CRA Bulletin

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that the professional-level IT workforce will grow at more than twice the rate of the overall workforce between 2004 and 2014, creating 1 in 19 new jobs. In addition, many of these jobs will pay well.

Every two years, BLS releases workforce projections covering a 10-year period. The definition for the ‘professional IT workforce’ used here is that used by the Department of Commerce’s Office of Technology Policy (see the note below for more information).

The professional IT workforce is projected to add a little over a million new jobs between 2004 and 2014, an increase of about 30 percent. In 2004, there were 3.4 million IT professionals out of a total workforce of 145.6 million. The total workforce is expected to add 18.9 million jobs between 2004 and 2014.

Six of the 30 occupations that are projected to grow the fastest (i.e., percent gain) between 2004 and 2014 are in the IT profession. Among the 30 fastest-growing occupations, 17 have median salary earnings of $43,605 or above, including all six IT occupations.

Two of the six IT occupations listed as the fastest growing also rank among the 30 that are projected to have the largest numeric growth. Only seven of these 30 have median salary earnings of $43,605 or more, including both IT occupations.

Note: I have adopted the definition of ‘professional IT occupations’ that is used by the Department of Commerce’s Office of Technology Policy. This adds two occupations to the ten listed under the “Computer specialists” category (15-0000 through 15-1099) in the BLS tables: Computer and information system managers (11-3021) and Computer hardware engineers (17-2061).

The next two posts will provide more detail on projections for individual IT occupations and compare the 2004/2014 projections to those made for 2002/2012.

The 2004-2014 BLS projections are available in the November 2005 Monthly Labor Review, http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/11/contents.htm. See in particular “Occupational employment projections to 2014.”