Embargo Sept15 9amEST

Beyond the
Talent Shortage
How Tech Candidates Search for Jobs
1 Indeed
For over a decade, both employers

and economists have observed a
persistent talent shortage in tech.
There are many more jobs calling
for software skills than there are job
seekers to fill them. This shortage has
become more pronounced as more
kinds of companies in more locations
are in need of tech talent. How can we
move beyond the skills shortage when
employer demand continues to rise and
candidates take the drivers seat?
The answer lies in identifying opportunities
for better alignment between employers
and job seekers, and in this talent-driven
economy, its up to employers to bridge
that gap. Data from Indeed on how
people search for software jobs and how
Tara M. Sinclair, PhD

Chief Economist, Indeed
2Allcontent
Indeed Indeed Inc. 2015
employers hire them reveals that there are

some disconnects, primarily in location.
While employers are hiring all over the
world, job seekers with software skills are
mainly interested in a select number of
tech hubs. Employers will need to craft
creative strategies to attract job seekers to
the cities where theyre needed while also
offering greater flexibility and opportunity
for this set of in-demand talent. As
software itself becomes more capable,
we can expect new job titles and skills to
emerge. Finding holistic solutions to todays
skills gap will help employers overcome
future challenges in tech hiring as well.
Table of contents
Introduction
The ecosystem of technology jobs has rapidly expanded.................................................. 4
Key Insights
4 trends that dominate tech job search and hiring ............................................................ 6
Where Employers Are Hire Tech Talent
Software expertise is needed worldwide ......................................................................... 15
Measuring Job Seeker Interest in Tech Jobs
Candidates search for different skills in different cities .................................................... 20
Emerging Software Job Titles
The rise of the data scientist ............................................................................................ 25
Employer Insights
How Amazon is confronting the talent shortage in tech .................................................. 33
Bridging the Gap
The mismatch between employers and job seekers varies over title, time, and place..... 38
Appendices
Data and methodology ..................................................................................................... 48
Top 100 global cities by Java job postings ...................................................................... 50
Ranking of US cities by job searches in 2013 .................................................................. 51
Ranking of US cities by job postings in 2013 .................................................................. 52
About Us ............................................................................................................................... 53
Introduction
The ecosystem of technology

jobs has rapidly expanded
In 1968, the NATO Science Committee
held a conference on software engineering,
a term that had recently been coined by
Margaret Hamilton, a NASA mathematician
who was working on the guidance software
that a year later enabled Apollo 11 to land
on the Moon. At the time, computers had
only recently emerged from universities and
laboratories but were quickly spreading
to offices around the world. Computer
science was not a formalized discipline and
the more than 50 experts who gathered in
Garmisch, Germany worried that current
programming practices and languages
would not scale well.
As one conference attendee observed,
In 1958, a European general purpose
computer manufacturer often had fewer
than 50 software programmers, now they
probably number 1,000 2,000 people;
what will be needed in 1978? By 1978
in fact, microcomputers and personal
workstations had appeared on the market,
Apple and Microsoft were beginning to
make their mark, and the context of software
development had changed radically.
Today, companies of all kinds not only
employ software programmers but also
4 Indeed
engineers, web developers, data scientists

and many other types of specialized
technical staff who all work with software.
Computer programs that automate
previously time consuming or even
impossible tasks have spread to nearly
every aspect of life and business, and
with those capabilities has come an
ever-expanding list of job titles.
What is the state of employment in

these fields today?
The public discourse on the topic is
dominated by the skills gap: there are many
openings for specialized roles in technology
and not enough people to fill them. While
this gap stems from a general shortage of
people with software and programming
skills, there is also a mismatch between
how people with those skills search and
where employers are looking to hire.
From our analysis, one overwhelming trend
unites these jobs: the people interested in
using specialized software skills flock to
a small number of tech hubs over other
kinds of cities. In a tight labor market where
candidates are in control, employers will
need to go to these hubs rather than wait
Software jobs are

spread out all over
the world
for talent to come to them. Job seekers

may be attracted to living and working
near people with similar skills and interests
in metropolitan areas that offer many
employment opportunities. In fact, it may be
precisely because employers first clustered
in some cities that drew job seekers, but
now that talent has taken the drivers seat,
candidates interests are the greater force
in the labor market.
Attracting tech talent will increasingly rely
on job seekers preferences, including
being in the locations that appeal to
them most. This may mean setting up
physical presences in these locations but
could also mean that employers recruit in
5 Indeed
Java is the most popular programming

language worldwide. Here is a look at where
jobs calling for that skill are concentrated.
popular hubs despite their companys base

elsewhere, solving the talent gap by offering
candidates the chance to work remotely.
Flexibility is the hallmark of a talent-driven
economy and one thats particularly relevant
for high-skill, in-demand workers. Moving
forward, identifying opportunities based on
how candidates search can help employers
better navigate the skills gap and reach
talent in spite of the shortage.
Key Insights
4 Trends That
Dominate
Tech Job Search
and Hiring
6 Indeed
6 Indeed
Key Insights
Tech talent is
needed all over
the world
1
7 Indeed
Tech jobs are spread out across

the globe and tech talent is
needed by all kinds of employers.
The following list is a ranking of global
cities based on the volume of job postings
calling for Java skills. Worldwide, there are
more than nine million Java developers and
the Tiobe index consistently ranks Java as
the most popular programming language
globally. It is also the most searched for
programming language on Indeed. The
prevalence of Java jobs can be used as a
strong indicator of the tech jobs in a city.
Worldwide Ranking of Cities by Java Job Postings

