You’ve just graduated from college after working hard for years to get your degree, now what? If you’ve always dreamed of working in the technology sector you might have a hard time landing the job of your dreams or even starting a tech business in the year ahead.

According to one technology industry association, the overall news isn’t that great especially if you want to find gainful employment. While it isn’t impossible to find a tech position or venture into a tech startup, it may just take you a little longer.

Don’t give up the tech dream

None of this means you should scrap becoming an IT person or forgo the chance to become the CEO of a  successful software company any time soon. There is always hope and markets can change at any given moment. It’s important to continue searching, applying and making sure you are networking among those in the technology arena if you truly want to work or be a leader in the field.

Keep in mind, hiring in the U.S technology sector slowed in December after two consecutive months of strong job gains, according to an analysis by CompTIA. The sector also added an estimated 6,000 new jobs in the final month of 2018, according to its analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics “Employment Situation.”

“The tech employment numbers for last month were fairly uneventful,” said Tim Herbert, senior vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA. “Looking at the bigger picture, we expect a continuation of a tight labor market for tech talent through 2019.”

Computer occupations stats

The analysis also reports the unemployment rate for computer occupations for December was 2.1 percent, slightly lower than December 2017. That compares to an overall unemployment rate of 3.9 percent.

The bulk of December’s new hiring occurred in computer and electronic product manufacturing (+ 3,600 jobs) and IT services, custom software development and computer system design (+ 2,200), the report said.

Positions in services, software development and systems designed accounted for an estimated 77 percent of all tech jobs gain in the IT sector in 2018.

Other information services, including search portals (+ 400) and data processing, hosting and related services (+ 300) also showed employment growth last month. The telecommunications category shed 500 jobs,  the report said.

Across the entire U.S. economy, the number of core technology occupations was reduced by an estimated 18,000 positions in December. For the year, there were six months of job gains and six months of job losses in core tech jobs in all industries.

New job postings for technology workers also declined in December, down about 45,000 from the previous month. Software and application developers continue to top the list of IT job postings, with more than 67,000 last month. Other in-demand positions include computer user support specialists (20,900) and computer systems engineers and architects (17,300), the analysis found.

Overall, don’t let the current numbers and stats get you down. Try to keep a positive outlook and stay abreast of what is happening in the tech sector if it truly is an industry you want to work or start a business in someday.