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Technology sector shows marked improvement as unemployment drops

Posted on December 5th, 2011 Read time: 1 minutes

The national unemployment rate fell 0.4 percentage points to 8.6 percent in November, the lowest it's been since March 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

One industry in particular that has seen impressive gains is the technology sector, which added 7,100 jobs last month – a .17 percent increase from October, ComputerWorld reports.

Overall employment for the tech industry is at 4.068 million, a 2.1 percent year-over-year increase, and is nearing the all-time high of 4.088 million set in June 2008.

"I remain very bullish (about the technology sector) going into 2012," Mark Roberts, CEO of labor data tracking company TechServe Alliance, told the news source.

As jobs open up, wages have improved. The news source found that rates for highly skilled tech workers rose by 6.85 percent in September compared to one year ago. Furthermore, the average hourly wage for skilled temporary workers in technology now at sits at $31.85, creating a noticeable gap from the average hourly earnings of $23.18 for all private nonfarm employees.
 

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