1. London
6. Lisbon
11. Milan
16. Delhi
21. So Paulo
2. Bangalore
7. Pune
12. Mumbai
17. Warsaw
22. Chicago
3. Beijing
8. Chennai
13. Rome
18. Barcelona
23. Moscow
4. Madrid
9. Hyderabad
14. Paris
19. Mnich
24. San Francisco
5. New York
10. Shanghai
15. Krakw
20. Atlanta
25. Wroclaw
12
8
4
1
8 Indeed
Several other important cities for tech appear

further down the list:
Tech cities in
Europe
26. Berlin
27. Dublin
40. Sydney
Tech cities in
Asia (6 in India,
2 in China)
47. San Jose

59. Austin
89. Seattle
Note: Java consistently ranks among the top

search terms for people searching for a job
outside of their current country. We did not control
for population in this ranking because many of
Tech cities in
the US
these jobs will be searched for and filled by people

outside the local population. The result is that
many high-population cities appear near the top
of the list. Still, there are some surprisingly small
cities among these 25 locations: San Francisco,
Tech city in
South America
for example, is a city of just over 800,000 yet it

appears on this list with cities with populations
above ten million.
Key Insights
In the US,
people are most
interested in a
few tech hubs
2
9 Indeed
While employer demand for tech

workers is spread across the
globe, job seekers who search for
jobs in software are attracted to a
small number of cities.
Using a subset of 18 software-related job
titles, we ranked 25 US cities and three
international cities where English job titles
are used. The ranking is based on relative
job search volume for those jobs in each
city in the first quarter of 2015.
Most popular tech job seeker destinations:
1. San Jose
2. San Francisco
3. Seattle
4. Austin
5. Salt Lake City
12. Denver
19. Phoenix
6. Boston
13. Chicago
20. Houston
7. San Diego
14. Los Angeles
21. Alexandria
8. Arlington
15. Washington DC
22. Kansas City
9. Minneapolis
16. Atlanta
23. Philadelphia
10. Dallas
17. Columbus
24. Orlando
11. New York City
18. Charlotte
25. Indianapolis
San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and

Austin took the top spots for the most
popular destinations in both 2013 and
2015. And, the difference between Austin
at #4 and Salt Lake City at #5 is one of the
largest differences on the list, solidifying the
distinction between a hub and other cities
where tech job searches are prevalent.
Throughout this report, we will refer to
these four cities as tech hubs based on
job seeker interest.
10 Indeed
Key Insights
And that interest

is becoming more
concentrated
over time
3
11 Indeed
In 2013, interest in the 18

software-related jobs we
analyzed was 3.3 times greater in
San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle,
and Austin than in the US on
average. In 2015, interest in those
cities was 3.6 times greater.
The following graph depicts how
that interest has grown. The blue line
represents interest in tech hubs while
the other two lines represent the share of
searches for software jobs for the entire
US and then globally across all 55 markets
where Indeed has a site.
In 2015, tech job seekers are nearly 4X more interested in tech

hubs than in the US on average.
Normalized to US = 100 in 2013
Tech Hubs
US
Global
600
450
300
150
0
2013
With the growth of software jobs in all

kinds of businesses all over the world, we
anticipated that job seeker interest would
spread geographically as well.
Job seeker interest may have once been
driven by the availability of jobs, but the
growing interest in tech hubs suggests
further concentration on the part of job
seekers beyond the clustering of job
opportunities. Furthermore, although job
seekers have consistently been focused
on the same top four cities over the past
12 Indeed
2014
2015
three years, the ranking from the employer

perspective has changed over time.
Employer demand for tech jobs is global,
so how can employers all over the world
attract candidates when job seekers
interest is focused on this select group of
cities? Employers may need to consider
opening offices in these select locations,
developing flexible working arrangements
in order to allow talent to work remotely, or
finding creative ways to attract employees
to other locations.
Key Insights
The talent
shortage varies
in size by location
4
13 Indeed
Our analysis of job seeker interest

in tech hubs indicates that the size
of the talent shortage isnt static.
Finding an equilibrium in the tech labor
market is a challenge because employers
needs and job seekers interests are always
shifting. In some cities and for some job
titles, it is easier to hire than in others.
The relative volume of searches and postings
in key US cities for the 18 software-related
job titles we analyzed offers a revealing
picture of that mismatch by location.
10 cities where the talent shortage decreased the most:
There is a talent shortage for softwarerelated jobs everywhere in the US. This
gap between the share of tech job postings
and the share of tech job searches is larger
in some cities than in others, but across
the board, the talent shortage decreased
from 2013 to 2015.
The following numbers indicate the
percent change in that gap for each city.
1. Los Angeles
2. Denver
-51.08%
-49.55%
3. Minneapolis
4. Seattle
5. Austin
6. Salt Lake City
-45.41%
-45.38%
-44.94%
-44.54%
7. Arlington
8. San Francisco
9. Charlotte
10. Indianapolis
-43.36%
-42.26%
-42.07%
-41.98%
14 Indeed
Where
Employers
Are Hiring
Tech Talent
Software expertise
is needed worldwide
A rapid increase in software capabilities

