where you can trick the LLMs into getting around the guardrails. Random strings that make the LLM go crazy. Organizations need to be aware of these risks,” Guarrera said.</p>
3851.  
3852.  
3853.  
3854. <p>He advises enterprises to create isolated independent protections for sensitive systems, such as payroll or supply chain. IT needs “permissions that are handled outside of the LLM’s [access]. We need to think deeply how we engineer access to these systems. You have to do it at the data layer, something that is invisible to the LLM. You also need to engineer a robust authentication layer,” he said.</p>
3855.  
3856.  
3857.  
3858. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="llms-with-a-civil-service-mentality">LLMs with a civil service mentality</h2>
3859.  
3860.  
3861.  
3862. <p>Another concern is trying to program LLMs to manage need-to-know rules, the idea that the system will restrict some data, sharing it only with people with certain roles in the company or who work in specific departments.</p>
3863.  
3864.  
3865.  
3866. <p>This runs into what some describe as the civil service mentality problem. That is where someone is trained on the rules and might even memorize the rules, but they are not trained on <em>why</em> the rules were initially created. Without that background, they can’t make an informed decision about when an exception is warranted, and they therefore tend to interpret the rules strictly and literally.</p>
3867.  
3868.  
3869.  
3870. <p>That is also true for LLMs. But much sensitive enterprise data is not nearly that binary.</p>
3871.  
3872.  
3873.  
3874. <p>Take the earlier example of the finances of a publicly held company. It is true that data about unannounced finances for this quarter have to be restricted to a handful of authorized people. But has the LLM been programmed to know that the data is instantly world-readable as soon as it is announced and filed with the SEC? And that <em>only </em>the data reported is now public, while unreported data is still proprietary?</p>
3875.  
3876.  
3877.  
3878. <p>A related issue: Let’s say that it is crunch time for the finances to be prepared for filing, and the CFO asks for — and is granted — permission for an additional 30 people from different company business units to temporarily help with the filings. Does someone think to reprogram the LLM to grant temporary data access to those 30 temporary resources? And does someone remember to go back and remove their access once they return to their regular roles?</p>
3879.  
3880.  
3881.  
3882. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="unrecognized-glitches">Unrecognized glitches</h2>
3883.  
3884.  
3885.  
3886. <p>Another LLM concern is more practical. Veteran IT managers have many years of experience working with all manner of software. Their experience teaches them how systems look when they crash, such as slowing down, halting, generating error messages, and throwing out screens of garbage characters. But when an LLM glitches — its version of crashing — it doesn’t act that way.</p>
3887.  
3888.  
3889.  
3890. <p>“When traditional software is broken, it’s obvious: screens don’t load, error messages are everywhere. When [LLM] software is broken, it’s much more opaque: you don’t get glaring errors, you just get a model with bad predictions,” said Kevin Walsh, head of artificial intelligence at HubSpot. “It may take weeks or months of having the LLM out in the real world before hearing from users that it’s not solving the problem it is supposed to.”</p>
3891.  
3892.  
3893.  
3894. <p>That could be significant, because if IT doesn’t recognize that there is a problem quickly, its attempts to fix and limit the system will be delayed, possibly making the response too late to stop the damage.</p>
3895.  
3896.  
3897.  
3898. <p>Because LLMs fail differently and in far more hidden ways than traditional software, IT needs to set up far more tracking, testing, and monitoring. It might be a routine assignment for someone to test the LLM each morning.</p>
3899.  
3900.  
3901.  
3902. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="unrealistic-expectations">Unrealistic expectations</h2>
3903.  
3904.  
3905.  
3906. <p>Allie Mellen, principal analyst for SecOps and AI security tools at Forrester says there is an inaccurate perception of LLMs, often because LLMs do such a persuasive job of impersonating human thought.</p>
3907.  
3908.  
3909.  
3910. <p>“We have this flawed perception of generative AI because it appears more human. It can’t have original thoughts. It just anticipates the next word. The expectation that it can write code is way overblown,” she said.</p>
3911.  
3912.  
3913.  
3914. <p>LLMs need to handled very carefully, she added. “There are many ways around the guardrails. An individual might come up with a slightly different prompt” to get around programmed restrictions, she said.</p>
3915.  
3916.  
3917.  
3918. <p>IT “must focus on what can realistically be implemented in realistic use cases,” Mellen said. “Don’t treat it as though LLMs are hammers and all of your problems are nails. The [LLM] capabilities are being oversold by most of the business world — investors and executives.”</p>
3919. </div></div></div><category>Generative AI, IT Operations</category></div>]]></description>
3920. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2095216/llm-deployment-flaws-that-catch-it-by-surprise.html</link>
3921. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2095216</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/shutterstock_2186538179.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="8605814" type="image/jpeg" />
3922. </item>
3923. <item>
3924. <title>10 ways to turn off Windows’ worst ads</title>
3925. <pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2024 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
3926. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
3927. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
3928.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
3929. <div class="article-column__content">
3930. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
3931.  
3932.  
3933.  
3934. <p>Both Windows 11 and Windows 10 are <em>full</em> of advertisements and other Microsoft-provided messages that pop up seemingly everywhere and can get in the way of your day-to-day routines. And then there are things that aren’t exactly<em> ads</em> — noisy notifications about viral online articles on MSN, for instance, where Microsoft gets a cut of the advertising. </p>
3935.  
3936.  
3937.  
3938. <p>Want to get rid of all the annoying ads and pop-ups you can? After a few tweaks, Windows will quiet down and stop bothering you so much when you’re trying to get work done. (Alas, Microsoft doesn’t make it possible to turn off <em>everything</em>, so don’t be surprised if you still see a few surprises even after following this guide.) </p>
3939.  
3940.  
3941.  
3942. <p><em>I’ve got so many more useful PC tips and tricks to share with you! Sign up for my free </em><a href="https://theintelligence.com/windows-cw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Windows Intelligence newsletter</em></a><em> — three things to try every Friday. Plus, get free copies of Paul Thurrott’s Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (a $10 value) for signing up.</em> </p>
3943.  
3944.  
3945.  
3946. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="disable-start-menu-ads">Disable Start menu ads</h2>
3947.  
3948.  
3949.  
3950. <p>Windows 11 is getting <a href="https://www.pcworld.com/article/2300741/its-official-ads-are-coming-to-the-windows-start-menu.html" target="_blank">advertisements for apps in its Start menu</a> — something Windows 10 PCs already have. To avoid seeing these: </p>
3951.  
3952.  
3953.  
3954. <ul>
3955. <li>In Windows 11, open the Settings app and head to Personalization > Start. Turn off “Show recommendations for tips, shortcuts, new apps, and more.” </li>
3956.  
3957.  
3958.  
3959. <li>In Windows 10, open the Settings app and head to Personalization > Start. Turn off “Show suggestions occasionally in Start.”<strong> </strong> </li>
3960. </ul>
3961.  
3962.  
3963.  
3964. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="get-rid-of-notification-ads-and-full-screen-prompts">Get rid of notification ads and full-screen prompts </h2>
3965.  
3966.  
3967.  
3968. <p>Windows might sometimes send you notification pop-ups with “tips and suggestions.” These tips can include recommendations to use Microsoft Edge and messages pushing the Microsoft Rewards points program. Additionally, Windows sometimes shows you “finish setting up your PC” prompts with messages about using OneDrive and Microsoft 365. To get rid of these: </p>
3969.  
3970.  
3971.  
3972. <ul>
3973. <li>In Windows 11, open the Settings app and head to System > Notifications. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen, expand the “Additional settings” section, and uncheck the three options here: “Get tips and suggestions when using Windows,” “Suggest ways to get the most out of Windows and finish setting up this device,” and “Show the Windows welcome experience after updates and when signed in to show what’s new and suggested.” </li>
3974.  
3975.  
3976.  
3977. <li>In Windows 10, open the Settings app and head to System > Notifications & actions. Turn off these three options: “Show me the Windows welcome experience after updates and occasionally when I sign in to highlight what’s new and suggested,” “Suggest ways I can finish setting up my device to get the most out of Windows,” and “Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows” options. </li>
3978. </ul>
3979.  
3980.  
3981.  
3982. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="stop-seeing-ads-in-settings">Stop seeing ads in Settings </h2>
3983.  
3984.  
3985.  
3986. <p>Windows shows you more “suggestions” for subscriptions like Microsoft 365, Copilot Pro, and Xbox Game Pass in the Settings app. To get rid of these: </p>
3987.  
3988.  
3989.  
3990. <ul>
3991. <li>In Windows 11, open the Settings app and head to Privacy & security > General. Turn off “Show me suggested content in the Settings app.” </li>
3992. </ul>
3993.  
3994.  
3995.  
3996. <ul>
3997. <li>In Windows 10, open the Settings app and head to Privacy > General. Turn off “Show me suggested content in the Settings app.” </li>
3998. </ul>
3999.  
4000.  
