RALEIGH – How hot is the tech sector of North Carolina’s economy?

The number of open information technology jobs continues to climb across North Carolina even as the state’s unemployment rate fell in May, according to a new report.

Leading the way: Job openings in Durham and Chapel Hill soared more than 50 percent from a year ago to more than 3,000.

Some 22,309 jobs were posted publicly in May, up from 21,673 in April and 22,309 in March, the North Carolina Technology Association reported Monday. Year-over-year, openings are up more than 10 percent.

The state’s jobless rate last month fell to 4.3 percent from 4.4 percent in April, according to the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

That open IT job total is the highest total in a year and compares to 19,276 in June of 2017.

Job openings have climbed from 18,833 in January as demand continues to grow in multiple skills and across metropolitan areas.

“May IT job openings mark the highest level in the past 12 months, and May was up markedly from the same month in 2017,” said Brooks Raiford, CEO of NC TECH. “The gains were across the board: seven of the top 10 metros were up over May of last year, and almost all of the top ten occupations and skill sets were higher.”

Job openings in Durham and Chapel Hill soared more than 50 percent from a year ago to more than 3,000.

Available positions in Raleigh climbed 16 percent to more than 7,100.

Jobs in Fayetteville surged more than 25 percent to 1,180.

Leading the growing demand is a 22 percent year-over-year increase in software developer jobs to more than 4,000.

However. the greatest growth in terms of percentage is for information security analysts – up 63.1 percentage.

Here are the top 10 occupations, the number of openings in May, and the percentage of growth year-over-year:

Software Developers: 4,020 +22.1%

Computer User Support Specialists: 2,592 +2.9%

Computer Systems Analysts: 2,574 -3.4%

Network + Computer Systems Administrators: 2,391 +2.3%

Information Technology Project Managers: 1,996 +3.7%

Web Developers: 1,618 +16.7%

Information Security Analysts: 1,548 +63.1%

Computer Systems Engineers/Architects: 1,465 +19.3%

Computer + Information Systems Managers: 1,405 +27.3%

Software Quality Assurance Engineers + Testers: 863 +5.9%

Totals Including All Others: 22,309 +10.9%

The full report can be read online.