Download PDF

Where the Tech Jobs Are: Cloud Academy June 2019 Data Report

June 2019 | Cloud Academy Data Report No. 4

 

Introduction

In this month’s data report, we’ll broadly explore the ever-evolving and often-discussed topic of jobs in tech — where the most technology jobs are cropping up and what the most frequently occurring roles are in terms of demand for new positions. Are most jobs located in traditional tech hubs or is there change occurring? If so, why, and what positions are being affected?

When you think about tech jobs and where they are concentrated, you might tend to immediately focus on longstanding American tech hubs like Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and Seattle. And which type of role first springs to mind when you think of all the openings out there today? Given the ubiquity and impact of software, the full-stack developer position is possibly the purest example of a role that is known to be in high demand. But how realistic of a perception is this? Specifically, is it true that jobs that require the newest tech skills—including those related to the cloud—are mainly in Silicon Valley and just for full-stack devs?

There are a few ways to consider this. Traditionally, some may have used data from government sources like the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a fact-finding agency in the field of labor economics that includes job descriptions and predictions about the projected job growth. Colleges and universities also come to the question from a speculative angle — pondering how they can best equip students with knowledge and skills relevant to any number of “new” research-based directions in which they perceive technology to be headed.

For the purposes of this data report, we are looking strictly at our own warehouse of daily-updated job ads. This enables us to report on what actual companies need in the immediate moment, and this timeliness provides us with some interesting insights.

Where are the current tech jobs and what are they?

The answer might surprise you. There’s been a lot of speculation that non-tech companies are leading the way in jobs offered. How true is this? Let’s unpack the most recent Cloud Academy tech sector job data.

The tech industry is still the biggest recruiter of tech jobs — for now

Our data indicates that the assertion that non-tech industries are leading the way in jobs offered is not quite true… yet. What we do see is that non-tech companies are starting to have more of a presence in the tech hiring scene. Let’s look a bit closer:

Looking at the chart above, you can see that Technology Software jobs stand out as representing 40% of all tech-related job ads that were found recently. The next highest industry sector represented is Professional Services (aka consulting) with 20% of all tech-related job ads. This is notable, but still does not come close to approaching the distinct majority of 40% that Technology Software has. If you look a little closer, however, you can start to see other industries beginning to make some inroads into recruiting tech talent. This is being led by Healthcare with 3% of all tech-related job ads.

You’ll see that if you take the combination of Professional Services, Healthcare, and the following six industries, you’ll get to a level approaching the dominance of Technology Software job ads:

U.S. Industry Percentage of job ads in one week
Professional Services 20
Healthcare 3
Financial Services 2
Education Services 2
Consumer 2
Banks & Insurance 2
Media 2
Technology Hardware 2
Total 35


Why is this happening? One reason is because we see an overall trend of enterprises — including non-tech companies — moving to the cloud. All these companies need experienced staff to plan transitions, migrate existing applications, and develop cloud-based implementations moving forward.

Services in the UK do more recruiting than the tech sector

Interestingly, the narrative about non-tech companies hiring more than their traditional tech counterparts has shown to be true in our UK data. In the UK, Professional Services companies comprise 30% of all current tech job ads, as opposed to 28% for Technology Software.

While the percentage of tech jobs at tech companies is higher in the U.S. (which is understandable considering Silicon Valley and its massive stature and impact), the strong showing of Professional Services companies in the UK demonstrates how the complexity, implementation, and maintenance of technology is just as important as its creation.

Is the full-stack developer job going away?

Non-tech companies approaching the level of tech giants’ hiring can be considered a non-traditional trend in terms of where we can find tech jobs, and applying the nontraditional lens to examine what types of jobs exist is also a fruitful exercise.

In a typical software company, a full-stack developer can (with guidance) be placed in various teams and use their problem-solving background to contribute quickly. One would think this would earn them a spot as the most sought-after role out there today.

Our data shows that the full-stack role is indeed popular. However, just as in demand (if not more) are roles that contribute to a company’s cloud infrastructure such as Cloud Architect or Security Engineer. In addition, we can see that Data Engineer shows strongly, taking on an emerging status across industries, even in traditionally non-tech fields such as employee recruitment.

Relative number of tech jobs in the U.S. by role, most recent week
Relative number of tech jobs in the U.S. by role, most recent week

Embracing new roles based on new tech can pay off

Will professional services and other non-tech industry job opportunities overtake software-related opportunities in the U.S.? To do so they would have a big hill to climb, needing to double the number of ads just to match software roles. What’s perhaps more plausible is a gradual and steady transition to an overall increase in professional services opportunities.

You can see in the two charts below that while Silicon Valley (California) will always be a strong hub, roles that are in support of cloud infrastructure — those that can be increasingly used by non-tech companies who migrate to the cloud — are showing growth in hubs outside of California.

Relative number of security engineer jobs in the U.S., most recent week
Relative number of security engineer jobs in the U.S., most recent week

Note that the biggest hub for security engineer jobs in our current data is not in Silicon Valley, but in the Washington D.C./Virginia/Maryland area. This makes sense as it is the center of the U.S. Federal Government space, which is undergoing a huge digital transformation (including efforts such as the $10B JEDI contract), along with having security such as FedRAMP controls as one of its foundational pillars.

Relative number of data engineer jobs in the U.S., most recent week
Relative number of data engineer jobs in the U.S., most recent week

We can see in the above chart that California still remains in the lead for data engineer ads, but New York runs a close second. The abundance of professional and financial services companies in New York are a hub for big data, especially now that consultants assert that the financial center of the world has shifted from London to New York.

Key takeaways

  • Silicon Valley and tech companies are as strong as ever when it comes to tech recruitment, with over 42% of all tech jobs ads in the U.S. this week.
  • Professional services (20% of all tech job ads) and other industries such as healthcare (3%) are rapidly making strides to compete with Silicon Valley for tech talent on a weekly basis.
  • Jobs such as security and data engineer, that are empowered by the transformation to the cloud, are leading the way in companies’ recruitment efforts with 1.5-2X the number of job ads compared to full-stack developers.

Training Resources

Start out on a Learning Path for any of the five most in demand tech jobs from this month’s data report:

About Cloud Academy

Cloud Academy is the leading enterprise digital skills development platform accelerating innovation through guided Learning Paths, Hands-on Labs, and Skill Assessment. Companies trust Cloud Academy to deliver role-specific training on leading clouds (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform), essential methodologies needed to operate on and between clouds (DevOps, security, containers), and capabilities that are unlocked by the cloud (big data, machine learning), and more.

Leading organizations customize Cloud Academy to contextualize learning and leverage the platform to assign, manage, and measure cloud enablement at scale. Learn more at cloudacademy.com.

 

 

Written by