4001. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-settings-app-copilot-pro.png?w=1024" alt="Windows Settings app - Copilot Pro" class="wp-image-2096445" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-settings-app-copilot-pro.png?quality=50&strip=all 1232w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-settings-app-copilot-pro.png?resize=300%2C152&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-settings-app-copilot-pro.png?resize=768%2C390&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-settings-app-copilot-pro.png?resize=1024%2C519&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-settings-app-copilot-pro.png?resize=150%2C76&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-settings-app-copilot-pro.png?resize=854%2C433&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-settings-app-copilot-pro.png?resize=640%2C325&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-settings-app-copilot-pro.png?resize=444%2C225&quality=50&strip=all 444w" width="1024" height="519" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>The Settings app now pushes Microsoft’s subscription services hard. </p></figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">Chris Hoffman, IDG</p></div>
4002.  
4003.  
4004.  
4005. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="hide-ads-in-file-explorer">Hide ads in File Explorer </h2>
4006.  
4007.  
4008.  
4009. <p>Microsoft has used banners in File Explorer to show advertisements for OneDrive storage. To avoid seeing these: </p>
4010.  
4011.  
4012.  
4013. <ul>
4014. <li>In Windows 11, open File Explorer, click the “…” menu on the toolbar, and select “Options.” Click over to the “View” tab, scroll down to near the bottom of the list, and uncheck “Show sync provider notifications.” Click “OK.” </li>
4015. </ul>
4016.  
4017.  
4018.  
4019. <ul>
4020. <li>In Windows 10, open File Explorer, click the “View” tab on the ribbon, and click “Options.” Click over to the “View” tab, scroll down to near the bottom of the list, and uncheck “Show sync provider notifications.” Click “OK.” </li>
4021. </ul>
4022.  
4023.  
4024.  
4025. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="avoid-lock-screen-ads">Avoid lock screen ads </h2>
4026.  
4027.  
4028.  
4029. <p>Windows PCs can use Microsoft’s Windows Spotlight feature to see regularly updated background images on their lock screen. It’s a nice feature, but Microsoft has also used it to <a href="https://www.pcworld.com/article/419788/windows-10-lock-screen-ads-begin-with-rise-of-the-tomb-raider-push.html" target="_blank">push full-screen advertisements for PC games</a> and advertising-type messages. To stop this from happening: </p>
4030.  
4031.  
4032.  
4033. <ul>
4034. <li>In Windows 11, open the Settings app and head to Personalization > Background. Set “Personalize your background” to something like “Picture” and choose whatever picture you like — anything but “Windows Spotlight.” </li>
4035. </ul>
4036.  
4037.  
4038.  
4039. <ul>
4040. <li>In Windows 10, open the Settings app, head to Personalization > Lock screen. Click the “Background” box and select “Picture” or “Slideshow” — anything but “Windows Spotlight.” Turn off the “Get fun facts, tips, and more from Windows and Cortana on your lock screen” switch here, too. (It won’t appear if Windows Spotlight is turned off.) </li>
4041. </ul>
4042.  
4043.  
4044.  
4045. <p>Personally, I put up with this — I’d rather have the fresh lock-screen images, even if I see an advertisement every now and then. It’s up to you. </p>
4046.  
4047.  
4048.  
4049. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="hide-clutter-in-the-search-pane">Hide clutter in the search pane </h2>
4050.  
4051.  
4052.  
4053. <p>The search box on the taskbar and the pop-up search experience both have “highlights” that recommend all kinds of shopping content, games, and other viral things. To turn those off: </p>
4054.  
4055.  
4056.  
4057. <ul>
4058. <li>In Windows 11, open the Settings app and head to Privacy & security > Search permissions. Scroll down and turn off “Show search highlights” here. </li>
4059. </ul>
4060.  
4061.  
4062.  
4063. <ul>
4064. <li>Windows 10 does not have this feature, so there’s nothing to turn off. </li>
4065. </ul>
4066.  
4067.  
4068. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-search-highlights.png?w=1024" alt="Windows Search Highlights" class="wp-image-2096446" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-search-highlights.png?quality=50&strip=all 1425w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-search-highlights.png?resize=300%2C244&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-search-highlights.png?resize=768%2C624&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-search-highlights.png?resize=1024%2C832&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-search-highlights.png?resize=858%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 858w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-search-highlights.png?resize=207%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 207w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-search-highlights.png?resize=103%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 103w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-search-highlights.png?resize=591%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 591w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-search-highlights.png?resize=443%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 443w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-search-highlights.png?resize=308%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 308w" width="1024" height="832" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>The search pane normally recommends shopping and games when you start a search. </p></figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">Chris Hoffman, IDG</p></div>
4069.  
4070.  
4071.  
4072. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="never-see-feedback-popups">Never see feedback popups </h2>
4073.  
4074.  
4075.  
4076. <p>Windows might sometimes ask for feedback about your PC experience: Would you recommend Windows to other people? To avoid these interruptions and stop Windows from asking for feedback: </p>
4077.  
4078.  
4079.  
4080. <ul>
4081. <li>In Windows 11, open the Settings app and head to Privacy & security > Diagnostics & feedback. Click the “Feedback frequency” box and set it to “Never.” </li>
4082. </ul>
4083.  
4084.  
4085.  
4086. <ul>
4087. <li>In Windows 10, open the Settings app and head to Privacy > Diagnostics & feedback. Scroll down and set the “Feedback frequency” box to “Never.” </li>
4088. </ul>
4089.  
4090.  
4091.  
4092. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="turn-off-the-viral-firehose-in-widgets">Turn off the viral firehose in Widgets </h2>
4093.  
4094.  
4095.  
4096. <p>Windows 11’s Widgets experience pushes viral news articles and shows stock price movements on your taskbar by default. Windows 10 has a similar feature that also recommends viral stories. To turn off Widgets completely: </p>
4097.  
4098.  
4099.  
4100. <ul>
4101. <li>In Windows 11, right-click an empty spot on the taskbar, select “Taskbar settings,” and turn off “Widgets.” </li>
4102. </ul>
4103.  
4104.  
4105.  
4106. <ul>
4107. <li>In Windows 10, right-click an empty spot on the taskbar, point to “News and interests,” and select “Turn off.” </li>
4108. </ul>
4109.  
4110.  
4111.  
4112. <p>Or, you can just turn off those viral stories: </p>
4113.  
4114.  
4115.  
4116. <ul>
4117. <li>In Windows 11, click the Widgets icon at the left side of the taskbar, click the gear icon at the top-right corner of the Widgets pane, click “Show or hide feeds,” and turn off “My feed.” </li>
4118. </ul>
4119.  
4120.  
4121.  
4122. <ul>
4123. <li>Windows 10 doesn’t let you turn off the viral story feed while keeping the weather on the taskbar. </li>
4124. </ul>
4125.  
4126.  
4127. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-widgets-feed.png?w=1024" alt="Windows widget feed" class="wp-image-2096447" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-widgets-feed.png?quality=50&strip=all 2560w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-widgets-feed.png?resize=300%2C160&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-widgets-feed.png?resize=768%2C410&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-widgets-feed.png?resize=1024%2C547&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-widgets-feed.png?resize=1536%2C821&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-widgets-feed.png?resize=2048%2C1094&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-widgets-feed.png?resize=1240%2C663&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-widgets-feed.png?resize=150%2C80&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-widgets-feed.png?resize=854%2C456&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-widgets-feed.png?resize=640%2C342&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/windows-widgets-feed.png?resize=444%2C237&quality=50&strip=all 444w" width="1024" height="547" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><strong>Windows 11’s Widgets feed is still the most annoying part of the operating system.</strong> </figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">Chris Hoffman, IDG</p></div>
4128.  
4129.  
4130.  
4131. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="toss-apps-that-come-stuck-to-your-start-menu">Toss apps that come stuck to your Start menu </h2>
4132.  
4133.  
4134.  
4135. <p>Windows PCs come with a bunch of app shortcuts “pinned” to their Start menus. Most of these apps aren’t technically <em>installed</em> yet — they’ll just be installed if you click their shortcuts. For example, you might see apps like “Luminar Neo – AI Photo Editor” and “Grammarly” pinned to your Start menu. To get rid of them: </p>
4136.  
4137.  
4138.  
4139. <ul>
4140. <li>In Windows 11, open the Start menu. Look at the list of pinned apps. Right-click apps you don’t use and select either “Uninstall” or “Unpin from Start.” </li>
4141. </ul>
4142.  
4143.  
4144.  
4145. <ul>
4146. <li>In Windows 10, open the Start menu. Look at the list of pinned app tiles on the right side of the menu. Right-click apps you want to get out of there and select either “Uninstall” or “Unpin from Start.” </li>
4147. </ul>
4148.  
4149.  
4150.  
4151. <p>If your Windows 10 PC is old enough, you might even see a tile for <a href="https://www.pcworld.com/article/427484/windows-10-will-ship-with-candy-crush-saga-preinstalled.html" target="_blank"><em>Candy Crush</em></a>! (Amusingly enough, Microsoft now owns <em>Candy Crush</em> after its <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1636737/ftc-renews-legal-challenge-to-microsofts-69b-purchase-of-activision.html" target="_blank">controversial acquisition of Activision-Blizzard</a>.) </p>
4152.  
4153.  
4154.  