has led to an economic inflection point that
has in turn created a range of new high-skill
technology jobs. The result is that employers
all over the world, both inside and outside
of the tech industry, now need people with
diverse tech skills. Today, most software
developers dont work for a software firm
a global survey from Stack Overflow shows
that only 25% of developers work in the
software industry.
15 Indeed
Where Employers Are Hiring Tech Talent
We approached our analysis of

software jobs in two ways
Job Titles
We looked at a list of job titles related to the creation of software and examined how
employers advertise these jobs. We ranked the popularity of these jobs based on the
volume of searches, globally and in the US.
Programming Languages
Because software-related job titles can be vague, many people in the software field
choose to search for languages instead. We analyzed the searches for these programming
languages and ranked them by popularity, globally and in the US.
16 Indeed
Our analysis in this report is based on these 18 job titles:

Rank by Search Popularity
Global Searches
US Searches
Software Engineer
Software Engineer
Data Analyst
Data Analyst
Quality Analyst
Quality Analyst
Web Developer
Web Developer
Java Developer
Java Developer
Software Developer
Data Scientist
Data Scientist
Software Developer
UI/UX Developer
UI/UX Developer
Front End Developer
Front End Developer
10
.Net Developer
.Net Developer
11
Application Developer
Application Developer
12
Mobile Developer
Mobile Developer
13
Senior Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer
14
Software Architect
Software Architect
15
Mobile Engineer
DevOps Engineer
16
DevOps Engineer
Mobile Engineer
17
Database Engineer
Database Engineer
18
Senior Software Developer
Senior Software Developer
And these 11 programming languages:

Rank by Search Popularity
Global Searches
US Searches
Java
Java
SQL
SQL
PHP
C#
C#
Python
Python
PHP
C++
C++
JavaScript
JavaScript
Ruby
Ruby
CSS
CSS
10
Perl
Perl
11
Objective-C
Objective-C
17 Indeed
17 Indeed
Where Employers Are Hiring Tech Talent
Job seekers and employers dont

always agree on where software
jobs should be located
To get an indication of where mismatch is
the strongest and where job seekers and
employers are better aligned, we ranked the
following cities based on their popularity
for software job postings and software job
searches. The three largest tech hubs are
cities that are traditionally associated with
this industry: San Francisco, San Jose, and
Seattle. While Austin previously ranked
among our tech hubs for job seekers, this
list provides an example of mismatch with
Boston ranking above Austin for
job postings.
Along with Boston, Arlington (VA) and New
York appear very high in the ranking for
employers. These cities arent traditionally
associated with the tech industry, but
they are cities often associated with other
specific industries: research and academia,
national defense and other government
contractors, and finance and media,
respectively. Job seekers with tech skills
may be underestimating the number of
opportunities those cities offer.
18 Indeed
At the same time, it may be that tech talent

is more interested in smaller cities over
those larger ones. Austin, Salt Lake City, and
Minneapolis all rank higher for job seeker
interest. These cities have a lot of appeal
a lower cost of living for one. But in these
less dense urban areas, candidates will likely
receive fewer competing offers from other
tech firmsa condition that drives up wages
over time.
It is also interesting to note that the top four
cities have stayed the same for job seekers
since 2013, whereas the rankings based
on job postings have shifted more. In 2013,
the top four cities in terms of postings were
ranked in the same order for job seekers.
In 2015, job seekers are showing a slightly
different preference from employers, with
San Jose taking the top spot.
Employer Rank
Location
Job Seeker Rank
Location
San Francisco
San Jose
San Jose
San Francisco
Seattle
Seattle
Boston
Austin
Austin
Salt Lake City
San Diego
Boston
Arlington
San Diego
New York City
Arlington
Atlanta
Minneapolis
10
Chicago
10
Dallas
11
Minneapolis
11
New York City
12
Washington DC
12
Denver
13
Charlotte
13
Chicago
14
Salt Lake City
14
Los Angeles
15
Alexandria
15
Washington DC
16
Columbus
16
Atlanta
17
Denver
17
Columbus
18
Dallas
18
Charlotte
19
Philadelphia
19
Phoenix
20
Los Angeles
20
Houston
21
Kansas City
21
Alexandria
22
Phoenix
22
Kansas City
23
Orlando
23
Philadelphia
24
Indianapolis
24
Orlando
25
Houston
25
Indianapolis
(Postings Per M 2015)
19 Indeed
19 Indeed
(Searches Per M 2015)
Measuring
Job Seeker
Interest in
Tech Jobs
Candidates search for

different skills in different cities
Photo
Candidates for jobs in software often search

by using the programming language in which
they are most proficient or would like to use
in their next job.
We analyzed job search activity for a subset
of programming languages, based on a list
of the most popular repository languages
on GitHub, to find out where people are
interested in finding a job in which they
would use that language. From this analysis,
we learned that job seekers with software
skills are not necessarily searching in cities
with the most tech job postings.
This means that job seekers are attracted to
some locations while employers are trying to
lure them to others.
20 Indeed
San Francisco and San Jose

