Tech Employment Flashing Mixed Signals
The tech job market was a mixed bag in May. While IT hiring rose in almost all sectors, technology sector shed jobs.
U.S. employers across sectors added 28,000 technology workers in May as officials in several parts of the country started easing restrictions, according to a review of U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics from IT trade organization CompTIA. The technology sector, however, saw a net decline of 33,800 jobs in May. Although the tech companies shed jobs.
“While tech industry employment did fall for the month, many of the small and medium-size firms in the expansive tech services and custom software space should resume hiring once business activity picks up,” said Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA in a press release. According to him, the jobs report “should bring a sense of optimism for an economy on the rebound.”
CompTIA noted that the unemployment rate for technology occupations fell to 3.7 percent in May, from 4.3 percent in April. In comparison, the national unemployment remains at a severely elevated rate at 13.3 percent even after falling back by 1.4 percent from the previous month.
Based on their study of new job posting in May, they found that Software and application developers are in highest demand, with an estimated 69,300 job postings. Companies are also seeking IT support specialists, systems engineers and architects, systems analysts and web developers. The industries with the most job postings for IT professionals were professional, scientific and technical services, finance and insurance and manufacturing.
In recent appointments and career moves:
American Electric Power has appointed Therace Risch as senior vice president and chief information & technology officer. She will oversee all technology initiatives – including innovation, IT, digital, and telecommunications – for the organization. She joins the company from J.C. Penney, where she was executive vice president, chief information & digital officer. Prior to that, Risch was executive vice president & CIO with COUNTRY Financial.
Wells Fargo has appointed two new leaders for the Technology organization. Chintan Mehta was named CIO and head of Digital Technology & Innovation, and Munish Kumar CIO and head of Wealth & Investment Management Technology. Both will have a joint reporting relationship to Saul Van Beurden, head of Technology, and the relevant line of business leaders. While Mehta was CIO of Wells Fargo’s digital ecosystem since 2017, Kumar worked for JPMorgan Chase, where he was managing director of digital sales, marketing and personalization, and analytics technology since 2015.
Nissan Motors has promoted Yasunobu Matoba as Corporate Vice President and CIO. He joined Nissan in 1983, most recently working as Senior general manager, Dongfeng Motor’s Information System Division. He will replace Tony Thomas, who joined Nissan in 2017 and was responsible for managing all information systems, information technology, data & analytics and cybersecurity for all of Nissan brands of Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun across the globe.
Agricultural chemical and seed company Corteva has appointed Sam Eathington as Senior Vice President and CTO. Eathington joins Corteva from The Climate Corporation (part of Bayer Crop Science), where he was Chief Science Officer. He previously spent nearly two decades focused on quantitative traits and molecular breeding at Monsanto. He succeeds Neal Gutterson, Ph.D., who last October announced his plans to retire from the Company in the second half of 2020.
And…
Toyota has appointed Holly Walters as CIO.
Telus has appointed Jim Radzicki as CTO
Diageo has appointed Benedetto Conversano as CIO.
Latham Pool has appointed Kaushal Dhruv as CIO.
Alight has appointed Greg Goff as CTO.
Wingstop has appointed Stacy Androes as CTO.
Vestas has appointed Anders Nielsen as CTO.
Covetrus has appointed Steve Palmucci as Global CIO.
Lenthor has appointed Dale Smith as CTO.
Deepwatch has appointed Corey Bodzin as CTO.
Mitsui has appointed Yoshio Kometani as Chief Digital Information Officer.
National Oilwell Varco has appointed David Reid as CTO.
