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This story was originally published by\u00a0Technical.ly<\/a>, a news partner of PublicSource. You can sign up for their newsletters at\u00a0technical.ly\/subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tech jobs in Pittsburgh are up, but there\u2019s a disconnect: Job seekers say they still face a hiring drought.<\/p>\n The job hunt is taking longer these days, with more candidates on the market and drawn-out hiring processes that can make the search last several months, hiring experts say. Plus, employers are looking for candidates with very specific qualifications \u2013 skills that entry-level workers often don\u2019t have.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not very confident about finding a job, honestly,\u201d Aaron Escobar, a recent University of Pittsburgh graduate, told Technical.ly. \u201cJobs keep not getting back to me, and I\u2019ve been thinking, at this point, maybe it\u2019s just a better option to get some random job for a year and go get my master\u2019s next fall semester.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n So, he left Pittsburgh to try somewhere else.<\/p>\n Escobar\u2019s bachelor\u2019s degree in digital narrative and interactive science combines computer science and English studies. He began searching for a job in December 2024, while still in school. By July of this year, when he hadn\u2019t found anything, he decided to move back to California to save on living expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n Escobar isn\u2019t alone. Other local students and recent grads have\u00a0expressed concerns<\/a>\u00a0about finding entry-level jobs in today\u2019s market, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n The current job market reflects companies\u2019 desires to focus on strategic rather than expansive hiring, Kelly Fetick, founder of tech recruitment firm Landis Consulting Group, said. Those conditions lead to a deliberately slower and more competitive hiring process, even as the number of tech job postings in Pittsburgh hovers above last year\u2019s levels.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of the openings that exist are in highly specialized areas \u2013 AI, ML, cloud, cybersecurity \u2013 and not everyone coming into the market has that background,\u201d Fetick told Technical.ly.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not just a numbers game, it\u2019s a skills match issue, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Even seasoned professionals are struggling in today\u2019s job market, but connections, not just experience, are setting them apart from recent grads.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s who you know, not what you know<\/p>\n For more experienced tech workers, job seeking can still be a months-long process, but an existing network is what\u2019s cutting down those search times.\u00a0<\/p>\n Levon Ritter, a Pittsburgh-based software developer with five years of experience, was laid off twice in a year. Ritter\u2019s first job hunt after his employer shut down took him roughly seven months, but when he landed a position, he thought he was in the clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n When he was laid off again just a couple of months later due to the company\u2019s decline in revenue, Ritter ramped up his job search, putting in 25 to 50 applications per week over two and a half months.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt like a full-time job,\u201d Ritter said, and many of those roles were based outside of Pittsburgh. Employers prefer Seattle, New York or San Francisco instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n When Ritter\u00a0posted on the Pittsburgh Reddit page<\/a>\u00a0about his experience, more than 100 comments chimed in to air their own grievances, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n What actually works in the job search? Real connections.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHaving a large network is great \u2014 and almost essential at this point,\u201d a top comment on the Reddit thread said. \u201cMany of these positions are being filled by referrals and the public doesn\u2019t really have a shot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Old coworkers and other connections who could vouch for Ritter have made a real difference during the job search process, he said, which helped him land a new job last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n Success depends on where you specialize\u00a0<\/p>\n Pittsburgh is largely mirroring national job market trends, Fetick said.\u00a0<\/p>\n An analysis<\/a>\u00a0in August by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the number of job seekers exceeded the number of openings. However, Pennsylvania\u2019s unemployment\u00a0rate of 4%<\/a>\u00a0sits below the national rate of 4.3%.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n