Tech jobs in Pittsburgh are up, but there’s a disconnect: Job seekers say they still face a hiring drought.
The job hunt is taking longer these days, with more candidates on the market and drawn-out hiring processes that can make the search last several months, hiring experts say. Plus, employers are looking for candidates with very specific qualifications – skills that entry-level workers frequently enough don’t have.
“I’m not very confident about finding a job,honestly,” Aaron Escobar,a recent University of Pittsburgh graduate,told Technical.ly. “Jobs keep not getting back to me, and I’ve been thinking, at this point, maybe it’s just a better option to get some random job for a year and go get my master’s next fall semester.”
So, he left Pittsburgh to try somewhere else.
Escobar’s bachelor’s degree in digital narrative and interactive science combines computer science and English studies. He began searching for a job in December 2024, while still in school. By July of this year, when he hadn’t found anything, he decided to move back to California to save on living expenses.
Escobar isn’t alone. Other local students and recent grads have expressed concerns about finding entry-level jobs in today’s market, too.
The current job market reflects companies’ desires to focus on strategic rather than expansive hiring, Kelly Fetick, founder of tech recruitment firm Landis Consulting Group, said. Those conditions lead to a deliberately slower and more competitive hiring process,even as the number of tech job postings in Pittsburgh hovers above last year’s levels.## Success depends on where you specialize
Pittsburgh is largely mirroring national job market trends, Fetick said.
An analysis in august by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the number of job seekers exceeded the number of openings. However, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate of 4% sits below the national rate of 4.3%.
But that lower rate doesn’t account for underemployment.Some recent grads are settling for part-time work while navigating the slow job market.
heena Barhate has applied to over 500 jobs as graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in December. She received a master’s degree in integrated innovation for products and services, a combination of product and user experience design.
AI and cybersecurity may be booming, but Barhate says Pittsburgh offers fewer opportunities for her specialized skill set.
“Finding full-time work has been challenging, especially as I’m looking for niche roles in product design and I need visa sponsorship in the future,” Barhate said. “I don’t have a plan B, other than going back to my country, but I feel something will work out for sure.”
Data suggests Barhate may have a reason for that optimism.
In allegheny County,most tech occupations are expected to grow by 2032,according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. A majority of that growth will come from newly created positions and current workers exiting the labor force in the next several years.