top the list for most programming
language searches
Predictably, San Francisco and San Jose
have the highest relative search volumes for
a majority of these languages. The notable
exceptions are PHP, where only one of the
five top cities is a tech hub, and SQL where
Dallas beats out all four tech hub cities for
the top spot. However, three of the five top
cities are tech hubs for all but two of
these languages.
Arlington (VA) and Boston are two
interesting cities to consider. While neither
city is dominated by the tech industry, both
have extremely high search rates for several
21 Indeed
of these languages. Boston ranks in the top

five for five of the languages and Arlington
is in the top five for three of the languages.
The prevalence of tech job searches in
Boston is likely tied to the presence of
more than 100 colleges and universities in
the area. In Arlington, these searches are
likely directed at public sector and defenserelated jobs with employers such as the
Department of Defense, the Department of
Homeland Security, the National Science
Foundation, and Lockheed Martinto name
a few in the greater Washington DC area.
Most popular cities for each

programming language:
CSS
C#
C++
San Francisco
San Jose
Austin
San Francisco
San Jose
Austin
Seattle
Boston
Denver
New York City
JavaScript
Java
Perl
San Jose
San Francisco
San Jose
San Jose
San Francisco
Austin
Alexandria
Austin
Alexandria
Arlington (VA)
Austin
New York City
Boston
San Jose
San Francisco
Arlington (VA)
Seattle
Seattle
Dallas
San Diego
SQL
Python
PHP
Ruby
Salt Lake City
San Francisco
Dallas
San Francisco
Boston
San Jose
Seattle
Arlington (VA)
Los Angeles
Austin
San Francisco
Austin
San Francisco
Seattle
San Jose
Seattle
Denver
Boston
Charlotte
Boston
22 Indeed
22 Indeed
Growth in programming language

searches reveals which cities
are increasingly attractive for
people with specific skills
Searches for SQL, a programming language
used for managing all types of data, rather
than creating software, are growing fastest
in cities that are typically less thought of as
tech hubs.
Phoenix is the fastest growing city for two
of the most popular languages: Python and
C#. This is impressive growth for Phoenix
because as recently as 2013, the city
ranked very low for the number of language
searches. Today, it has risen to the top
of the list for two of them.
CSS, JavaScript, and PHP all interact with
HTML and are focused on building web
pages and web interfaces. Philadelphia
23 Indeed
is in the top three fastest growing cities

for all three of these languages. This may
indicate that job seekers in the city are more
focused on web programming than other
types of software development. Philadelphia
is experiencing growth for these languages,
but is still third to last of all the cities we
analyzed in terms of searches per million.
Its notable that San Francisco and San
Jose are the top two cities for growth of
CSS searches. While these powerful tech
hubs are clearly dominating the number of
searches for languages across the board,
CSS is the only language where they are
growing more rapidly than other cities.
Cities where interest in these

programming languages has
grown the most:
CSS
C#
C++
Phoenix
Orlando
Washington DC
Kansas City
Dallas
Seattle
Boston
Houston
Indianapolis
Atlanta
JavaScript
Java
Perl
San Francisco
Minneapolis
Alexandria
Arlington (VA)
San Jose
Philadelphia
Charlotte
Kansas City
Philadelphia
San Antonio
Phoenix
Orlando
Denver
Dallas
Dallas
Alexandria
Charlotte
Salt Lake City
Chicago
New York City
SQL
Python
PHP
Ruby
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Orlando
Washington DC
Denver
Charlotte
Charlotte
San Antonio
Arlington (VA)
Minneapolis
Chicago
Columbus
Alexandria
Houston
Philadelphia
Charlotte
Washington DC
Salt Lake City
Columbus
Salt Lake City
24 Indeed
24 Indeed
Emerging
Software
Job Titles
The rise of the data scientist

When creating a software product, some
employees work on the back end while others
work on the front end and the user interface.
Still others are needed to optimize the
product for use on mobile. As teams grow,
employers also need engineering leadership
to manage all these teams.
When software capabilities are built up,
companies end up with a wealth of data
concerning how their products work. Sorting
through this data and gleaning insights that
can be used to improve the technology and
demonstrate its success requires a staff of
its owncompanies need to hire people
who are skilled in maintaining, accessing and
understanding the data. This has resulted in
significant growth for job postings and job
seeker interest in data scientist positions.
This is a job title that has exploded worldwide
in the last three years, with other languages
commonly using the English title.
The following section examines the types of
job titles in high demand by employers today,
the types of skills employers are seeking, and
how these jobs have changed over time.
25 Indeed
The software jobs ladder reveals

the skill level required for each job
We can use the US salary estimates from Indeed to visualize the ladder of software job
titles. Data scientist, a title which did not exist just a few years ago, is now at the top of the
ladder, tied with software architect. Interestingly, two titles which are sometimes confused by
the general public, data scientist and data analyst, bookend our salary ranking.
Average Salaries for Software Jobs (2015)

