Tech jobs aren't immune to the coronavirus
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
It's not just lower-wage service jobs in retail and at restaurants anymore. The effects of the coronavirus are beginning to reach the seemingly impervious tech industry.
By the numbers: New data from the jobs site Indeed shows that tech job postings were down 36% in late July, compared with the same time last year. That's even worse than the overall year-over-over drop in job postings of 21%.
What's happening: "At the beginning of the crisis, tech job postings initially fared better than overall postings. That may be because lots of tech work doesn’t require much face-to-face interaction.
- What’s more, some tech companies already had remote work policies in place, making it easy to scale up work from home," Indeed economist AnnElizabeth Konkel writes.
- But, as the pandemic drags on, all companies are attempting to cut costs as it becomes increasingly apparent that the problem isn't going away anytime soon.
- "There’s so often the point of 'Is tech different?' It's kind of lost that status now," Konkel tells Axios.
Even the so-called jobs of the future have been hit hard by the pandemic: postings for jobs in artificial intelligence and machine learning are down 29%, per Indeed.
Worth noting: IT operations and help desk jobs are faring slightly better than other types of tech jobs. That's likely because companies are continuing to hire workers to help navigate the massive transition to telecommuting, says Konkel.
Go deeper: Many tech workers won't be going back to the office
