U.S. Software Engineer Talent Landscape (LinkedIn Economic Graph)

Summary

• From 2021 to 2025, most software engineering hiring took place in Tech (35%), followed by Professional Services (21%), Manufacturing (13%) and Financial Services (12%).p.2
• System Engineer (5.9%) and Data Engineer (5%) were the most common occupations among hires outside general software engineering positions in 2025.p.3
• AI Engineers now account for a share of hires 14 times higher than in 2019 and 10 times higher than in 2022.p.3
• Transitions into generative AI engineer roles have grown nearly ninefold since 2021, though they remain under 1% of software engineering job switches.p.3
• Python, AWS, SQL, JavaScript and React.js are the top skills among software engineering hires.p.4

Key insights

1. Changes in real interest rates account for most of the variation in software engineering hiring over the past decade.p.2
2. Software engineering hiring broadly follows overall hiring trends, suggesting a macro-driven slowdown rather than a disproportionate AI impact on entry-level roles.p.2
3. Machine Learning Engineers show a similar trend, with their 2025 share roughly doubling since 2019.p.3
4. Software engineering job mobility has declined since 2021.p.3
5. The top non-software-engineering positions for CS graduates in 2024 include Data Analyst, IT Analyst and Financial Analyst.p.3
6. Skills trends from 2021 to 2025 show strong demand for core programming, a hiring preference for Python and cloud expertise, and outsized growth in AI-adjacent tools.p.4
7. Software engineering hiring may not fully rebound even after the macro environment improves, given the AI-driven shift in required skills.p.4