Wednesday, August 11, 2010

What can we learn from software development job posts? (Java, SAP, Oracle, SQL, and C#/C++ will get you a job!)

Several months ago, I posted some analysis of IT-related jobs listed on Dice and Monster. At the time, the hot job skills were SQL, Java, and XML. Things haven't changed much since April - although some specific skills have moved down or up on the list.

In summary, here are some conclusions we can draw from this data:
  • In almost all job skills, there are more jobs posted now than there were in April or last year in June.
  • The most popular skills are Java, SAP, Oracle, SQL, and C#/C++.
  • Job posts mentioning specific programming languages and popular applications have experienced the largest increase in jobs posted over this period.
  • The biggest jumps (by percentage, sometimes from a small base) were in job posts mentioning Android, Google, Facebook, iPhone, Salesforce.com, and AJAX.
  • The biggest drops (by percentage) were in job posts mentioning Fortran, PowerBuilder, and Informix.

Here are the top 20 skills listed in job titles on Dice.com and Monster.com:





































































































































Rank
Skill Total JobsPrevious
rank
1Java 63163
2SAP 435713
3Oracle 35612
4SQL 24611
5C# 177810
6C++ 131912
7Unix11895
8Linux 10926
9Peoplesoft 955-
10Windows 9474
11SQL Server 8178
12PHP 65719
13Embedded489-
14Siebel 405-
15PL/SQL36717
16JavaScript337-
17Mainframe306-
18Perl 26514
19Salesforce.com 253-
20Ruby240-
The methodology in the analysis continues to evolve, so the results aren't perfectly comparable.

Some additional findings:
  • Language skills showed the largest increase in demand as a category, up 78%. Applicatoins grew 45%, platforms grew 36%, and databases grew 33%.
  • Database: Given the large base, there was a surprisingly large jump in posts for Oracle jobs (up 34%). SQL Server and MySQL also had large jumps, but from substantially lower bases. If you're going to invest in learning a database, at this point, Oracle is the clear leading choice.
  • Applications: Salesforce.com had the largest jump by percentage (up 113%), but from a relatively small base (118). SAP (and related skills of ABAP and BASIS) had a large jump from a large base (up 50%). Siebel also had a big jump in mentions (up 36%).
  • Languages: There was a huge increase in job posts for Java skills (up 92% from a large base). Other languages that showed large increases from large bases include C# (up 47%), PHP (up 57%), and C++ (up 28%).
  • Platforms: Only in the platforms category was there a lot of change other than just growth. Unix was still the largest platform skill by mention, but Linux passed Windows with 34% growth. There was substantial growth in mentions for Google, Android, iPhone, and AJAX. There was healthy growth for most platforms, with the notable exception of Blackberry-related jobs.
  • Skills that are not in high demand or growing: Informix, Sybase, PowerBuilder, Fortran, Blackberry, Palm WebOS, Yahoo, Widgets/Gadgets.
  • Skills that are surprisingly low in demand: HTML5, Azure, Facebook.
  • Overall, there was an increase of 50% in job posts on these two sites.
If you have any skills you'd like to see tracked in these posts, please post a comment and I'll see about including them next time. Thanks!