4155. <p>You might also want to uninstall bundled apps you don’t want. For example, many new PCs come with a trial of McAfee antivirus — you can <a href="https://www.pcworld.com/article/2310743/how-to-uninstall-mcafee-antivirus.html" target="_blank">uninstall McAfee antivirus</a> if you’re not going to use it. </p>
4156.  
4157.  
4158.  
4159. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="clean-up-microsoft-edge">Clean up Microsoft Edge</h2>
4160.  
4161.  
4162.  
4163. <p>The Microsoft Edge browser is stuffed full of viral news stories, AI features, links to MSN games, recommendations for coupons, and all kinds of other additional things. You can avoid them by switching to another web browser, but if you want to use Edge, here are a few steps you can take: </p>
4164.  
4165.  
4166.  
4167. <ul>
4168. <li><strong>Clean up Edge’s Start page</strong>: Open a new tab in Microsoft Edge, click the gear icon at the top-right corner of the page, turn off “Content,” and turn off “Show sponsored background.” </li>
4169. </ul>
4170.  
4171.  
4172.  
4173. <ul>
4174. <li><strong>Turn off the sidebar</strong>: Click the gear icon at the bottom of the sidebar on the right side of the Edge browser. Uncheck “Always show sidebar.” </li>
4175. </ul>
4176.  
4177.  
4178.  
4179. <ul>
4180. <li><strong>Get rid of shopping notifications</strong>: Click the menu icon near the top-right corner of the Edge browser window and choose “Settings.” Select “Privacy, search, and services” at the left side of the Settings page, scroll down to the “Services” section, and turn off “Save time and money with Shopping in Microsoft Edge.” </li>
4181. </ul>
4182.  
4183.  
4184.  
4185. <p>If you like some of these features — that’s fine! But there’s <em>a lot</em> going on in Edge, and just changing these few settings should quieten things down. </p>
4186.  
4187.  
4188. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/microsoft-edge-start-screen.png?w=1024" alt="Microsoft Edge start screen" class="wp-image-2096448" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/microsoft-edge-start-screen.png?quality=50&strip=all 1127w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/microsoft-edge-start-screen.png?resize=300%2C242&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/microsoft-edge-start-screen.png?resize=768%2C620&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/microsoft-edge-start-screen.png?resize=1024%2C827&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/microsoft-edge-start-screen.png?resize=863%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 863w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/microsoft-edge-start-screen.png?resize=208%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 208w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/microsoft-edge-start-screen.png?resize=104%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 104w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/microsoft-edge-start-screen.png?resize=594%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 594w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/microsoft-edge-start-screen.png?resize=446%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 446w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/microsoft-edge-start-screen.png?resize=310%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 310w" width="1024" height="827" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>Using Edge becomes a much more peaceful experience after you clean up its new tab page. </p>
4189. </figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">Chris Hoffman, IDG</p></div>
4190.  
4191.  
4192.  
4193. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="more-pc-annoyances-you-can-end">More PC annoyances you can end </h2>
4194.  
4195.  
4196.  
4197. <p>If you’d like to take control over your PC, be sure to check out <a href="https://theintelligence.com/31812/use-a-windows-pc-without-a-microsoft-account-lite/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">my guide on how to sign in with a local account</a>. There’s a secret handshake you can use while setting up your computer. </p>
4198.  
4199.  
4200.  
4201. <p>Still find Windows annoying? Some of the biggest annoyances on Windows 11 and Windows 10 PCs aren’t ads at all! Here’s <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1611240/microsoft-windows-annoyances.html" target="_blank">a list of 10 Windows annoyances — and how to fix them</a>. For example, you can turn off Bing search in the Start menu completely — but Microsoft buries this option and makes it hard to find. </p>
4202.  
4203.  
4204.  
4205. <p><em>Want something that’s </em><strong><em>not</em></strong><em> annoying? Get even more Windows insights, tips, and tricks with my free </em><a href="https://theintelligence.com/windows-cw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Windows Intelligence newsletter</em></a><em>, which brings you three new things to try every Friday. Plus, get free Windows 10 and 11 Field Guides as soon as you sign up.</em> </p>
4206. </div></div></div><category>Microsoft, Operating Systems, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows PCs</category></div>]]></description>
4207. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2096419/10-ways-to-turn-off-windows-worst-ads.html</link>
4208. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2096419</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cso_nw_on-off_switch_pressing_power_button_by_thomas_soellner_gettyimages-847794500_2400x1600-100815863-orig-2.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="670952" type="image/jpeg" />
4209. </item>
4210. <item>
4211. <title>Amazon Q Business now available with new app-builder capabilities</title>
4212. <pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2024 20:37:23 +0000</pubDate>
4213. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
4214. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
4215.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
4216. <div class="article-column__content">
4217. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
4218.  
4219.  
4220.  
4221. <p>Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday said its generative AI-based assistant for business applications — Amazon Q Business — is now generally available.</p>
4222.  
4223.  
4224.  
4225. <p><a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1640191/amazon-q-aws-answer-to-microsoft-s-gpt-driven-copilot.html">Introduced at re:Invent last year</a>, Amazon Q Business can be used to have conversations, solve problems, generate content, gain insights, and take action by connecting to a company’s information repositories, data, and enterprise systems, AWS  said. </p>
4226.  
4227.  
4228.  
4229. <p>To use Q as an assistant for business apps, enterprises first need to configure the generative AI (genAI) assistant by connecting it to existing data sources, which can include AWS’ S3 storage service as well as applications from vendors including Salesforce, Microsoft, Google, and Slack. </p>
4230.  
4231.  
4232.  
4233. <p>Q currently supports connectors for more than 40 tools and applications.</p>
4234.  
4235.  
4236.  
4237. <p>Additionally, AWS has added a new app-building capability to Amazon Q Business, which is a web-based application.<br><br>Named Amazon Q Apps and currently in preview, the feature will allow enterprise users, including business users, to develop applications based on their enterprise data using natural language.</p>
4238.  
4239.  
4240.  
4241. <p>“With Q Apps, employees simply describe the app they want, in natural language, or they can take an existing conversation where Amazon Q Business helped them solve a problem, and with one click, Q will instantly generate an app that accomplishes their desired task that can be easily shared across their enterprise,” said Mai-Lan Tomsen Bukovec, vice president of technology at AWS. </p>
4242.  
4243.  
4244.  
4245. <p>Q Apps could include HR or marketing apps designed either to onboard employees or to automate tasks. They can be accessed via the Amazon Q Business application environment, the company said; Q Apps is enabled by default and can be switched off from the Amazon Q Business console.</p>
4246.  
4247.  
4248.  
4249. <p>Bukovec said a Q App is made up of a collection of cards, with each card serving as a  user interface element that can be combined with other cards to generate an application.</p>
4250.  
4251.  
4252.  
4253. <p>“Cards take in user input, support file uploads, connect to other cards, generate text output, and allow actions through Amazon Q Business plugins,” the <a href="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/qbusiness-ug/purpose-built-qapps-web-experience.html" data-type="link" data-id="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/qbusiness-ug/purpose-built-qapps-web-experience.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">company said in a blog post</a>. </p>
4254.  
4255.  
4256.  
4257. <p>Enterprise users can add to the Q app, edit it, or delete a card, AWS said. </p>
4258.  
4259.  
4260.  
4261. <p>At a more basic level, text output and plugin cards contain prompt instructions that determine how Amazon Q Business is queried to generate a response. </p>
4262.  
4263.  
4264.  
4265. <p>“When enterprise users use the Amazon Q Apps Creator, relevant cards are automatically generated with prefilled prompts. Users can further refine these prompts using simple, natural language,” the company said.</p>
4266.  
4267.  
4268.  
4269. <p>“When writing or editing a prompt for a card, your users can reference other cards using ‘@’ mention to select from the list of cards in the app. Users can also instruct in the prompt to reference your enterprise data already in Amazon Q Business,” AWS said.</p>
4270.  
4271.  
4272.  
4273. <p>Amazon Q Apps developed by one enterprise user can be shared with other users across the company via the Amazon Q Apps library.</p>
4274.  
4275.  
4276.  
4277. <p>Q Apps can also be copied and customized by other users to create a new version. </p>
4278.  
4279.  
4280.  
4281. <p>Amazon Q Business is available in two subscription models — Lite and Pro — which are priced at $3 and $20 per user, per month, respectively. The Pro subscription offers Amazon Q Apps, extended capabilities via custom plugins, and the ability to gain insights via Q in QuickSight. These capabilities are not available in the Lite subscription pack.</p>
4282.  
4283.  
4284.  
4285. <p>Additionally, the Pro subscription allows enterprise users to receive responses in a conversational interface up to approximately seven pages compared to the Lite pack’s limit of one page.</p>
4286. </div></div></div><category>Amazon Web Services, Enterprise Applications, Generative AI, Productivity Software</category></div>]]></description>
4287. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2096890/amazon-q-business-now-available-with-new-app-builder-capabilities.html</link>
4288. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2096890</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/amazon-q-2-100948794-orig-1.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="62652" type="image/jpeg" />
4289. </item>
4290. <item>
4291. <title>CHIPS Act is working as billions of dollars in payouts is divvied out to semiconductor makers</title>
4292. <pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2024 17:44:34 +0000</pubDate>
4293. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
4294. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
4295.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
4296. <div class="article-column__content">
4297. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
4298.  
