Dice has released a COVID-19 Jobs Resource Center to help technologists manage their career, and to assist employers in understanding tech trends and recruiting tech talent during and beyond the  coronavirus pandemic . Dice also released its Q1 Tech Job Report, which contains early expert insights on how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the technology industry, the company said.

The Dice COVID-19 Jobs Resource Center is a new tool for clients and candidates that includes upcoming virtual career fairs, data visualizations of job posting and job title trends, open remote jobs, roles by location, tech career and hiring resources, along with the latest industry insights and articles.

“Dice’s deep knowledge and critical understanding of changing trends in technology careers puts us in a unique position to share proprietary data and timely content that allows us all to manage through the pandemic,” said Art Zeile, CEO of DHI Group, Inc., Dice’s parent company, in a statement.

SEE: Coronavirus: Critical IT policies and tools every business needs (TechRepublic Premium)

COVID-19’s impact on tech hubs in ever-changing employer landscape

To bring more transparency to COVID-19’s impact on technology, the content of the Q1 2020 Dice Tech Job Report focuses on Q1 2020 job posting volume to demonstrate the outbreak’s early effects on the tech industry by location, role, and skill, at both the macro and micro levels, Dice said.

So far, the impact of COVID-19 is significantly less severe in technology than in other industries. First quarter tech job postings saw significant increases when compared to Q1 of 2019, with both established and emerging tech hubs growing due to the tech industry being more insulated from the effects of COVID-19 than other industries such as retail, food, hospitality, and tourism, Dice said.

In early April, job posting data appeared to be softening, but not to a magnitude that is out of the trailing 12-month average range, making regional and skill-based trends important to understanding the emerging environment, Dice said.

In the first quarter, the impact of the coronavirus on tech hiring was relatively small. Only four of the top tech hubs (Boston, MA: -6%; Columbus, OH: -5%; Atlanta, GA: -4%; New York, NY: -1%) saw a reduction in jobs posted in March compared to February. The majority of tech hubs showed month-over-month increases from February to March:

• Raleigh, NC: 28% increase

• San Diego, CA: 23% increase

• Arlington, VA: 20% increase

Far-reaching effects of COVID-19 require businesses to pivot

For many tech leaders however, the degree to which COVID-19 has impacted company operations has been unexpectedly far-reaching, according to Dice.

For example, “while some employers already had remote work policies in place, others had to drastically adjust for business to continue,” Dice said. “Cities like Atlanta, Boston, Columbus, and New York that host a mix of both tech startups and big tech firms are struggling to handle the increased load on their services as they adjust to a new paradigm.”

Other employers are growing their workforces to manage demand, Dice said. Amazon increased its tech job postings by 110% between February and March to hire software developers and network engineers to mitigate the demands of consumers around the US. Similarly, Walmart increased its tech job postings in March by 64%, primarily to fill software developer and project manager roles.

Necessary tech roles during crisis and beyond

Following the same trend as job postings, most tech occupations showed significant growth in Q1 2020 compared to Q1 2019. For example:

• Front End Developer: +68% YoY

• Computer Programmer: +58% YoY

• Java Developer: +52% YoY

• .NET Developer: +46% YoY

• DevOps Engineer: +39% YoY

However, COVID-19 is affecting many of tech’s top occupations, Dice said. Software developer (-8%) and network engineer (-3%) roles both saw a decline in postings from February to March 2020, likely due to employers deprioritizing new development projects and shifting focus to stability and adoption of work-from-home status, Dice said.

Occupations like cybersecurity engineer (+20%), systems engineer (+11%), and systems administrator (+7%) have all increased significantly in the last two months, as employers focus on scaling infrastructure, ensuring security for remote employees, and maintaining core platforms, the job site said.

“While job postings in certain locations have softened in recent weeks, businesses are still in desperate need of high-quality technologists who can keep businesses operating seamlessly as the need for remote work and social distancing increases,” Zeile said. “Tech professionals can assist businesses with strategy shifts to better meet immediate and ongoing needs such as infrastructure maintenance, cloud architecture expansion, or digitization.”

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