Data Scientist
Software Architect
Software Engineer
Mobile Engineer
Mobile Developer
UI/UX Developer
Software Developer
Front End Developer
Web Developer
Data Analyst
26 Indeed
$117,000
$117,000
$102,000
$102,000
$102,000
$99,000
$95,000
$95,000
$87,000
$62,000
There is a lot of overlap in the keywords that

are used to describe the roles for software
architects, software engineers, and software
developers, but the salary differences
suggest there are some distinctions. The
primary differences are that architects are
more often assigned management and
leadership tasks, which explains their
higher salary. In general, architects are
asked to lead projects, while engineers and
developers might only work on parts of
those projects.
For example, specific technical skills
appear more often in postings for engineers
and developers: Linux and Python
appear more often in job postings for
software engineers than for architects. For
developers, SQL is in higher demand.
By contrast, the term implementation is
used much more frequently in postings for
architects than it is for either of the other
27 Indeed
two positions. Implementation better

explains the divide between architects and
engineers and developers, as architects
are expected to oversee the successful
completion of a project.
Despite their similar salary estimates, there
are notable differences between software
engineers, mobile engineers, and mobile
developers. Our data indicate that mobile
engineers are more likely to build the
back-end structure of a mobile application
while mobile developers are focused on the
front-end. Mobile engineers are also distinct
from software engineers in general. Job
postings for software engineers focus more
on SQL, Linux, and general analytical skills.
Employers are not in need of those more
foundational programming skills when hiring
mobile engineers and instead need people
who can build programs to run on iOS,
Android, and other mobile operating systems.
Both job seekers and employers

are increasingly interested in
data science
Previous research from the Indeed Hiring
Lab revealed that data scientist was
among the fastest growing job searches
in key cities in the US. While data
analyst has been a common job title in
many businesses, postings for that job
decreased relative to data scientist and
other tech job postings.
While data analysts often come from a
business background, data scientists
are expected to have more experience
in software engineering and statistics.
Data analysts are employed across many
industries and sectors, even in smaller
business that may not necessarily work
with large amounts of data. Data scientists
are more associated with handling big
data and complex sets of information.
Our analysis of the terms used in both job
descriptions highlights that difference.
From this comparison, data scientist
emerges as a more diagnostic role,
one that may entail more management
and strategic direction than a data
analyst position. Terms like algorithm,
28 Indeed
programming, statistics and quantitative

appear much more frequently as do
programming languages such as Java and
Pythonwhile Python appears in 60.2%
of data scientist positions, it only appears
in 5.9% of data analyst job descriptions.
Data analysts are expected to organize
and derive insights from relatively
accessible information. Job descriptions
for data analyst mention terms like Excel,
Microsoft, database and documentation
much more often.
In recent years, as larger amounts of data
have become available to businesses,
people with more of a statistics and
mathematics background have filled
data scientist roles to glean insight from
data using predictive analytics such as
machine and deep learning. The emphasis
on statistics and programming with
Python suggests that they need to tell
sophisticated stories about the data.
These top ten terms differentiate Data Analysts from Data Scientists:
Data Analyst I Share of job postings this term appears in
Data
Analytics
97.6%
84.0%
Database
Software
36.2%
30.9%
SQL
51.7%
Statistics
28.9%
Excel
46.3%
Microsoft
28.2%
Technical
44.2%
Applications
26.9%
Data Scientist I Share of job postings this term appears in
Data
100%
Algorithm
44.2%
29 Indeed
29 Indeed
Analytics
88.8%
Programming
43.7%
Statistics
80.2%
Software
41.9%
Python
60.2%
Technical
40.1%
SQL
48.2%
Java
38.9%
US Salary Trend From

Indeed.com
Normalized to Data Scientist salary, July 2012 = 100
Salary data from the last three years also points
to the more senior role of a data scientist and how
that role has increased in importance and demand
in recent years.
125
100
75
50
Data Scientist
25
Data Analyst
0
Jul 12
Oct 12
Jan 13
Apr 13
Jul 13
Oct 13
Jan 14
Apr 14
Data scientist job postings per

million increased with respect to
all the other software job titles
Today, there are still many more job postings for software engineers than for data scientists,
but postings for data scientists have seen tremendous growth relative to all other software
job titles.
In 2013, employers in the US were looking for 66 software engineers per one data scientist.
In 2015, employers are looking for 21 software engineers to one data scientist. Globally,
that figure is 93 software engineers per one data scientist in 2013 to just 21 software
engineers for every one by 2015.
31 Indeed
Postings per million for data scientist increased (in relative terms)
with respect to other software-related titles in the US
2013
2014
Number of data scientist postings for every one data analyst
2015
8.0
13.6
19.6
Number of data scientist postings for every one software developer
5.3
10.4
16.8
Number of data scientist postings for every one software engineer
1.5
2.9
4.8
Ratio of Data Scientist Postings to Other Software Jobs (x100)
Postings per million for data scientist increased (in relative terms)
with respect to other software-related jobs globally
2013
Number of data scientist postings for every one data analyst
Number of data scientist postings for every one software developer
Number of data scientist postings for every one software engineer
Ratio of Data Scientist Postings to Other Software Jobs (x100)
32 Indeed
2014
2015
6.2
12.2
21.3
2.5
5.8
10.6
1.1
2.6
4.7
Employer Insights
We have to view
technical talent as a
global talent pool.
Susan Harker
VP of Global Talent Acquisition
Amazon
33 Indeed
Susan Harker, Amazon
How Amazon is
confronting the
talent shortage
in tech
From its launch in the mid-90s as an
online bookstore, Amazon has grown
into the largest ecommerce retailer in the
United States. Today, the company drives
innovation in retail and publishing, and
through Amazon Web Services, provides
enterprise services and manufactures and
sells electronic devices.
Each of these endeavors requires a team
of engineers and developers, and Susan
Harker, vice president of global talent
acquisition, is tasked with finding the
people to fill these roles and every other
vacancy in the organization. Tara Sinclair,
chief economist at Indeed, met with Susan
at Amazons Seattle campus to discuss
how the company approaches hiring
34 Indeed
technical candidates in face of a global

