AI Rising: Now the most-cited technology
October 2023 Hacker News Hiring Trends
October Highlights
The term AI can mean many different things in the context of software development and programming. However, its significance in the current tech job market cannot be understated. The data reveals that for October's "Ask HN: Who is hiring?" thread, AI is the most mentioned technology term. AI was mentioned in nearly 20% of the postings. It has doubled, from 10% of postings in October, 2022, to the new peak. The only terms more popular than AI are location aspects (Remote vs onsite), experience level (Senior), and area of focus (full stack). For October, AI was more popular than any technology tracked in the history of the "Ask HN: Who is hiring?" thread. More popular than Python and React, the long-time dominant tech terms.
Overall, the number of job postings in October's "Ask HN: Who is hiring?" thread is up 10% over September's historic low. October's data shows that the 2023 is stabilizing a bit over the past few months from the larger drops between Spring and Summer. I continue to hear rumblings in various places software developers hang out about the current job market being very difficult, and this data does continue to back that up.
Top 10 Programming Languages
Python and TypeScript are still cruising in the top two spots for most popular programming languages. The rest of the pack are fairly steady although Kotlin makes a rare appearance in the Top 10 this month.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
As mentioned in the summary, mentions of AI are surging while mentions of Machine Learning are rising along with it.
Remote Work
Remote positions dropped a bit, from 62% in September to 57% this month, but still in line with recent months. Onsite didn't pick up any ground, but Hybrid did. Hybrid is near its all-time peak.
Specialization
Interestingly, mentions of "Frontend" are on a decline, approaching levels not witnessed since the early days of the React framework. Even though Frontend features in 14% of the postings - a significant portion - there is a definite trend of decline here. Could it be a sign of decreasing demand for Frontend tasks? Or maybe, as technologies evolve, the distinction between Frontend and other specializations is becoming less defined? Another possibility is the emerging focus on AI and data-centric fields, which might be diversifying the types of roles in software development organizations. This shift certainly marks a trend worth monitoring in the coming months.
Engineering Levels
Senior roles still dominate, but Staff level roles hit 10% of postings for the first time.
Rankings and movers
| Tech | Rank | Last Month | Change | Last Year | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Remote | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Senior | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Onsite | 3 | 9 | +6 | 4 | +1 |
| Full Stack | 4 | 3 | -1 | 3 | -1 |
| AI | 5 | 16 | +11 | 8 | +3 |
| Python | 6 | 7 | +1 | 5 | -1 |
| Back End | 7 | 4 | -3 | 6 | -1 |
| React | 8 | 5 | -3 | 7 | -1 |
| Machine Learning | 9 | 14 | +5 | 10 | +1 |
| TypeScript | 10 | 8 | -2 | 9 | -1 |
| Hybrid | 11 | 19 | +8 | 15 | +4 |
| Front End | 12 | 6 | -6 | 12 | 0 |
| Cloud | 13 | 11 | -2 | 14 | +1 |
| Staff | 14 | 26 | +12 | 20 | +6 |
| AWS | 15 | 10 | -5 | 13 | -2 |
| Postgresql | 16 | 12 | -4 | 11 | -5 |
| Security | 17 | 13 | -4 | 19 | +2 |
| Open Source | 18 | 18 | 0 | 17 | -1 |
| node.js | 19 | 23 | +4 | 21 | +2 |
| DevOps | 20 | 15 | -5 | 22 | +2 |
| Tech | Mentions | Rank | Last Year Mentions | Last Year Rank | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swift | 8 | 51 | 1 | 154 | +103 |
| Spring | 5 | 65 | 1 | 149 | +84 |
| Microservices | 5 | 61 | 1 | 140 | +79 |
| Agile | 7 | 58 | 2 | 104 | +46 |
| ClickHouse | 5 | 60 | 2 | 100 | +40 |
| MySQL | 7 | 56 | 2 | 95 | +39 |
| Kotlin | 11 | 40 | 3 | 74 | +34 |
| NLP | 8 | 54 | 3 | 79 | +25 |
| iOS | 11 | 39 | 6 | 56 | +17 |
| Android | 14 | 27 | 9 | 44 | +17 |
| Tech | Mentions | Rank | Last Year Mentions | Last Year Rank | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Django | 8 | 52 | 13 | 30 | -22 |
| Distributed Systems | 5 | 62 | 10 | 42 | -20 |
| Docker | 10 | 45 | 15 | 27 | -18 |
| Vue | 9 | 50 | 12 | 33 | -17 |
| Computer Vision | 7 | 55 | 10 | 40 | -15 |
| C# | 5 | 67 | 7 | 53 | -14 |
| Fintech | 5 | 63 | 7 | 52 | -11 |
| Processing | 9 | 46 | 11 | 35 | -11 |
| SQL | 11 | 38 | 13 | 29 | -9 |
| Kubernetes | 13 | 33 | 16 | 24 | -9 |
