10 Industries Hiring Tech Workers Now
Tech companies have been laying off workers at a rapid pace, but plenty of other industries are looking to hire those who’ve been let go.
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Getting laid off is never much fun.
And unfortunately, plenty of tech workers have had this unpleasant experience in the past few months. By some counts, technology firms have laid off well over 100,000 workers. And if you add in the layoffs that will come in the second half of 2023, the total will reach even higher. InformationWeek has been regularly tracking and updating this compilation of IT job cuts since November 2022, so that IT professionals can a sense of the overall impact.
Why are so many tech firms reducing headcount?
The conventional wisdom says that technology companies went on a hiring binge during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers and businesses spent a lot on hardware and software during the time when quarantines were common. Now that the emergency has passed, spending has slowed. And in the meantime, pressures from inflation, bank failures, and fears of a possible recession are prompting tech companies to look for ways to reduce costs. Layoffs are an easy way to accomplish that goal.
Fortunately, the news isn’t all bad.
If you have to look for a job, now seems like a good time to find one. The US unemployment rate has hovered near historic lows for much of 2023. Currently, unemployment is just 3.4%.
So where should tech workers who have recently lost their jobs be applying?
Many other industries are currently hiring IT professionals, and some are particularly interested in hiring folks who used to work for big tech firms. The following slideshow highlights 10 industries currently hiring IT pros, based on data from an assortment of job boards and Indeed.com’s list of companies hiring tech workers.
1. Financial Services
Financial services currently dominate in terms of industries that are looking to hire tech workers. For example, Wells Fargo filled more than 1,000 tech-related job openings in 2022, and the firm wants to hire 1,500 additional more in 2023. Other examples of prominent financial institutions with many tech-related job openings include Broadridge, PwC, and S&P Global. These companies wish to utilize tech workers to fill a wide range of different roles, but cybersecurity is especially important given that the majority of transactions are now carried out online. Banks and other institutions are eager to hire tech workers to fill cybersecurity roles and protect themselves from hackers and other security threats.
2. Aerospace and Defense
Similarly, a high number of companies from the aerospace and defense industry are looking to hire a lot of tech pros. Northrop Grumman, Leidos, ManTech International Corporation, CACI International, SAIC, and BAE systems USA are all prominent aerospace and defense organizations that are looking to significantly increase the number of IT workers that they employ. The aerospace and defense industry is rapidly changing as companies transition from a focus on engineering and hardware to a greater focus on software. With this transition as well their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, aerospace and defense companies offer a great opportunity for tech workers.
3. Management and Consulting
On Indeed’s list of the top 20 companies currently hiring in tech, Deloitte, a management and consulting company, ranked No. 1. Deloitte had 1,433 new tech jobs posted per 1 million new jobs posted on Indeed, more than doubling the number of the second ranked company on the list. Deloitte and other consulting firms rely on data analysis, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence to help organizations to innovate and transform many different aspects of their business strategy. Since having an analytics-based business strategy is essential in the current business climate, more organizations are turning to management and consulting firms for assistance.
4. Pharmaceuticals
The pharmaceutical industry is working to improve healthcare outcomes with the help of modern digital technologies. They are attempting to accomplish this in a variety of interesting ways, most notably including using artificial intelligence to design, produce, and market drugs. They also hope to use this technology to better predict and adapt to future epidemics. Pharma companies have also become major targets for cyberattacks, which means they need plenty of cybersecurity experts. And like many industries, they also have a lot of openings for data analysts, data engineers, and other data professionals.
5. Insurance
Insurance companies have a reputation for being inefficient and relatively old fashioned, but consumers are demanding a more high-tech and user-friendly experience. As they face pressure to modernize, these companies are looking to hire more tech workers to accelerate the process of digital transformation. Increasing the number of tech workers that they employ allows insurance companies to update and secure their business model in several key ways. This includes developing websites that give consumers easy access to their policies, using digital tools to manage important data, and using data analytics tools to better assess risk and design more effective insurance policies.
6. Healthcare
Modern healthcare depends on advanced digital technology and skilled workers to implement that technology. Healthcare industries have begun to rely more and more on cloud computing and AI both to achieve business insights and to help them make important healthcare decisions. Because of this, many prominent healthcare companies are looking to hire IT workers. For example, Change Healthcare, which is one of the largest providers of medical technology in the United health care is currently looking to hire lots of tech workers. According to indeed.com Change Healthcare had had 88 new tech job postings per 1 million total new jobs posted on Indeed. CVS Health, the prominent retail and pharmaceutical company, is hiring even more tech workers with a share of 132 per 1 million.
7. Automotive
Coming in at No. 7 on our list is the automotive industry. Electronic features are an incredibly important part of modern cars, trucks, and SUVs. These features include everything from advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) like blind spot alerts, automatic breaking, and adaptive cruise control, to apps that can connect vehicles to smartphones and other mobile devices. As these technologies continue to grow more advanced and widespread, automotive companies will continue to hire more tech workers to implement these technologies. Additionally, like all large companies, automotive companies rely on data professionals to manage data and help the company make important business decisions.
8. Higher Education
With so much of the college admissions process now being done online and the amount of technology typically present on campuses, colleges and universities typically employ lots of tech workers. Higher education offers a very diverse range of IT-related employment opportunities including research, teaching, IT customer service, data analytics, and software design. While current employment opportunities aren’t quite as widespread as other industries on this list, the higher education industry may still be worth looking into for experienced tech workers who lost their jobs at one of the major tech companies.
9. Retail and Wholesale
Like Amazon, Google, Meta, and the other major tech companies, retail and wholesale companies significantly increased the number of tech workers they employed during the COVID-19 pandemic. They did this to adapt to the fact that the pandemic required them to conduct more of their business online. Now that we are moving out of the pandemic large retail companies like Walmart are beginning to slow down when it comes to hiring tech workers. However, smaller retailers that were slower to hire during the pandemic continue to have plenty of openings available. Jobs in this sector might require a little more searching, but they can be lucrative.
10. Technology
Surprised? Even though many of the largest tech companies like Amazon, Meta, Google, and Twitter have recently laid off a large number of workers, there are still many tech companies hiring. In Indeed’s 2023 list of companies that were currently hiring tech workers, five of the 20 companies listed were IT companies: Canonical, Accenture, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Capgemini, and Peraton. As in the retail industry, smaller tech firms tend to have more openings available right now than any of the major employers. If you’ve ever wanted to work for a startup, this might be a good opportunity to give it a try.
Originally Published On: https://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/10-industries-hiring-tech-workers-now
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