(St. Louis Business Journal) Tech STL releases workforce data report

St. Louis-area technology leaders are cautiously optimistic as job postings in the industry remained flat last year after a previous sharp drop-off.

A new report from tech nonprofit TechSTL shows there were 39,432 posted regional jobs in the industry last year. That was up slightly from 39,020 in 2023. A huge drop-off occurred from the previous year, 2022, when there were 70,425 tech job postings, according to the annual report. That was attributed by one leader to changes in the job market after the Covid-19 pandemic, plus artificial intelligence.

Kristine Callis-Duehl, executive director of education research and outreach for the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, said the region has seen a lot of employers — especially ones reliant on federal funds — be cautious with hiring new employees.

But Callis-Duehl remains optimistic, she said, as some of St. Louis' strengths rely on the complimentary industries of agriculture and geospatial technologies both having a strong presence in the region. One of the solutions she posited for weathering a potential contraction in the job market is pursuing a graduate degree.

Spending that time on learning more, and developing new ideas that could propel new companies, is how job-creating startups are formed, she added.

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