4299.  
4300.  
4301. <p>More than a year and a half after the <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1612473/us-senate-approves-52-billion-for-chipmakersbut-not-designers.html" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1612473/us-senate-approves-52-billion-for-chipmakersbut-not-designers.html">CHIPS and Science Act was signed into law</a>, the Biden Administration has begun divvying up $52.7 billion in funding and tax incentives meant to spur semiconductor production on US soil, though the actual funding has yet to be dispersed.</p>
4302.  
4303.  
4304.  
4305. <p>Over the past several months, the administration, which championed the legislation, has allocated about $29 billion in funding among chipmakers, including Samsung, TSMC and Intel. In return, various chip designers and makers have pledged about $300 billion in current and future projects in the US, according to the White House.</p>
4306.  
4307.  
4308.  
4309. <p>The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/25/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-up-to-6-1-billion-preliminary-agreement-with-micron-under-the-chips-and-science-act/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">most recent announcement</a> last week was for $6.14 billion toward Micron’s plans to build new fabrication plants in upstate New York and perform upgrades elsewhere. To date, Intel has reaped the most in promised funds: <a href="https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/us-chips-act-intel-direct-funding.html#gs.8p9rfu" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/us-chips-act-intel-direct-funding.html#gs.8p9rfu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$8.5 billion</a>. </p>
4310.  
4311.  
4312.  
4313. <p>The Department of Commerce, which is administering the CHIPS Act, has spent months negotiating with semiconductor designers and fabricators to gain commitments from the companies and to achieve specific milestones in their projects before getting government payouts.</p>
4314.  
4315.  
4316.  
4317. <p>For example, negotiations between the federal government and TSMC resulted in the Taiwanese semiconductor designer and manufacturer being promised $6.6 billion in CHIPS Act funding; in return, the company bringing its most advanced 2nm process technology to US shores and adding <a href="https://pr.tsmc.com/english/news/3122" data-type="link" data-id="https://pr.tsmc.com/english/news/3122" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">plans for a third fabrication plant</a> to its Arizona site.</p>
4318.  
4319.  
4320. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2023/04/micron-megafab-1-100939443-orig.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&auto=webp&quality=85,70" alt="micron megafab 1" class="wp-image-506208" width="3000" height="2000" sizes="(max-width: 3000px) 100vw, 3000px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>An artist’s rendition of Micron’s proposed fabrication plant, to be located in Onondaga County, NY. The plant will be the size of 40 football fields and is expected to provide close to 50,000 jobs for the region.</p> </figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">Micron Technologies</p></div>
4321.  
4322.  
4323.  
4324.  
4325. <p>At the beginning of 2023, TSMC, the world’s largest chip maker, began construction on its second chip fabrication plant near Phoenix, AZ. For Biden, TSMC’s three plants represented <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/biden-visits-arizona-semiconductor-plant-in-latest-celebration-of-the-chips-act-220015724.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the flagship</a> of the CHIPS Act incentive program. The TSMC project, however, stalled, and the company announced it had pushed back its completion date to 2025 due to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/aug/28/phoenix-microchip-plant-biden-union-tsmc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">problems finding skilled labor</a>.</p>
4326.  
4327.  
4328.  
4329. <p>TSMC had <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/06/tsmc-to-up-arizona-investment-to-40-billion-with-second-semiconductor-chip-plant.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">promised to make a $40 billion investment</a> in its US chip production plant. The investment represents the largest ever foreign investment in Arizona and one of the largest in US history.</p>
4330.  
4331.  
4332.  
4333. <p>Micron said it might spend up to $100 billion over the next 20 years to expand its US facilities, including a $15 billion memory chip plant in its home base of Boise, ID.</p>
4334.  
4335.  
4336.  
4337. <p>Industry analysts say the CHIPS Act is having its desired effect — the largest semiconductor designers and makers are investing in the US. By 2030, research firm IDC expects that 30% of the leading edge chip techology will be produced in the US, Western Europe, and Japan.</p>
4338.  
4339.  
4340.  
4341. <p>“Today, the semiconductor supply chain is concentrated in Asia,” said Mario Morales, a group vice president at IDC. “In fact, 100% of the global leading-edge chip capacity —  5nm and below — is only available in Taiwan and Korea. This will change dramatically by the end of the decade as leading-edge manufacturing is reestablished in the western hemisphere and in Japan.”</p>
4342.  
4343.  
4344.  
4345. <p>The latest round of CHIPS Act funding will support Micron’s construction of the first two fabs of a planned four-building “megafab” focused on leading-edge DRAM chip production. Each fab will have 600,000 square feet of cleanrooms, totaling 2.4 million square feet across the four facilities — the largest amount of cleanroom space ever announced in the US and the size of nearly 40 football fields.</p>
4346.  
4347.  
4348.  
4349. <p>The CHIPS Act’s purpose was to strengthen American supply chain resilience after the pandemic and counter China’s rising share of the market. The US share of global semiconductor fabrication capacity has fallen from about 36% in 1990 to about 10% in 2020, according to a Congressional Research Service report. Meanwhile, China’s share of chip manufacturing <a href="https://www.tomshardware.com/news/china-increases-chip-production-and-imports" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has grown nearly 50%</a> over the past two years and now comprises about 18% of the world’s supply.</p>
4350.  
4351.  
4352.  
4353. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="more-chips-acts-to-come">More CHIPS Acts to come?</h2>
4354.  
4355.  
4356.  
4357. <p>The White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/20/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-up-to-8-5-billion-preliminary-agreement-with-intel-under-the-chips-science-act/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has argued that CHIPS Act spending</a> will grow America’s share of the world’s leading-edge chip market to 20% by 2030. But experts say more government incentives will be needed to sustain and continue that growth domestically.</p>
4358.  
4359.  
4360.  
4361. <p>“The first CHIPS Act is just the start, there will be more funds needed to sustain and include other parts of the supply chain like materials, OSAT, design, and tools,” Morales said. “I expect that a second CHIPS Act will likely be higher in value than the first and will be approved sometime in the second half of this decade — in 2026 or 2027.”</p>
4362.  
4363.  
4364.  
4365. <p>Gaurav Gupta, a vice president analyst at Gartner Research, agreed with Morales that more funding is needed, and that while the current funding closes the capital cost gap, it does not do much for future operational costs. “Various factors will continue to make it expensive for fabs to be competitive here, like the regulatory and compliance framework that causes delays, labor compensation, higher utility rates, etc,” he said.</p>
4366.  
4367.  
4368.  
4369. <p>“So, if the US government really wants the needle to move and make this current CHIPS Act have a real impact, I expect version 2.0, 3.0 and onwards to come. When and what amounts they would be is hard to predict for now,” Morales said.</p>
4370.  
4371.  
4372.  
4373. <p>The current CHIPS Act includes $39 billion in subsidies for chip manufacturing on US soil along with 25% investment tax credits for costs of manufacturing equipment, and $13 billion for semiconductor research and workforce training.</p>
4374.  
4375.  
4376.  
4377. <p>In December, <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1611166/why-billions-of-chips-act-dollars-have-not-been-distributed.html"><em>Computerworld</em> contacted the Department of Commerce</a> to discover why funds from the CHIPs Act had yet to be distributed. The Department said at the time it was still in “complex negotiations” with chip manufacturers to ensure the money is wisely spent.</p>
4378.  
4379.  
4380.  
4381. <p>In February, the Administration announced $1.5 billion for GlobalFoundries to support the development and expansion of facilities in Malta, NY, and Burlington, VT.</p>
4382.  
4383.  
4384.  
4385. <p>Last month, more multi-billion-dollar distributions were announced, including $8.5 billion for Intel to support investments across four states, (Chandler, AZ; Rio Rancho, NM; New Albany, OH; and Hillsboro, OR) to construct logic fabs, modernize advanced packaging facilities, and invest in R&D.</p>
4386.  
4387.  
4388.  
4389. <p>Along with Micron this month, $6.4 billion was allocated for Samsung to build an R&D facility, and advanced packaging fabs in Taylor, TX, and to expand a current-generation and mature-node facility in Austin, TX. And $6.6 billion was earmarked for TSMC to support the development of three greenfield leading-edge fabs in Phoenix, AZ.</p>
4390.  
4391.  
4392.  
4393. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="chip-production-the-supply-chain-crisis-and-the-new-law">Chip production, the supply-chain crisis, and the new law</h2>
4394.  
4395.  
4396.  
4397. <p><br>In 2021, the decline in domestic chip production was exposed by <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1616788/supply-chain-semi-conductor-issues-slam-pc-shipments.html">a worldwide supply-chain crisis</a> that led to calls for reshoring manufacturing to the US. After more than a year of work from the Administration to respond to acute semiconductor shortages, Congress in August 2022 passed the measure. With the CHIPS Act spurring them on, semiconductor makers including  <a href="https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/resources/intel-invests-ohio.html#gs.4fm5tv" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Intel</a>, <a href="https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-electronics-announces-new-advanced-semiconductor-fab-site-in-taylor-texas" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Samsung</a>, <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1613923/micron-to-build-largest-chip-factory-in-us-history.html">Micron</a>, <a href="https://pr.tsmc.com/system/files/newspdf/THGOANPGTH/NEWS_FILE_EN.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TSMC</a>, and <a href="https://techxplore.com/news/2021-11-texas-instruments-billion-semiconductor-chip.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Texas Instruments</a> unveiled plans for a number of new plants on US soil. (Qualcomm, in partnership with GlobalFoundries, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/qualcomm-globalfoundries-sign-pact-double-chip-manufacturing-2022-08-08/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">also said it would invest $4.2 billion</a> to double chip production in its Malta, NY facility.)</p>
4398.  