talent shortage.
Tara Sinclair: Obviously, Amazon has
been very successful in attracting tech
talent. Id love to start out by asking you
about Amazons philosophy for hiring
and attracting that top tech talent.
Susan Harker: The thing I hear most often
from our interns or when people first
get here, something that they might not
have expected, is that they get a lot of
ownership over what theyre doing. They
have a broader scope to their initial roles
than they have experienced elsewhereI
think thats what our primary attraction
is. People get to work very hard on
challenging problems but they get a lot of
ownership. They get to work more end-toend and they really
like that.
I think Amazon is the right place for people
who want to learn a lot, be challenged all
the time and have a lot of really thorny,
hard problems to solvebecause those

are the ones that are pioneering and
groundbreaking for customers.
How do you communicate that to a new
potential recruit?
I think we need to get better and better at it.
You experience that when you come here as
an intern or as an employee but its a harder
thing to portray in sound bites. I think its
having candidates talk to alumni, helping
utilize a network of people who have done
internships at the company or have worked
at the company, or do work at the company
and really hearing what peoples true
experiences are working here is the best
way to do it.
Were doing some things from an employer
branding perspective in terms of putting
out that message. We have a campaign
right now called Beyond the Badge. Its
people doing short interviews about their
work experience at Amazon. Its just very
authentic, and I think the best employer
brand, if you will, is what peoples actual
experience is.
One thing that really struck me in our
data is that job seekers are still very
locally focused on a few main cities
and particularly here in the US. Now of
course, Seattle is one of them. Are you
guys seeing a similar pattern in terms
of difficulty in attracting talent outside
of Seattle or do you take advantage of
being here in Seattle?
Both. Its very hard to get people out of
the Bay Areaif youre graduating from a
Cal school or youre living and working in
35 Indeed
the Bay Area its difficult to lure you away

from that. Its like going into investment
banking but not going to New York. So,
location is always an issue. When you look
at which offers are declined very frequently,
no matter where you are, you can see that
location becomes an issue for someone
who has to move.
At the same time, I think Seattle has
become a lot more attractive of a location
for people. People ask me if I think its a
bad thing that companies like Facebook,
Google, and Alibaba are coming into the
city. But I think its a good thing. I think
its making us more of a tech center, and
that makes it a lot easier to attract people
to Seattle.
On the other hand, if you really want to be
in Boston or you really want to be in the
Bay Area, we do have opportunities for
technical talent in both those locations and
in a number of locations. I think we have to
view technical talent as a global talent pool.
In thinking globally, outside the US, what
are some key locations that are other
conglomerations of tech talent?
Weve done a fair amount of research
on that and what were trying to be is
thoughtful and strategic, setting up
locations where there already are clusters
of talent. We want there to be opportunity in
these locations, namely a good education
system that can feed that talent.
The problem with having a lot of scattered
sites is if you dont reach critical mass in a
location, its harder for people working there
to have new and different opportunities.
Rather than just try to spread everywhere,
we try to be very thoughtful about where

we can build a location thats going to
give a lot of opportunity for people to
have different experiences and career
advancement without being forced to come
to headquarters.
One other thing that were really seeing
from a lot of job seekers is that theyre
interested in remote and work from home
options. Are you working in that area
at alltrying to balance the benefits of
having people together versus allowing
them the flexibility to work from home or
have a remote position?
You know, I think it depends on where you
are in the cycle. If youre doing scrums
together, you cant be remote. I think there
are types of work that absolutely can be
done from home but what I hear more is
that its less I want to be at home and
its more I want to have some flexibility.
Managers need to have the judgment about
what work makes sense to be done from
home and when people need to be working
together, like doing scrum and things
like that.
Theres a lot of team dynamic in software
development and being able to brainstorm.
Youre a team participant in a scrum. It is
very important. On the other hand, if youre
doing a solo task that requires a lot of
concentration, why not do that from home?
Thats exactly what were seeing in
our data, that these search terms like
remote and work from home are
often proxies for flexibility. Beyond salary
and location, flexibility seems to the thing
that really matter to candidates.
36 Indeed
Well, those are things that are fairly

