The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday that 223,000 jobs were added in December, beating expectations.
That strong job growth is combined with workers’ continued willingness to quit amid a high level of job openings.
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh says workers still have options right now.
Even with fears of a recession on many Americans’ minds, workers are still quitting, getting hired, and getting raises — and it shows that the tight labor market is going strong.
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“I think workers still have options, and I think that that’s a beautiful thing,” Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Insider.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly report on employment on Friday, showing that the country added 223,000 payrolls in December 2022. That’s well above the 200,000 economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimated. The cherry on top: The unemployment rate came down to a historically low 3.5% from its prior 3.6%.
At the same time, another report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that quitting remained near-record highs in November, while hiring and job openings stayed robust. Taken together — alongside structural labor shortages that have kept employers raising wages and vying for workers — the labor market is still looking strong for Americans.
“We’re seeing more people get back into the job market,” Walsh said, noting that workers without college degrees are seeing more opportunity. In December, Americans who graduated from high school, but did not attend college, saw noticeable gains across multiple labor market metrics. Their labor force participation, which measures the number of people working or actively working, went up. At the same time, their unemployment rate went down — suggesting that the high school graduates coming back into the labor force were getting hired.
These 20 companies are hiring a ton of tech workers
Career site Indeed put together a list with recent job posting data of the places hiring tech job seekers.
Four of the top 20 are part of financial services; that includes PwC, which ranked No. 2 on the list.
Deloitte ranked at the top — with 1,774 new tech job postings per 1 million based on Indeed’s data.
Deloitte and PwC are two companies leading the way in looking for tech workers according to a recent analysis from job site Indeed.
With recently laid off people tweaking their résumés with their previous job experience and trying to figure out their next steps, they may be interested in places with high shares of new tech postings highlighted in Indeed’s latest list.
Scott Dobroski, a career expert at Indeed, told Insider that the career site decided to create this list of companies because of Indeed’s mission “to help people get jobs.”
“In the tech industry in particular, there have been a number of layoffs that affect workers all around the United States,” Dobroski said. “And so to help people get jobs, we really wanted to identify 20 companies that are seeing growth in tech jobs over the past two weeks to help tech workers know where they may have some great options in terms of getting hired.”
To be part of the top of Indeed’s new list, the companies had to “have the highest share of new tech job postings” among all US job openings between November 18 to December 2.
Based on this methodology, Deloitte led the list with 1,774 new tech job postings per 1 million jobs on the site.
“Deloitte as a management and consulting company is doing quite well right now, and they need tech workers,” Dobroski said. “This really shouldn’t be a huge surprise when you look at the type of consulting that Deloitte specializes in.”
PwC and Accenture followed behind Deloitte in the job posting ranking.
“They’re not traditional tech companies, but they really assist and support and consult so many other companies that are trying to up level their tech presence,” Dobroski said about the top three.
Some industry trends emerge from the top 20. Six of the 20 top employers fall into the information technology industry, such as Cognizant Technology Solutions. Six others are considered part of the aerospace and defense industry, such as Northrop Grumman. Four of the top 20 are part of financial services. That includes the ranking’s No.2 company: PwC.
Outside of Indeed’s job postings and ranking, the US has lots of job openings waiting to be filled amid what can still be considered a thriving labor market. The information sector alone, which includes a large part of the tech sector along with other industries, had 226,000 job openings in October or a rate of 6.9%. That’s higher than the overall rate of 6.3%. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows layoffs are pretty low even in the information sector.
“Despite recent layoffs in the tech industry, the labor market is still relatively healthy and it continues to hold steady, and unemployed workers are still finding jobs at elevated rates,” Dobroski said.
Below are the top companies on Indeed’s new list.
20. Lucid Motors
New postings per million total jobs: 102
Industry: Transportation equipment manufacturing
19. Bank of America
New postings per million total jobs: 105
Industry: Financial services
18. ManTech International Corporation
New postings per million total jobs: 106
Industry: Aerospace and defense
17. S&P Global
New postings per million total jobs: 110
Industry: Financial services
16. TikTok
New postings per million total jobs: 112
Industry: Media and communication
15. CACI International
New postings per million total jobs: 115
Industry: Aerospace and defense
14. VMware
New postings per million total jobs: 122
Industry: Information technology
13. General Dynamics Information Technology
New postings per million total jobs: 123
Industry: Aerospace and defense
12. Leidos
New postings per million total jobs: 152
Industry: Aerospace and defense
11. Capgemini
New postings per million total jobs: 158
Industry: Information technology
10. Booz Allen Hamilton
New postings per million total jobs: 188
Industry: Management and consulting
9. Cognizant Technology Solutions
New postings per million total jobs: 203
Industry: Information technology
8. EPAM Systems
New postings per million total jobs: 205
Industry: Information technology
7. Chase
New postings per million total jobs: 253
Industry: Financial services
6. Lockheed Martin
New postings per million total jobs: 279
Industry: Aerospace and defense
5. Northrop Grumman
New postings per million total jobs: 283
Industry: Aerospace and defense
4. Canonical
New postings per million total jobs: 376
Industry: Information technology
3. Accenture
New postings per million total jobs: 414
Industry: Information technology
2. PwC
New postings per million total jobs: 702
Industry: Financial services
1. Deloitte
New postings per million total jobs: 1,774
Industry: Management and consulting
21/21 SLIDES
“Because you don’t have a college degree doesn’t mean you’re limited to what you should be able to make as an employee. You should be able to have access to good paying jobs,” Walsh said.
They’re not the only ones enjoying the fruits of a tight jobs market.
“People who have been laid off are finding new jobs pretty quickly,” Aaron Terrazas, chief economist at Glassdoor, told Insider. “We are starting to see some retirees dip back into the labor market.”
Of course, gains still remain uneven. The Black unemployment rate is still elevated, and, while more Black women joined the labor force in December, their unemployment rate went up. And while wages went up again in December, it was at a more muted rate than prior months. That could mean good news for the Federal Reserve in fending off a recession, but, with inflation still high, it’s not as much money in workers’ pockets.
“We certainly have work to do around food and getting food prices down. There’s no question about it,” Walsh said, adding: “We’re not going to take our foot off the pedal until we see those pressures come down on inflation.”