Some companies hire technologists on a slow and steady basis. They replace valued employees who leave, and occasionally boost their hiring cadence as they cycle up special projects, but otherwise don’t rush to bring hundreds or thousands of technologists aboard at once.

Then you have the companies that launch massive hiring sprees, often in response to a strategic pivot or radical growth. For instance, Amazon announced in late 2021 that it would hire 55,000 technologists and other corporate employees. There’s also The Boeing Company, which shifted last month to hiring many more technologists than usual, according to a new analysis by CompTIA:

That’s a healthy multiple of the 1,749 technologists that Boeing sought in January, and it suggests the company is ramping up something that will require a good deal of technological expertise. Boeing hasn’t announced anything game-changing, like a new plane, but it’s also wrestled with production issues and slow aircraft deliveries over the past few months—perhaps all this new tech hiring is meant to help the company past these bottlenecks. 

Major companies in healthcare, technology, defense, and finance—the usual suspects—also hired large numbers of technologists last month. With tech unemployment at 2 percent, very low by historical standards, companies of all sizes are scrambling to find the talent they need to fill the gaps in their specific tech lineups. 

That demand is helping spike technologist compensation. According to the latest Dice Salary Report, the average technologist salary hit $104,566 last year, an increase of 6.9 percent between 2020 and 2021. Those technologists in specialized disciplines such as data science can enjoy much higher salaries, of course, especially if they’ve mastered complex processes and tools. Whether you’re new to tech or a longtime veteran, it’s a good time to negotiate with prospective and current employers for whatever you want. 

 

 

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