There is good news in North Carolina’s technology job sector. Available tech jobs in North Carolina as a whole were up slightly in March 2018 over the same month in 2017, according to the April IT Job Postings Report released Tuesday by NC Technology Association, known as NC TECH.

The not-so-good news?  Wilmington did not share in that growth.

Wilmington companies advertised 210 tech positions last month, a 4.5 percent decline from March 2017. In total number of jobs posted, the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) trailed six other metro areas of the state.

There were 20,614 tech job postings listed in North Carolina in March of this year, according to the report, which stated, “This is the highest number of job postings shared in the past 12 months, marking an increase of 1,260 positions when compared to February 2018, and 2.5 percent higher when compared to March 2017.”

The report pointed out that many of the companies looking for tech talent were not tech companies, citing Lowe’s Home Improvement and Deloitte as examples. Those companies’ postings increased by more than 100 percent compared to March 2017.

Large non-tech companies are “doubling down on tech talent,” said Jason deFreitas, vice president of recruiting solutions for Greene Resources, a Raleigh-based recruiting firm that partners with NC TECH on the monthly tech postings reports. Cyber security concerns, system infrastructure needs and platforms to support increasing e-commerce are driving non-tech companies to invest more in technology workers, he added.

DeFreitas said that the absence of Fortune 500 companies based in the Wilmington market might be a factor in the past year's decline in IT job postings here. He acknowledged the local presence of nCino and other growing tech companies.

In terms of percentages, increases in job postings were greatest in three MSAs: Charlotte/Concord/Gastonia, Raleigh and Durham/Chapel Hill. They were lowest in the Burlington and Hickory/Lenoir/Morgantown MSAs.

The tech occupation showing the largest jump in demand was information security analyst, with nearly 60 percent more job postings in March 2018 than in March 2017. Other positions showing a growing demand were software developers, IT project managers, computer systems engineers and architects, and computer and information systems managers.

DeFrietas said that it was not possible to tell from the monthly job postings data which open positions were newly created ones and which were vacant existing positions, but that overall, the report reflects job growth in the tech sector.

In producing the monthly report, NC TECH collaborates with Gartner’s CEB TalentNeuron, a supplier of business information for the talent marketplace, as well as with Greene Resources.