In its most recent research, CompTIA looked at the economic outlook for the IT industry for 2013 and found cautious optimism for it future growth.

According to CompTIA, the Computing Technology Industry Association, which is known to many for its certifications and training programs, the global IT industry is projected to grow at a rate of 3% in 2013 and its growth in the United States is forecast to be 2.9%:

These results come from a quantitative study conducted online during late December 2012. A total of 518 IT industry companies in the survey and the full report, IT Industry Outlook 2013, is available to CompTIA members.

While the majority of over 500 firms included in survey indicated there would be no change in spending and investment in the next six months only in one category (non technology capital expenditure) were cutbacks intended to exceed expansion. In contrast many more firms intended to increase rather than decrease their spending on new products and their expenditure on new technology and technical staffing levels:

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Factors which negatively affect the IT industry's buoyancy are similar to those in 2012 with fear of a stalled recovery still affecting almost half of the respondents. General lack of confidence continues to be the second most damaging factor and weak demand is noted by a third of those survey. On the other hand access to credit is a lesser problem for 2013 than for 2012.

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Despite concerns about economic uncertainties, the overall picture from CompTIA's reports suggests that, even under the pessimistic scenario for the US IT industry, we can look forward to at least a little growth. The optimistic scenario which is shared by many, peaks at 5% growth.

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CompTIA estimates that there are currently around 4.16 million core IT jobs - software developers, network admins, and DBAs - spread out among all industries in the United States and predicts that the total number of core IT jobs in the United States will increase by 22 percent by 2020.

So the future does on the whole seem to be positive for developers.