Two CompTIA reports to catch you up on.
First, CompTIA’s State of the Channel 2023, which I briefly mentioned when it came out.
90% of North American companies said they feel good about the channel’s continued relevance, with 43% feeling that “the channel is relevant and changing rapidly” and 47% feeling it is “relevant and holding steady.”
52% of managed services providers reported that cybersecurity services still drive most business. That led to 42% of those polled hiring more cybersecurity professionals and 41% retraining their workforce on cybersecurity protocols in the past year.
And CompTIA weighed in on the jobs data from last week. CompTIA’s analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report reveals that tech companies cut 4,725 jobs, or 0.1% of the industry’s workforce, last month. However, tech occupations throughout the economy grew, with 45,000 new jobs and a 2% unemployment rate, below the national average of 3.7%. The leading sectors were IT services and custom software development, cloud infrastructure, data processing and hosting, and tech manufacturing.
I’m generally uncomfortable with the “channel” as a nomenclature, but this feels more relevant if I replace the channel with technology services companies. There’s optimism, and there are lots of reasons to be optimistic. Just not that the super low unemployment rate also means difficulty finding people. Still, let’s be upbeat today.