Breaking Down December 2024 Software Hiring Trends
At Dev List, we analyze thousands of new jobs a week to uncover trends and high paying opportunities.
Our mission is to give our users an edge in their job search and career growth.
Whether you’re on the job hunt or want to upskill to set yourself apart, we’ve got you covered.
So let’s stop wasting time and show you the biggest job trends from the month of December!
What were the most posted job types?
First, let’s see how many jobs were posted for each job type.
As you can see, Backend (21.69%) and DevOps (16.32%) were the most requested jobs in December.
These were in fact the same two leading job roles from November (seems like a trend).
As we’ll see later, if you’re just looking to land a software job. Backend and DevOps skills are a good place to start.
How much does each job type pay?
Let’s see how much each role is making.
AI / ML was the highest paying job type in December with about $192k.
🚨 But before you go applying to all the AI jobs, let’s see how pay maps with number of new jobs.
As you can see AI/ML is paying the most. But the tradeoff is it’s only middle of the pack in terms of number of jobs.
DevOps and backend jobs on the other hand are seeing lots of new jobs still. And with some decent pay.
So it’s up to you to consider whether you want higher pay and less seats, or vice versa.
(See here about how we classify the different job types.)
Can it be remote?
Now let’s see which jobs have the most remote opportunities:
Not surprising. Backend has the most remote opportunities, since they have the most in total.
But let’s see the % of jobs that are remote.
This shows, if you land one of these jobs, the chances that you’ll be able to work from anywhere.
Frontend engineers led the way.
Text your frontend friends and tell them to wake up it’s a work day. 😉
What skills are getting paid?
Now let’s dig into the skills.
Let’s see what the top 20 highest paid skills were:
AI skills are leading the way.
🚨 But once again this doesn’t tell the whole story!
Let’s map the job pay to the total number of jobs posted.
As you can see AI skills are some of the highest paying jobs, but also some of the most posted.
Now really is a great time to dive into an AI career if you’re interested in it.
What were the most mentioned skills?
Lastly, let’s see what the most common skills mentioned across all the job postings were.
Python led the way with 1,945 mentions, another same trend from last month.
It makes sense, since Python is a common language among the most popular job types like Backend and DevOps (as well as AI/ML).
If you’re looking for a dev job, Python gives you the highest chances of getting hired.
Conclusion
Ultimately, what job type and skills you choose to pursue is up to you.
But it’s a good idea to stay informed about industry trends so you make smart career decisions.
If you enjoyed this, we post regular industry stats in our newsletter. You can subscribe here for free.
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What did you think of our research? I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can message me on twitter.
Happy hacking.
