Where are the tech jobs? Not necessarily where you would think.
That’s the conclusion of Indeed economist Andrew Flowers. In his latest analysis for the job search firm, he found that while tech jobs as a share of all jobs rose 17 percent between 2012 and 2017, from 2.8 to 3.3 percent, in high-tech industries, the ratio of tech workers to all workers fell. Meanwhile, the share of tech workers in other industries grew, according to Indeed’s numbers.
“Retailers are employing more web programmers to build ecommerce sites, banks are staffing up with data scientists for auditing, and utilities are hiring computer hardware engineers to build systems to monitor energy use,” he stated in a blog post.
Flowers used data from the American Community Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to come up with his numbers (see tables, below). They reflect the boom in agriculture technology, like John Deere’s efforts to develop autonomous tractors and expand precision farming, and in online recruiting, like that done by study sponsor Indeed.
Changing Shares of Tech Workers in Top 10 High-Tech Industries
Industry | 2012 tech worker share | 2017 tech worker share | Percent change in tech worker share |
Computer systems design and related services | 61.7% | 58.2% | -5.7% |
Software publishing | 45.1% | 39.9% | -11.4% |
Internet publishing and broadcasting and web search portals | 29.4% | 33.0% | 11.9% |
Data processing, hosting, and related services | 29.6% | 30.1% | 1.5% |
Computer and peripheral equipment | 27.4% | 23.9% | -12.9% |
Other information services, except libraries and archives, internet publishing and broadcasting, and web search portals | 19.0% | 20.3% | 6.9% |
Telecommunications, except wired telecom carriers | 17.7% | 16.9% | -4.2% |
Wired telecommunications carriers | 12.0% | 13.8% | 14.8% |
Electronic shopping | 10.6% | 12.1% | 14.1% |
Management of companies and enterprises | 11.2% | 12.1% | 7.9% |
Source: 2017 5-year American Community Survey Microdata/Indeed
Industries with Fastest Growing Shares of Tech Workers
Industry | 2012 tech worker share | 2017 tech worker share | Percent change in tech worker share |
Not specified utilities | 4.5% | 11.6% | 158.0% |
Agricultural implements | 2.6% | 4.9% | 89.4% |
Oil and gas extraction | 3.2% | 6.0% | 87.5% |
Natural gas distribution | 2.9% | 5.0% | 71.4% |
Engines, turbines, and power transmission equipment | 3.6% | 6.0% | 66.5% |
Household appliances | 2.9% | 4.6% | 60.5% |
Banking and related activities | 6.4% | 9.1% | 42.7% |
Periodical, book, and directory publishers | 5.4% | 7.6% | 41.6% |
Employment services | 2.8% | 4.0% | 41.4% |
Non-depository credit and related activities | 6.1% | 8.6% | 41.4% |
Source: 2017 5-year American Community Survey Microdata/Indeed
Tekla S. Perry is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., she's been covering the people, companies, and technology that make Silicon Valley a special place for more than 40 years. An IEEE member, she holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Michigan State University.