common denominators for all talent. What I
find for technical people matters more than
anything is the nature of the work and the
types of problems they get to work on: the
impact they can have, the customers they
can touch. When I talk to developers, and I
talk to lots of developers all the time, thats
what they care about.
Tech talentits been in demand. It was
a challenge to hire them even when the
unemployment rate in the US was really
high and now its getting even harder.
Yes, its as you pointed out: even when we
were in recession there was still demand for
this talent and competition for this talent.
We dont have enough of this talent to meet
demand so its going to be competitive.
Unfortunately, I dont see that changing
in the near term. Hopefully it will in the
long term. But you really have to appeal
to what candidates want to do and I think
one of the things thats really meaningful,
and that Id like us to get better at, is really
understanding the particular strengths
of the person and their motivations and
matching them wellreally doing a great
job of understanding them and what theyre
good at and placing them very well in
a role.
We need to get better at that but I dont
see anybody doing that exceptionally well. I
think thats a very meaningful differentiator.
Thats something were working on.
Youre saying that hopefully in the future

were going to be able to bring up the
amount of tech talent. How are you
thinking that could happen and what is
Amazon trying to do to develop
that talent?
Engineering programs are academically very
rigorous. By their very nature, they winnow
out a lot of people. So, I dont think theres
a big mystery to the general shortage, but
I think the answer is a lot more complex. It
takes a confluence of sociological issues
and education issues. I think it involves
just a whole bunch of things that need to
be brought to bear to develop this kind of
talent. More and more skilled talent is in
demand globally, and thats a fundamental
shift in the workforce thats been happening
and will continue to happen.
When I look at public high schools that only
offer one AP computer science class and no
37 Indeed
easy way for others to access that kind of

education, or when I see the fact that were
not offering computer science education in
primary and middle schools...its got to start
with our education system. Its a complex
problem and there are many dimensions to
it so theres not a short term, easy answer
to it either.
What were trying to do is work with
organizations that impact this space such
as Code.org and their Hour of Code, Girls
Who Code, the National Center for Women
and Information Technology, and the
Anita Borg Institute. Were partnering with
organizations that are focused on bringing
talent to the field that has typically not been
coming to the field. I think there are longer
term investments in education and societal
change that need to be driven to reflect a
changing workforce, and thats going to
take governmental, education, and industry
working together.
Bridging the Gap
The mismatch between employers

and job seekers varies over title,
time, and place
Tech job seekers consistently show

greater interest in a small number of
cities. While there are many factors at
play, job seekers are likely attracted to
the variety of job opportunities in these
cities. These same cities rank very highly
for the share of job postings in tech,
but candidates may also value other
amenities tech cities provide, like the
opportunity to interact with many other
people with tech skills.
But even in the cities where tech job
seekers are most interested in working,
there is a talent shortage. There are
promising signs for employers, however.
Job seeker interest does vary by location
and over time which means that this gap
is less out of balance in some places and
at some times. Moreover, the relative
search and postings volumes aggregated
38 Indeed
38 Indeed
for all of our tech titles in each city

offers an overall picture of the
mismatch by location.
The gap between relative postings
and relative searches decreased from
2013 to 2015 in all our of cities, but by
varying degrees. Some cities have seen a
significant decrease in the gap between
postings and searcheseither due to
an increase in job seeker interest or a
decrease in software postings share of
overall postings.
It is crucial for employers to know the
best places to look for talent as they
recruit to stay competitive and on top
of business trends. The following pages
examine the locations where the talent
shortage has widened or narrowed over
the past two years.
Bridging the Gap
The talent shortage is more acute

for some jobs and in some cities
To get a sense of where the talent gap is shrinking and where its
expanding, we looked at key job titles and the change in job seeker
interest relative to job postings over time.
The bar charts on the following pages represent the gap between postings and searches
in a given city. By looking at the cities where searches and postings grew the most, we can
see where this gap is shrinking or getting wider. The line indicating US Average shows
how each of these cities is doing compared to the US on the whole.
In many job titles in many of the cities listed, there are more job postings than searches
from job seekersa favorable situation for candidates as they will find themselves with
many options when considering a job. Still, we saw that in general, the gap between job
postings and job searches shrank over the past two years, which means that interest in
these jobs is growing and employers will have more candidates to choose from today than
in 2013.
Blue indicates the % change in the talent gap in the US overall

