Jobs in the computer sector improved in 2010, as did the overall economy, although the telecommunications sector did not fare as well, according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Companies in the IT engineering and telecom spaces were slow out of the gate and still bottoming out in 2010, said Andrea Hopkey, president of Allstates Technical Services L.L.C. The company provides staffing services in both IT and telecom. Allstates is now seeing steady progress as companies are starting to hire more contract workers. “A lot of companies cut too thin so they started to hire direct staff,” she said. Hot job skills in demand today include tower climbers, project management and construction management, as well as Distributed Antenna System (DAS) technicians, as well as call-center technicians.
The Labor Bureau reports that the computer and electronics products sector counted 4,600 more jobs in January, totalling 1.115 million positions. The number of jobs in all subsectors improved, led by the semiconductor subcategory, which counted 2,200 more positions. Year to year, the computer and electronics sector also in saw improvement, as more than 22,000 jobs were counted in the sector in January 2011, compared with January 2010.
The telecommunications sector did not fare as well, losing 3,600 positions between December and January, for a total of 878,700 jobs last month. Year to year, employment in the telecom space was down by 47,600 jobs.
Drilling down further, the wireline telecom space had 590,100 jobs in December 2010, down 28,800 from the year-ago period. Annual employment in the wired subsector was better, with 599,100 positions, but still down from the 635,000 positions calculated annually for 2009.
In the wireless space, the labor bureau counted 170,500 positions in 2010, down 16,400 positions from 2009.
Overall, the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 9% in
January, while nonfarm payroll employment changed little (up 36,000). The manufacturing and retail sectors reported improved employment, offsetting declines in construction and transportation and warehousing.
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