US lost 34,000 IT jobs in May

More than 30,000 jobs disappeared in the US IT sector in May, representing the seventh consecutive month of fewer opportunities for the nation's computer staff.



Issuing the monthly count of IT employment, researchers showed that it continued to be hit by the recession, despite contracting less than it did in December and January.



However, the IT market still lost 34,800 jobs last month, dashing hopes that it was following the general labour market in seeing the first signs of an upturn.



Though for being a lagging indicator of economic recovery, the job figures were not worse than expected, said its authors the TechServe Alliance, formerly the NAACB.



Having peaked in November 2008 with over 4m jobs, IT employment stood at 3, 849,000 last month - down 3.5 per cent on the same time last year, the alliance said.



Chief executive Mark Roberts added: "Despite the generally gloomy IT jobs report, survey data and anecdotal reports from our member companies appear to suggest that there is some stabilisation in the IT employment picture."



He was more downbeat in the group's previous monthly report, warning: "It will likely be some time before IT employment returns to its long-term pattern of growth."