Developers Always in Demand
Although demand for skills such as “software development” or “developer” has grown modestly year-over-year, this is a huge category, said Hill. She added that hiring managers want candidates with a full “understanding of the software development lifecycle.”
Skill: Software development or developer
Skill requests as of Oct. 1: 14,616
Growth from a year earlier: +7 percent
Assuring Quality
More development means a greater need for quality assurance, or making sure a project, product or service meets standards or other requirements, Hill explained. QA is another large category that is growing modestly.
Skill: QA/Quality Assurance
Skill requests as of Oct. 1: 9,355
Growth from a year earlier: +5 percent
Python Gets Around
On the open-source front, Dice cited continued robust demand for Python, a versatile programming language that is showing strong growth in recent years.
Skill: Python
Skill requests as of Oct. 1: 3,775
Growth from a year earlier: +28 percent
SOAP Listings Up
Also at record monthly levels is SOAP, which originally stood for Simple Object Access Protocol. It’s a simple XML-based messaging protocol to let applications exchange information over HTTP.
Skill: SOAP
Skill requests as of Oct. 1: 3,216
Growth from a year earlier: +12 percent
Going Virtual
Demand for virtualization also reached a record level. “Virtualization is a category we started looking at three or four years ago. It’s still hitting an all-time high,” Hill said.
Skill: Virtualization
Skill requests as of Oct. 1: 2,691
Growth from a year earlier: +12 percent
Ruby on Rails Picks Up Speed
Neck-in-neck with Python in terms of year-over-year growth in demand is Ruby on Rails, an open-source framework for database-related Web development.
Skill: Ruby on Rails
Skill requests as of Oct. 1: 2,404
Growth from a year earlier: +28 percent
Android’s Upward Mobility
With the world going mobile, demand for Android skills hit an all-time high, up 33 percent from a year earlier. Though requests for iOS skills did not reach a record level, they were up 69 percent. Both Android and iOS have essentially the same number of job postings, about 2,200, on any given day.
Skill: Android
Skill requests as of Oct. 1: 2,204
Growth from a year earlier: +33 percent
JBoss Takes Charge
Here’s another one for the open-source camp: JBoss. On Dice’s list with nearly 2,000 postings a day is JBoss, an application server that implements the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE).
Skill: JBoss
Skill requests as of Oct. 1: 1,976
Growth from a year earlier: +10 percent
Securing Data
Information security is a priority for enterprises of all sizes, and tech pros play a key role in preventing data breaches.
Skill: Information Security
Skill requests as of Oct. 1: 1,916
Growth from a year earlier: +26 percent
Demand for Microsoft Dynamics Application Skills
Microsoft is aiming its Dynamics suite at small and midsize businesses in addition to large enterprises. By the end of 2012, Microsoft said it would update a sizable portion of its business-application portfolio. Its plans include bringing Dynamics to the cloud.
Skill: MS Dynamics
Skill requests as of Oct. 1: 1,581
Growth from a year earlier: +10 percent
Openings for Windows 7
Demand remains at record levels for Windows 7 skills, even though Microsoft will soon release Windows on Oct. 26. When requests for Windows 8 skills surpass that of Windows 7 will be anyone’s guess. Dice doesn’t make predictions.
Skill: Windows 7
Skill requests as of Oct. 1: 1,161
Growth from a year earlier: +33 percent