The unemployment rate for technology professionals is less than half the national average, according to a recent report from Dice. Specifically, the unemployment rate for technology professionals averaged 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. The national rate, however, averaged 7.8 percent during the same quarter.
According to Dice’s Tech Trends Q4 2012 Report, the unemployment rates for specific job titles were as follows:

• Programmers: 4.6%
• Network and system administrators: 4.3%
• Web developers: 3.5%
• Computer systems analysts: 3.3%
• Software developers: 2.9%
• Database administrators: 1.5%

And, according to the Dice.com Hiring Survey, developers will be highly sought in 2013 as well. The survey, with 1,059 tech-focused hiring managers and recruiters responding, said that the top five hiring priorities for 2013 are: Java/J2EE software developers, mobile developers, .NET developers, data analysts/analytics, and software developers.
Dice noted that the category of data analysts/analytics wasn’t even in the top ten last year. But, according to Dice, “harnessing information for business gains is becoming a core skill” and a necessary investment -- causing “big data" job postings on Dice to more than triple, year over year.