4399.  
4400.  
4401. <p>Companies became eligible In February 2023 to apply for the <a href="https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2023/02/28/CHIPS_NOFO-1_Fact_Sheet_0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first round of CHIPS Act incentives</a> totaling $39 billion for the construction of large-scale fabrication facilities. Last September, a second funding opportunity for small-scale fabrication projects opened.</p>
4402.  
4403.  
4404.  
4405. <p>The Commerce Department said the CHIPS ACT has moved extremely fast for a government program. For example, as part of the funding application process, the agency has received over 530 statements of interest from companies in 42 states. The department also received 120 pre-applications and full applications for funding.</p>
4406. </div></div></div><category>CPUs and Processors, Government</category></div>]]></description>
4407. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2096415/chips-act-is-working-as-billions-of-dollars-in-payouts-is-divvied-out-to-semiconductor-makers.html</link>
4408. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2096415</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/shutterstock_2190565341-100948884-orig.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="4799330" type="image/jpeg" />
4409. </item>
4410. <item>
4411. <title>Apple is intensely focused on its global AI efforts</title>
4412. <pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2024 15:19:40 +0000</pubDate>
4413. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
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4421. <p>Not so long ago, I can remember how Apple’s “failures” in AI made critics smile. Those smiles now seem to have faded. Instead, Apple is <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2067633/why-is-apple-so-focused-on-vision-ai.html">accelerating at speed</a> to make people happy for a while with American AI.</p>
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4424.  
4425. <p>How do we know the company is moving fast? With more than 160,000 direct employees globally and hundreds of thousands more across partner firms, suppliers, and the currently beleaguered App economy, when the ship that is Apple moves in a direction the rumor mill usually indicates the destination. Along those lines, we’ve heard a lot of talk across the last week.</p>
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4429. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Apple’s top secret AI labs</strong></h2>
4430.  
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4432.  
4433. <p>Apple has created a top secret AI research lab in Zurich, Switzerland. The <em><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/87054a60-dc4d-4238-a4b9-93ab48f22f56" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Financial Times</a></em> also claims the company has hired hundreds of leading AI researchers during the last couple of years, many of them from Google. </p>
4434.  
4435.  
4436.  
4437. <p>These teams are focused on developing highly advanced AI models. What kind of models? In essence, these seem to be super-lightweight, highly focused neural networks capable of delivering really useful tools that function on the device.</p>
4438.  
4439.  
4440.  
4441. <p>To get a sense of what these might do, Apple researchers recently released a <a href="https://huggingface.co/apple" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wave of eight new AI models</a> capable of running on the device. The company calls them “<a href="https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/openelm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Open-source Efficient Language Models</a>”. </p>
4442.  
4443.  
4444.  
4445. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Model behavior</strong></h2>
4446.  
4447.  
4448.  
4449. <p>These are small models trained on public data that work on the device to solve focused tasks. The aim is to make it possible to run generative AI (genAI) tools on the device itself, rather than using servers, which preserves privacy, improves efficiency, and safeguards information. These solutions promise truly mobile AI devices that will work offline, with the code is being made available to researchers on <a href="https://github.com/apple/corenet" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GitHub</a>. </p>
4450.  
4451.  
4452.  
4453. <p>These aren’t the first AI models to slip out of Apple’s research labs. Earlier this year, the company published AI models that can edit photos through written prompts, and another to help people optimize their use of an iPhone. Interestingly, six of the researchers named as authors of a paper describing the latter technology were former Google employees hired in the last two years. </p>
4454.  
4455.  
4456.  
4457. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Making friends</strong></h2>
4458.  
4459.  
4460.  
4461. <p>Apple also seems to be exploring potential partnerships. In recent months, we’ve heard it has spoken with both Google and Baidu to make their AI models available to iPhones; last week, we heard it has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-renews-talks-with-openai-iphone-generative-ai-features-bloomberg-news-2024-04-26/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recommenced discussions</a> with OpenAI. </p>
4462.  
4463.  
4464.  
4465. <p>This has led both to speculation of an AI-dedicated App Store from which users can access bespoke selections of third-party AI solutions and rumors Apple seeks to license third-party models to enable its devices.</p>
4466.  
4467.  
4468.  
4469. <p>Apple also seems focused on augmenting its existing apps with AI. <em><a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/04/30/apple-to-unveil-ai-enabled-safari-browser-alongside-new-operating-systems" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AppleInsider</a></em> claims the company is testing a version of Safari with a built in AI-powered intelligent search agent capable of providing summaries of websites.</p>
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4471.  
4472.  
4473. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Think ethically</strong></h2>
4474.  
4475.  
4476.  
4477. <p>Throughout all of this, Apple has maintained a tight silence about the totality of its AI strategy. Critically, however, it’s important to understand that the company is not interested in building solutions that provide incorrect or inappropriate responses and would rather be cautious than to introduce an AI that is flawed. It seeks to develop ethical, useful AI that provides real benefits to users while retaining privacy. </p>
4478.  
4479.  
4480.  
4481. <p>This also extends to how it trains its AI models; if you look at its published research papers, you’ll find many of those it has revealed have been trained using publicly available data, rather than breaching copyright.</p>
4482.  
4483.  
4484.  
4485. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Apple is also investing in AI infrastructure</strong></h2>
4486.  
4487.  
4488.  
4489. <p>Apple will announce its financial results on Thursday. These aren’t expected to impress, but it seems likely much of the disappointment is already baked in. But for those of us curious about the extent to which Apple is preparing the ground for AI, it will be interesting to track how much the company is investing in capital expenditure. </p>
4490.  
4491.  
4492.  
4493. <p>We know such spending is taking place:</p>
4494.  
4495.  
4496.  
4497. <ul>
4498. <li>Just over a week ago, the company <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2093679/chasing-business-and-partnerships-apple-goes-apac.html">announced an expansion</a> to its Singapore campus to provide space for “new roles in AI and other key functions”, and is making <a href="https://en.antaranews.com/news/311136/apple-keen-to-invest-in-ai-development-in-new-capital-minister" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">similar investments in Indonesia</a>.</li>
4499.  
4500.  
4501.  
4502. <li>Apple also recently <a href="https://www.challenges.fr/high-tech/ia-apple-rachete-la-start-up-parisienne-datakalab_890773" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">acquired French AI firm Datakalab</a>. That company specializes in on-device processing, algorithm compression, and embedded AI.</li>
4503.  
4504.  
4505.  
4506. <li>Hints that Apple will have some reliance on AI in the cloud are also visible on news the company <a href="https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/apple-hires-former-google-data-center-ai-exec-to-lead-multi-cloud-effort/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has appointed former Google Sumit Gupta</a> as director of products, Apple Cloud. Gupta has years of experience in AI infrastructure, including a previous six-year stint as chief AI Strategy officer and CTO of AI at IBM.</li>
4507. </ul>
4508.  
4509.  
4510.  
4511. <p>All of these suggest that sizable investments in the infrastructure required to power AI on two billion actively used Apple devices is already taking place.</p>
4512.  
4513.  
4514.  
4515. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Securing the servers with Apple Silicon</strong></h2>
4516.  
4517.  
4518.  
4519. <p>Investment extends to R&D for infrastructure. After all, it means something that Apple is <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2024/04/23/apple-developing-its-own-ai-server-processor/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">allegedly considering building servers powered by Apple Silicon chips</a>. Those servers could go some way toward providing the kind of computational power required to drive AI services in the cloud, while also mitigating the enormous energy consumption such services require. </p>
4520.  
4521.  
4522.  
4523. <p>These data points should provide some color as we accelerate toward introduction of new <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/cal/apple-event-1714432110890.ics" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">M4(?)-powered, AI-capable iPads</a> at an online Apple keynote next week, followed by a little more insight at WWDC 2024 in June — and culminating with the <a href="https://www.applemust.com/what-apples-clever-plan-for-generative-ai-might-be/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">big AI iPhone 16 reveal in fall</a>.</p>
4524.  
4525.  
4526.  
4527. <p><em>Please follow me on </em><a href="https://social.vivaldi.net/@jonnyevans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Mastodon</em></a><em>, or join me in the <a href="https://mewe.com/join/appleholics_bar_and_grill" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AppleHolic’s bar & grill</a> and </em><a href="https://mewe.com/join/apple_discussions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Apple Discussions</em></a><em> groups on MeWe.</em></p>
4528. </div></div></div><category>Apple, Artificial Intelligence</category></div>]]></description>
4529. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2096725/apple-is-intensely-focused-on-its-global-ai-efforts.html</link>
4530. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2096725</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/shutterstock_editorial_2401577033.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="12434050" type="image/jpeg" />
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4533. <title>What Capgemini software chief learned about AI-generated code: highly usable, ‘too many unknowns’ for production</title>
4534. <pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2024 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
4535. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
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4539. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
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4543. <p>Capgemini Engineering is made up of more than 62,000 engineers and scientists across the globe whose job it is to create products for a myriad number of clients, from industrial companies building cars, trains and planes to independent software vendors. </p>
4544.  
