Despite high-profile layoffs in the information technology industry, 2022 was a strong year for IT-related job growth in both Virginia and Maryland — and an industry trade group predicts more of the same this year.
The Computing Technology Industry Association, known as CompTIA, has released its annual State of the Tech Workforce report, which looks at industry growth and workforce penetration in each state. By the numbers, here is how Maryland and Virginia fared:
Maryland
- 3,610 net new IT-related jobs in 2022, a growth rate of 1.7%
- More than 222,000 professionals worked in IT-related jobs in 2022
- IT employment accounted for 7.9% of Maryland’s total workforce, the ninth-highest concentration
- The median pay for an IT-related job was $109,646
Virginia
- 4,898 net new IT-related jobs in 2022, a growth rate of 1.4%
- Almost 360,000 professionals worked in IT-related jobs in 2022
- IT employment accounted for 8.7% of Virginia’s total workforce, the third-highest concentration, and fifth highest total among all states.
- The median pay for an IT-related job was $109,646
CompTIA forecasts a job growth rate of 2.3% for Maryland, or an additional 5,100 jobs in 2023, and another 7,500 jobs in Virginia this year, or a job growth rate of 2.1%
In compiling its tech employment numbers, CompTIA does not just count employment at technology companies.
“Almost every company has some amount of IT staff even if they’re not in the technology industry,” said Seth Robinson, vice president of industry research at CompTIA. “Your banks, your dentists, health care, education, everyone has IT workers and so there is a tremendous amount of people doing IT jobs that are not in the technology industry.”
High paying technology jobs often don’t require an expensive four-year college degree; certification programs, apprenticeships and experience often yield more clout in the IT industry, especially in this hard-to-hire environment.
“It’s not nearly the same that you could get into an IT support role with the same level of experience you could get into a data scientist role,” Robinson said. “But at that IT support level, an entry level security roll, a lot of software development jobs, we are seeing a lot of companies and organizations consider people who might not have come from a traditional education path.”
In Virginia, almost a third of tech jobs posted last year were for occupations related to emerging technologies or for positions that required emerging technology skills. That ranks Virginia fourth nationally for jobs in emerging tech fields.
For 2023, occupations CompTIA sees poised for further growth are positions in software development, programming, web development and systems engineers.
