Feeling optimistic? Tech job postings are up by 28% this quarter

A new jobs report from hiring platform Dice finds that tech hiring during the first quarter showed significant growth.

Tech job postings increased by 28% around the country, compared to Q4 2020, according to Dice’s analysis of more than 2 million posts. This figure conveys some optimism from companies as COVID-19 vaccine rollouts raise hopes of an economic recovery.

“We released our Q1 Tech Job Report in April of 2020,” Dice CEO Art Zeile notes in the introduction of the report. “Although the first quarter of that year happened to be a recent highwater mark for tech hiring, the horizon could not have looked (and felt) more uncertain. My viewpoint as we release our first Tech Job Report of 2021 is fundamentally different. While I’m a positive person by nature, I know that I’m not alone in the optimism I feel in reviewing the state of tech hiring in the first quarter and the momentum we’ve seen over the past four months.”

Compared to Q1 2020, 60% of the 50 biggest tech employers created more job postings in Q1 2021.

And among new job postings, project manager, data science, Kubernetes and machine learning roles were among those that increased the most in demand, year over year.

The most coveted role? Software developer.

Read the full report 

Here’s a look at the job posting growth rate from February to March by job type, with data warehouse developer leading the pack:

Similar to skills mentioned in Dice’s Q3 2020 report, the following 10 skills were the most sought by employers for tech jobs:

• Project management
• SQL
• Java
• Python
• JavaScript
• Linux
• Technical support
• Business process
• Scrum
• Quality assurance and control

Among Technical.ly’s markets, Washington, D.C. showed no movement from its #5 spot on the list, compared to Dice’s last report. Philadelphia dropped down two spots to #19. Pittsburgh rose one position to #25 and Baltimore showed a decline in the rankings as it fell eight spots to #38.

Michael Butler is a 2020-2022 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.