Dive Brief:
- Technology positions grew for the second consecutive month as employers added 69,000 tech jobs in May, according to a CompTIA review of U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics data published Friday.
- Despite layoffs last month by high-profile technology providers such as Meta and Cisco, tech sector companies added 6,700 jobs led by hiring in the cloud infrastructure and IT services categories.
- Unemployment among technology workers dropped again, falling to 3.1% from 3.5% in April, moving further away from its March peak of 3.9%. The snapshot of tech hiring during May reflects enterprise interest in boosting core operational functions to advance AI, data and cybersecurity capabilities, said Seth Robinson, VP of industry research at CompTIA, in a release.
Dive Insight:
The uptick in May’s tech hiring runs counter to a spike in tech industry layoffs, with companies pointing to AI’s influence in reshaping operations and business strategies as an underlying reason.
Technology sector companies announced 38,242 job cuts last month, marking the highest monthly total for the sector in nearly two years, according to an analysis by Challenger, Gray & Christmas published this week. Tech businesses have cut more than 123,000 jobs so far in 2026, a year-over-year increase of 66%.
Across all sectors of the economy, AI was the most common factor driving the cuts, the firm found. Nearly 90,000 layoffs were attributed to the technology so far this year, led by the technology sector.
Despite the layoffs — and like CompTIA — Challenger found an uptick in technology hiring as demand shifted, especially in May, where numbers last month alone surpassed all of 2025.
“Technology hiring remains active, but it is being reshaped in real-time,” said Kye Mitchell, head of technology services provider Experis North America. “Employers continue to invest, particularly in AI and supporting infrastructure, while becoming more selective about the roles they bring to market. The result is fewer open positions overall, but greater focus on roles tied to execution and immediate impact.”
The rush to build data centers in support of AI deployment is showing up in broader hiring trends. Demand in construction, engineering and physical systems is getting a boost as large providers pour investments into infrastructure.
“The result is a technology hiring market that remains active but increasingly uneven, where growth and contraction are happening at the same time across different roles, driven by the shift from building AI to deploying it at scale,” Mitchell said.
Future hiring signals point toward growth in high-demand areas. Employers are juggling nearly 600,000 active job postings, with stronger demand for software developers, tech support specialists and cybersecurity engineers.
CIOs looking to make the most of the current hiring condition can look to the pool of laid-off workers to fill existing gaps, said Daniel Zhao, chief economist at Glassdoor, in an email to CIO Dive. But the broader economic picture calls for caution.
“Uncertainty is still the name of the game,” Zhao said. “Not only could the economy slip or reaccelerate through the rest of the year, but workforce and skill needs could shift dramatically as AI technologies develop rapidly but unevenly.”