4545.  
4546.  
4547. <p>So, when AI-assisted code generation tools began flooding the marketplace in 2022, the global innovation and engineering consultancy took notice. Afterall, one-fifth of Capgemini’s business involves producing software products for a global clientele facing the demands of digital transformation initiatives. </p>
4548.  
4549.  
4550.  
4551. <p>According to Capgamini’s own survey data, seven in 10 organizations will be using generative AI (genAI) for software engineering in the next 12 months. Today, 30% of organizations are experimenting with it for software engineering, and an additional 42% plan to use it within a year. Only 28% of organizations are steering completely clear of the technology. </p>
4552.  
4553.  
4554.  
4555. <p>In fact, genAI already assists in writing nearly one in every eight lines of code, and that ratio is expected hit one in every five lines of code over the next 12 months, according to Capgemini.</p>
4556.  
4557.  
4558.  
4559. <p>Jiani Zhang took over as the company’s chief software officer three years ago. In that time, she’s seen the explosion of genAI’s use to increase efficiencies and productivity among software development teams. But as good as it is at producing usable software, Zhang cautioned that genAI’s output isn’t yet ready for production — or even for creating a citizen developer workforce. There remain a number of issues developers and engineers will face when piloting its use, including security concerns, intellectual property rights issues, and the threat of malware.</p>
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4562. <div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1024" alt="Women in IT jobs" class="wp-image-2095309" style="width:667px;height:auto" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 1807w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?resize=300%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?resize=768%2C768&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?resize=1536%2C1536&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?resize=1240%2C1240&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?resize=697%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 697w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?resize=168%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 168w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?resize=84%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 84w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?resize=480%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 480w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?resize=360%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 360w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jiani-Zhang-headshot-1.jpg?resize=250%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 250w" width="1024" height="1024" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>Jiani Zhang, Chief Software Officer at Capgemini Engineering </p>
4563. </figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">Capgemini</p></div>
4564.  
4565.  
4566.  
4567. <p>That said, Zhang has embraced AI-generated software tools for a number of lower-risk tasks, and it has created significant efficiencies for her team. <em>Computerworld</em> spoke with Zhang about Capgemini Engineering’s use of AI; the following are excerpts from that interview.</p>
4568.  
4569.  
4570.  
4571. <p><strong>What’s your responsibility at Capgemini?</strong> “I look after software that’s in products. The software is so pervasive that you actually need different categories of software and differnent ways it’s developed. And, you can imagine that there’s a huge push right now in terms of moving software [out the door].”</p>
4572.  
4573.  
4574.  
4575. <p><strong>How did your journey with AI-generated software begin?</strong> “Originally, we thought about generative AI with a big focus on sort of creative elements. So, a lot of people were talking about building software, writing stories, building websites, generating pictures and the creation of new things in general. If you can generate pictures, why can’t you generate code? If you can write stories, why not write user stories or requirements that go into building software. That’s the mindset of the shift going on, and I think the reality is it’s a combination of a market-driven dynamic. Everyone’s kind of moving toward wanting to build a digital business. You’re effectively now competing with a lot of tech companies to hire developers to build these new digital platforms.</p>
4576.  
4577.  
4578.  
4579. <p>“So, many companies are thinking, ‘I can’t hire against these large tech companies out here in the Bay Area, for example. So, what do I do?’ They turn to AI…to deal with the fact that [they] don’t have the talent pool or the resources to actually build these digital things. That’s why I think it’s just a perfect storm, right now. There’s a lack of resources, and people really want to build digital businesses, and suddenly the idea of using generative AI to produce code can actually compensate for [a] lack of talent. Therefore, [they] can push ahead on those projects. I think that’s why there’s so much emphasis on [genAI software augmentation] and wanting to build towards that.”</p>
4580.  
4581.  
4582.  
4583. <p><strong>How have you been using AI to create efficiencies in software development and engineering?</strong> “I would break out the software development life cycle almost into stages. There is a pre-coding phase. This is the phase where you’re writing the requirements. You’re generating the user stories, and you create epics. Your team does a lot of the planning on what they’re going to build in this area. We can see generative AI having an additive benefit there just generating a story for you. You can generate requirements using it. So, it’s helping you write things, which is what generative AI is good at doing, right? You can give it some prompts of where you want to go and it can generate these stories for you.</p>
4584.  
4585.  
4586.  
4587. <p>“The second element is that [software] building phase, which is coding. This is the phase people are very nervous about it and for very good reason, because the code generation aspect of generative AI is still almost like a little bit of wizardry. We’re not quite sure how it gets generated. And then there’s a lot of concerns regarding security, like where did this get generated from? Because, as we know, AI is still learning from something else. And you have to ask [whether] my generated code is going to be used by somebody else? So there’s a lot of interest in using it, but then there’s a lot of hesitancy in actually doing the generation side of it.</p>
4588.  
4589.  
4590.  
4591. <p>“And then you have the post-coding phase, which is everything from deployment, and testing, and all that. For that phase, I think there’s a lot of opportunity for not just generative AI, but AI in general, which is all focused around intelligent testing. So, for instance, how do you generate the right test cases? How do you know that you’re testing against the right things? We often see from a lot of clients where effectively over the years they’ve just added more and more tests to that phase, and so it got bigger and bigger and bigger. But, nobody’s actually gone in and cleaned up that phase. So, you’re running a gazillion tests. Then you still have a bunch of defects because no one’s actually cleaned up the tests of defects they are trying to detect. So, a lot of this curates better with generative AI. Specifically, it can perform a lot of test prioritization. You can look at patterns of which tests are being used and not used. And, there’s less of a concern about something going wrong in with that. I think AI tools make a very big impact in that area.</p>
4592.  
4593.  
4594.  
4595. <p>“You can see AI playing different roles in different areas. And I think that the front part has less risk and is easier to do. Maybe it doesn’t do as much as the whole code generation element, but again there’s so much hesitancy around being comfortable with the generated code.”</p>
4596.  
4597.  
4598.  
4599. <p><strong><strong>How important is it to make sure that your existing code base is clean or error free before using AI code generation tools?</strong></strong> “I think it depends on what you’re starting from. With any type of AI technology, you’re starting with some sort of structure, some sort of data. You have some labeled data, you have some unlabeled data, and an AI engine is just trying to determine patterns and probabilities. So, when you say you want to generate code, well what are you basing new code that off of?</p>
4600.  
4601.  
4602.  
4603. <p>“If you were to create a <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1627101/what-are-large-language-models-and-how-are-they-used-in-generative-ai.html" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1627101/what-are-large-language-models-and-how-are-they-used-in-generative-ai.html">large language model</a> or any type of model, what’s your starting point? If your starting point is your code base only, then yes, all of the residual problems that you have will most likely be inherited because it’s training on bad data. Thinking about that is how you should code. A lot of people think, ‘I’m not going to be arrogant to think that my code is the best.’</p>
4604.  
4605.  
4606.  
4607. <p>“The more generic method would be to leverage larger models with more code sets. But then the more code you have gets you deeper into a security problem. Like where does all that code come from? And am I contributing to someone else’s larger code set? And what’s really scary is if you don’t know the code set well, is there a Trojan horse in there. So, there’s lot of dynamics to it. </p>
4608.  
4609.  
4610.  
4611. <p>“A lot of the clients that we face love these technologies. It’s so good, because it professes an opportunity to solve a problem, which is the shortage of talent, so as to actually build a digital business without that. But then they’re really challenged. Do I trust the results of the AI? And do I have a large enough code base that I’m comfortable using and not just imagining that some model will come from the ether to do this.”</p>
4612.  
4613.  
4614.  
4615. <p><strong>How have you addressed the previous issue — going with a massive LLM codebase or sticking to smaller, more proprietary in-house code and data?</strong> “I think it depends on the sensitivity of the client. I think a lot of people are playing with the code generation element. I don’t think a lot of them are taking [AI] code generation to production because, like I said, there’s just so many unknowns in that area.</p>
4616.  
4617.  
4618.  
4619. <p>“What we find is more clients have figured out more of that pre-code phase, and they’re also focusing a lot on that post-code phase, because both of those are relatively low risk with a lot of gain, especially in the area of like testing because it’s a very well-known practice. There’s so much data that’s in there, you can quickly clean that up and get to some value. So, I think that’s a very low-hanging fruit. And then on the front-end side of it, you know a lot of people don’t like writing user stories, or the requirements are written poorly and so the amount of effort that can take away from that is meaningful.”</p>
4620.  
4621.  
4622.  
