America’s Tech Workforce: National and State Trends

With technology markets in the midst of major transformation due to AI and other factors, it can be helpful to check in on what data tells us about the state of America’s technology economy.  CompTIA’s annual State of the Tech Workforce report is an excellent place to get our current bearings and to also understand historical trends.  The 2026 Workforce report came out this week and it offers a deep dive into what’s happening with tech workers at the national, state, and metro levels. Here are a few highlights: 

• Overall technology sector employment dropped slightly (0.3%) in 2025, but is projected to rebound (up 1.9%) in 2026.
• Tech sector jobs are still projected to grow rapidly—2X the national average—over the next decade.  High growth sub-sectors include data scientists, cybersecurity experts, and software engineers.
• Not surprisingly, AI is dominating new hiring, with 275,000 active job postings for AI-related positions open in January 2026.
• The top 5 states for tech employment are California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Virginia.  These states, plus Washington, are also among the states projected to see the fastest employment jumps over the next decade as well.