4623. <p><strong>What are the issues you’ve run into with genAI code generation?</strong> “While it is the highest value [part of the equation]…, it is also about generating consistent code. But that’s the problem. Because generative AI is not prescriptive. So, when you tell it, ‘I want two ears and a tail that wags, it doesn’t actually give you a Labrador retriever every time. Sometimes it will give you a Husky. It’s just looking at what fits that [LLM]. So…when you change a parameter, it could generate completely new code. And then that completely new code means that you’re going have to redo all of the integration, deployment, all those things that comes off of it.</p>
4624.  
4625.  
4626.  
4627. <p>“There’s also a situation where even if you were able to contain your code set, build an LLM with highly curated, good engineering practices [and] software practices and complement it with your own data set — and generate code that you trust — you still can’t control whether the generated code will be the same code every single time when you make a change. I think the industry is still working to figure those elements out, refining and re-refining to see how you can have consistency.”</p>
4628.  
4629.  
4630.  
4631. <p><strong>What are your favorite AI code-augmentation platforms?</strong> “I think it’s quite varied. I think the challenge with this market is it’s very dynamic; they keep adding new feature sets and the new feature sets kind of overlap with each other. So, it’s very hard to determine what one is best. I think there are certain ones that are leading right now, but at the same time, the dynamics of the environment [are] such that you could see something introduced that’s completely new in the next eight weeks. So, it’s quite varied. I wouldn’t say that there is a favorite right now. I think everyone is learning at this point.”</p>
4632.  
4633.  
4634.  
4635. <p><strong>How do you deal with code errors introduced</strong> <strong>by genAI? What tools do you use to discover and correct those errors, if any?</strong> “I think that then goes into your test problem. Like I said, there’s a consistency problem that fundamentally we have to take into account, because every time we generate code it could be generated differently. Refining your test set and using that as an intelligent way of testing is a really key area to make sure that you catch those problems. I personally believe that they’re there because the software development life cycle is so vast.  </p>
4636.  
4637.  
4638.  
4639. <p>“It’s all about where people want to focus the post-coding phase. That testing phase is a critical element to actually getting any of this right. …It’s an area where you can quickly leverage the AI technologies and have minimal risk introduced to your production code. And, in fact, all it does is improve it. [The genAI] is helping you be smarter in running those test sets. And those test sets are then going to be highly beneficial to your generated code as well, because now you know what your audience is also testing against.</p>
4640.  
4641.  
4642.  
4643. <p>“So if the generated code is bad, you’ll catch it in these defects. It’s worth a lot of effort to look at that specific area because, like I said, it’s a low-risk element. There’s a lot of AI tools out there for that.</p>
4644.  
4645.  
4646.  
4647. <p>“And, not everything has to be generative AI, right? You know, AI and machine learning [have] been here for quite some time, and there’s a lot of work that’s already been done to refine [them]. So, there’s a lot of benefit and improvement that’s been done to those older tools. The market has this feeling that they need to adopt AI, but AI adoption hasn’t been the smoothest. So then [developers] are saying. ‘Let’s just leapfrog and let’s just get into using generative AI.’ The reality is that you can actually fix a lot of these things based off of technology that’s didn’t just come to market 12 months ago. I think there’s there’s definitely benefit in that.”</p>
4648.  
4649.  
4650.  
4651. <p><strong>What generative AI tools have you tried and what kind of success have you seen?</strong> “We’ve tried almost all of them. That’s the short answer. And they’ve all been very beneficial. I think that the reality is, like I said before, the landscape of genAI tools today is pretty comparable between the different cloud service providers. I don’t see a a leading one versus a non leading one. I feel like they all can do a pretty nice things. </p>
4652.  
4653.  
4654.  
4655. <p>“I think that the challenge is being up to date with what’s available because they keep releasing new features. That is encouraging, but at the same time you have to find a way to implement and use the technology in a meaningful way. At this point, the speed at which they’re pushing out these features versus the adoption in the industry is unmatched. I think there’s a lot more features than actual adoption. </p>
4656.  
4657.  
4658.  
4659. <p>“We have our Capgemini Research Institute, through which we do a lot of polls with executives, and what we found is about 30% of organizations are experimenting with genAI. And probably another 42% are going to be playing with it for the next 12 months. But that also means from an adoption perspective, those actually using it in software engineering, I think it’s only less than one-third that’s really fundamentally going to be impacting their production flow with generator. So I think the market is still very much in the experimentation phase. And so that’s why all the tool [are] pretty comparable in terms of what it can do and what it can’t do.</p>
4660.  
4661.  
4662.  
4663. <p>“And again, it’s not really about whether the feature set is greater in one platform versus another. I think it’s more the application of it to solving a business problem that makes the impact.”</p>
4664.  
4665.  
4666.  
4667. <p><strong>Do you use AI or generative AI for any software development? Forget pre-development and post-development for the moment. Do you actually use it to generate code that you use?</strong> “We do. Even for us, it is in an experimentation phase. But we have put in a lot of work ourselves in terms of refining generative AI engines so that we can generate consistent code. We’ve actually done quite a lot of experimentation and also proof of concepts with clients on all three of those phases [pre-code modeling, code development, post-code testing]. Like I said, the pre- and post- are the easier ones because there’s less risk.</p>
4668.  
4669.  
4670.  
4671. <p>“Now, whether or not the client is comfortable enough for that [AI] generated code to go to production is a different case. So, that proof of concept we’re doing is not necessarily production. And I think…taking it to production is still something that industry has to work through in terms of their acceptance.”</p>
4672.  
4673.  
4674.  
4675. <p><strong>How accurate is the code generated by your AI tools? Or, to put it another way, how often is that code usable?</strong> <strong>I’ve heard from other experts the accuracy rate<a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2077802/just-how-good-is-ai-assisted-code-generation.html" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2077802/just-how-good-is-ai-assisted-code-generation.html"> ranges anywhere from 50% to 80% and even higher</a>. What are you finding?</strong> “I think the code is highly usable, to be honest. I think it’s actually a pretty high percentage because the generated code, it’s not wrong. I think the concern with generated code is not whether or not it’s written correctly. I think it is written correctly. The problem, as I said, is around how that code was generated, whether there were some innate or embedded defects in it that people don’t know about. Then you know the other question is where did that generated code come from, and whether or not the generated code that you’ve created now feeds a larger pool, and is that secure?</p>
4676.  
4677.  
4678.  
4679. <p>“So imagine if I’m an industrial company and I want to create this solution, and I generate some code [whose base] came from my competitor. How do I know if this is my IP or their IP? Or if I created it, did that somehow through the ether migrate to somebody else generating that exact same code? So, it gets very tricky in that sense unless you have a very privatized genAI system.”</p>
4680.  
4681.  
4682.  
4683. <p><strong>Even when the code itself it not usable for whatever reason, can AI-generated code still be useful?</strong> “It’s true. There’s a lot of code that in the beginning may not be usable. It’s like with any learning system, you need to give it more prompts in order to tailor it to what you need. So, if you think about basic engineering, you define some integers first. If genAI can do that, you’ve now saved yourself some time from having to type in all the defined parameters and integer parameters and all that stuff because that could all be pre-generated. </p>
4684.  
4685.  
4686.  
4687. <p>“If it doesn’t work, you can give it an additional prompt to say, ‘Well, actually I’m looking for a different set of cycles or different kind of run times,’ and then you can tweak that code as well. So instead of you starting from scratch, just like writing a paper, you can have someone else write an outline, and you can always use some of the intro, the ending, some of these things that isn’t the actual meat of the content. And the meat of the content you can continue to refine with generative AI, too. So definitely, it’s a big help. It saves you time from writing it from scratch.”</p>
4688.  
4689.  
4690.  
4691. <p><strong>Has AI or genAI allowed you to create a citizen developer work force?</strong> “I think it’s still early. AI allows your own team to be a little faster in doing some of the things that they don’t necessarily want to do or it can cut down the toil from a developer’s perspective of generating test cases or writing user stories and whatnot. It’s pretty good at generating the outline of a code from a framework perspective. But for it to do it code generation independently, I think we’re we’re still relatively early on that.”</p>
4692.  
4693.  
4694.  
4695. <p><strong>How effective has AI code generation been in creating efficiencies and increasing productivity?</strong> “Productivity, absolutely. I think that’s a really strong element of the developer experience. The concept is that if you hire some really good software developers, they want to be building features and new code and things of that sort, and they don’t like do more of the pre-code responsibilities. So if you can solve more of that toil for them, get rid of more of that mundane repetitive things, then they can be focused on more of the value generation element of it.</p>
4696.  
4697.  
4698.  
4699. <p>“So, for productivity, I think it’s a big boost, but it’s not about developing more code. I think often times it’s about developing better code. So instead of saying I spent hours of my day just writing a basic structure, that’s now pre-generated for me. And now I can think about how do I optimize runtimes. How do I optimize the consumption or storage or whatnot?</p>
4700.  
4701.  
4702.  
4703. <p>“So, it frees up your mind to think about additional optimizations to make your code better, rather than just figuring out what the basis of the code is.”</p>
4704.  
4705.  
4706.  
4707. <p><strong>One of the other uses I’ve heard from engineers and developers is that genAI is often not even used to generate new code, but it’s most often used to update old code. Are you also seeing that use case?</strong> “I think all the genAI tools are going to be generating new code, but the difference is that one very important use case which you just highlighted: the old code migration element.</p>
4708.  
4709.  
4710.  
4711. <p>“What we also find with a lot of clients that have a lot of systems that are heavily outdated — they have systems that are 20-, maybe 30-years old. There could be proprietary code in there that nobody understands anymore and they’ve already lost that skill set. What you can do with AI-assisted code generation and your own team is create a corpus of knowledge of understanding of the old code so you can actually now ingest the old code and understand what that meta model is — what is it you’re trying to do? What are the right inputs and outputs? From there, you can actually generate new code in a new language that’s actually maintainable. And that’s a huge, huge benefit for clients.</p>
4712.  
4713.  
4714.  
4715. <p>“So, this is a great application of AI technology where it’s still generating your code, it’s not actually changing the old code. You don’t want it to change the old code, because it would still be unmanageable. So what you want is to have it understand the concept of what you’re trying to do so that you can actually generate new code that is much more maintainable.”</p>
4716.  
4717.  
4718.  
4719. <p><strong>Are there any other tips you can offer people who are considering using AI for code generation?</strong> “I think it’s a great time, because the technology is super exciting. There’s a lot of different choices for people to play around with and I think there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit. I feel like generative AI is also a huge benefit, because it’s introduced or reintroduced people to the concept that AI is actually attainable.</p>
4720.  
4721.  
4722.  
4723. <p>“There’s a lot of people who think AI is like the top of the pyramid technology. They think, I’m going to get there, but only if I clean up all of my data and I get all my data ingested correctly. Then, if I go through all those steps, I can use AI. But the pervasiveness and the attractiveness of general AI is that it is attainable even before that. It’s OK to start now. You don’t have to clean up everything before you get to that point. You can actually iterate and gain improvements along the way.</p>
4724.  
4725.  
4726.  
4727. <p>“If you look at that the software development life cycle, there’s a lot of areas right now that could be low risk use of AI. I wouldn’t even say just productivity. It’s just about it being more valuable to the outcomes that you want to generate and so it’s a good opportunity to start with. It’s not the be all to end all. It’s not going to be your citizen developer, you know, But it augments your team. It increases the productivity. It reduces the toil. So, it’s just a good time to get started.”</p>
4728. </div></div></div><category>Developer, Engineer, Generative AI</category></div>]]></description>
4729. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2095099/qa-capgemini-exec-on-why-ai-generated-software-isnt-ready-for-prime-time.html</link>
4730. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2095099</post-id><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/iStock-1354205086-2-1.jpg?quality=50&#038;strip=all" length="1048673" type="image/jpeg" />
4731. </item>
4732. <item>
4733. <title>The EU has decided to open up iPadOS</title>
4734. <pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2024 15:25:40 +0000</pubDate>
4735. <description><![CDATA[<div id="remove_no_follow">
4736. <div class="grid grid--cols-10@md grid--cols-8@lg article-column">
4737.  <div class="col-12 col-10@md col-6@lg col-start-3@lg">
4738. <div class="article-column__content">
4739. <section class="wp-block-bigbite-multi-title"><div class="container"></div></section>
4740.  
4741.  
4742.  
4743. <p>The EU has <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_2363" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">given Apple just six months to open up iPads</a> in the same way it’s been <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2092396/apple-sidles-into-sideloading-in-the-eu.html">forced to open up iPhones in Europe</a>. The decision follows an EU determination that the iPad — which leads but does not dominate the tablet market — should be seen as a “gatekeeper.”</p>
4744.  
4745.  
4746.  
4747. <p>Apple <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2075606/apple-will-continue-to-enhance-its-dma-compliance.html">will not have much time to comply</a>.</p>
4748.  
4749.  
4750.  
4751. <p>What’s really interesting, as noted by <em><a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/04/29/apples-ipad-doesnt-yet-meet-the-dma-criteria-but-is-getting-regulated-by-the-eu-anyway" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AppleInsider</a></em>, is the extent to which the decision to force Apple to open up iPadOS seems to have been made even though the EU’s lead anti-competition regulator, Margrethe Vestiger, says the company doesn’t actually meet the criteria for enforcement. </p>
4752.  
4753.  
4754.  
4755. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>It doesn’t meet the threshold, so we’ll do it anyway</strong></h2>
4756.  
4757.  
4758.  
4759. <p>“Today, we have brought Apple’s iPadOS within the scope of the DMA obligations,” said Vestager.  “Our market investigation showed that despite not meeting the thresholds, iPadOS constitutes an important gateway on which many companies rely to reach their customers.”</p>
4760.  
4761.  
4762.  
4763. <p>This triumph of ideology is just the latest poor decision from the trading bloc and comes as Apple gets ready to introduce new <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2091646/apples-iphone-slumps-as-consumers-wait-for-ai.html">software, features, and artificial intelligence to its devices</a> at its <a href="https://www.applemust.com/apple-will-seize-the-ai-opportunity-at-wwdc-analyst-says/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Worldwide Developer’s Conference in June</a>. </p>
4764.  
4765.  
4766.  
4767. <p>With that in mind, I expect <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2079810/100-billion-reasons-apple-is-putting-up-a-fight.html">Apple’s software development teams</a> need Europe’s latest decision about as much as the rest of us need an unexpected utility bill. That said, I imagine the challenge has not been entirely unexpected.</p>
4768.  
4769.  
4770.  
4771. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Sour grapes?</strong></h2>
4772.  
4773.  
4774.  
4775. <p>To some extent you have to see that Europe is playing defense.</p>
4776.  
4777.  
4778.  
4779. <p>Not only has it lost all advantages in space research to Big Tech firms such as Space X, but the continent has arguably failed to spawn a significant homegrown Big Tech competitor. This leaves Europe reliant on US technology firms, so it’s clear the EU is attempting to loosen the hold US firms have on digital business in Europe by using the  Digital Markets Act is being applied. </p>
4780.  
4781.  
4782.  
4783. <p>The EU isn’t alone; <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2073782/experts-see-no-merit-to-doj-antitrust-fight-with-apple.html">US regulators are equally determined</a> to dent the power Apple and other major tech firms hold. Fundamental to many of the arguments made is the claim that consumers will see lower prices as a result of more open competition, but I’m highly doubtful that will happen.</p>
4784.  
4785.  
4786.  
4787. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>So, what happens next?</strong></h2>
4788.  
4789.  
4790.  
4791. <p>Apple will likely attempt to resist the EU call to open up the iPad, but will eventually be forced to comply. Meanwhile, as sideloading intensifies on iPhones, we will see whether user privacy and safety do indeed turn out to be compatible with sideloading. </p>
4792.  
4793.  
4794.  
4795. <p>In an ideal world, the EU would hold off on any action involving iPads pending the results of that experiment. It makes sense for regulators and Apple to work constructively together to protect against <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1611499/apples-european-app-store-users-face-free-market-test.html">any unexpected consequences</a> as a result of the DMA before widening the threat surface. </p>
4796.  
4797.  
4798.  
4799. <p>Perhaps user security isn’t something regulators take seriously, even though government agencies across the EU and elsewhere are <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/number-agencies-have-concerns-about-sideloading-iphone-apple-says-2024-03-01/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">extremely concerned</a> at potential risks. Even in the US, regulators seem to want us to believe Apple’s “cloak” of privacy and security is actually being used to justify anti-competitive behavior. </p>
4800.  
4801.  
4802.  
4803. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Do the benefits exceed the risks?</strong></h2>
4804.  
4805.  
4806.  
4807. <p>Experientially, at least, there’s little doubt that platforms (including the Mac) that support sideloading face more malicious activity than those that don’t. Ask any security expert and they will tell you that in today’s threat environment, it’s only a matter of time until even the most secure systems are overwhelmed. So it is inevitable some hacker somewhere will find a way to successfully exploit Apple’s newly opened platforms.</p>
4808.  
4809.  
4810.  
4811. <p>It stands to reason that ransomware, adware, and fraud attempts will increase and it is doubtful the EU will shoulder its share of the burden to protect people against <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2088827/apple-people-in-more-than-92-nations-are-being-surveilled.html">any such threats that emerge as a result of its legislation</a>.</p>
4812.  
4813.  
4814.  
4815. <p>For most consumers, the biggest benefit will be the eventual need to purchase software from across multiple store fronts, and to leave valuable personal and financial details with a wider range of payment processing firms. </p>
4816.  
4817.  
4818.  
4819. <p>The joy I personally feel at these “improvements” is far from tangible. </p>
4820.  
4821.  
4822.  
4823. <p><em>Please follow me on <a href="https://social.vivaldi.net/@jonnyevans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mastodon</a>, or join me in the <a href="https://mewe.com/join/appleholics_bar_and_grill" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AppleHolic’s bar & grill</a> and </em><a href="https://mewe.com/join/apple_discussions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Apple</em> <em>Discussions</em></a><em> groups on MeWe.</em></p>
4824. </div></div></div><category>Apple, Apple App Store, iPad, Mobile</category></div>]]></description>
4825. <link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/2096248/the-eu-has-decided-to-open-up-ipados.html</link>
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4827. </item>
4828. </channel>
4829. </rss>
4830.