Green indicates where the talent gap decreased in a given city
Orange indicates where the talent gap increased in a given city
39 Indeed
Bridging the Gap
Data Analyst
Cities where job searches for Data Analyst grew the most from 2013 to 2015.
In the three cities where job searches grew the most, the gap between searches and
postings got smaller.
% change in US overall
Columbus
Arlington
San Francisco
-60%
-45%
-30%
-15%
% change in gap between searches and postings
Cities where postings for Data Analyst grew the most from 2013 to 2015.
Postings for Data Analyst went up in each of these cities. In Columbus, that meant that the
gap between searches and postings decreased (as it did for the US on the whole). In Dallas
and New York City, however, the gap increased.
Columbus
Dallas
New York City
-30%
-15%
15%
40 Indeed
30%
Bridging the Gap
Data Scientist
Cities where job searches for Data Scientist grew the most from 2013 to 2015.
In the cities where job searches for data scientist grew, the gap between searches and
postings decreased. This decrease was greater than the US average, a promising sign for
employers in Atlanta, Dallas, and Minneapolis.
Atlanta
Dallas
Minneapolis
-100%
-75%
-50%
-25%
Cities where postings for Data Scientist grew the most from 2013 to 2015.
In all the cities where postings grew for data scientist, the gap between job postings and
searches decreased. In Chicago, it decreased less than the national average. In Atlanta and
Dallas, it decreased more than in the US overall.
Chicago
Atlanta
Dallas
-60%
-45%
-30%
-15%
41 Indeed
Bridging the Gap
Mobile Developer
Cities where job searches for Mobile Developer grew the most
from 2013 to 2015.
In the cities where searches for this job grew the most, the gap between searches and
postings decreased. In Phoenix and Minneapolis, this decrease was greater than in the
US overall.
Columbus
Phoenix
Minneapolis
-60%
-45%
-30%
-15%
Cities where postings for Mobile Developer grew the most from 2013 to 2015.
Mobile usage is growing and demand for developers is rising. In Columbus, the gap
decreased, but not as significantly as the US average. But in Boston and Orlando, the
gap increased, suggesting that growing demand is not attracting enough job seekers.
Columbus
Boston
Orlando
-50%
-25%
25%
42 Indeed
50%
Bridging the Gap
Mobile Engineer
Cities where job searches for Mobile Engineer grew the most
from 2013 to 2015.
In the cities where searches for this job grew the most, the gap between searches and
postings decreased. In San Francisco and Washington DC, it decreased significantly
more than the US average.
San Diego
San Francisco
Washington DC
-80%
-60%
-40%
-20%
Cities where postings for Mobile Engineer grew the most from 2013 to 2015.
In San Diego, the gap between postings and searches decreased slightly. In Houston and
Austin, it increased by a significant margin.
San Diego
Houston
Austin
-25%
25%
50%
43 Indeed
75%
Bridging the Gap
Software Architect
Cities where job searches for Software Architect grew the most from
2013 to 2015.
The gap between searches and postings decreased in these cities. In Minneapolis, this
decrease was less than the US average but in the other two cities it was far greater.
Minneapolis
Dallas
Denver
-80%
-60%
-40%
-20%
Cities where postings for Software Architect grew the most from 2013 to 2015.
In the cities where postings grew, the gap between searches and postings decreased. In
Austin, this decrease was below the US average. In Boston and Atlanta, it was greater.
Austin
Boston
Atlanta
-60%
-45%
-30%
-15%
44 Indeed
Bridging the Gap
Software Developer
Cities where job searches for Software Developer grew the most
from 2013 to 2015.
In the cities where searches for this job increased, the gap betweens searches and
postings decreased.
Charlotte
Phoenix
Denver
-75%
-65%
-55%
-45%
-35%
Cities where postings for Software Developer grew the most from 2013 to 2015.
Cities where postings for this job grew either saw a decrease in the gap between searches
and postings (Boston) or an increase (Alexandria and Orlando).
Boston
Alexandria
Orlando
-60%
-30%
30%
45 Indeed
60%
Bridging the Gap
Software Engineer
Cities where job searches for Software Engineer grew the most
from 2013 to 2015.
In the cities where searches increased for this job, the gap between searches and postings
decreased. In Dallas, it decreased less than the US as a whole.
Minneapolis
Dallas
Denver
-80%
-60%
-40%
-20%
Cities where postings for Software Engineer grew the most from 2013 to 2015.
The gap between job searches and postings decreased in all the cities where postings
grew. In Boston, this decrease was less than the US as a whole.
Austin
Boston
Atlanta
-60%
-45%
-30%
-15%
46 Indeed
Appendices
47 Indeed
Data and methodology
Jobs in the Computer and Mathematical

occupation comprise 8.6% of all jobs on
Indeed based on the first quarter of 2015.
The job titles we selected for this analysis in
this report account for about one-third (31%)
of jobs in that category, representing the
most popular software titles on Indeed for a
representative analysis of the software field.
Data sources
The focus of this report is on the role of
software jobs in todays economy from both
the employer and job seeker perspectives.
Our main source of information was
aggregated and anonymous search and
posting data from Indeed sites in over 50
countries. Global job search and posting
analysis includes activity from all 55
international Indeed sites. Our analysis
pertaining to the United States (US) focuses
on software job postings and interest from
job seekers across the nation as a whole
and also in select cities. We compiled this
list of cities by combining the cities with
the most job postings overall and the cities
with the most job postings inside of the
Computer and Mathematical occupational
category in the first quarter of 2015.
48 Indeed
The job posting data on Indeed includes

millions of jobs from thousands of sources.
It is important to note that Indeed job postings
do not reflect the precise number of jobs
available in the labor market, as an opening
may be listed on more than one website
and could remain online for a period of time
after it has been filled. Moreover, employers
sometimes use a single job posting for
multiple job openings. However, the data do
represent a broad measure of each job titles
share of job openings in the labor market.
To observe changes in the software industry
over time, we focused our analysis on data
from the first quarters of 2013, 2014, and 2015.
Salary Data
All salary data in the report is estimated
by Indeed, as of June 19, 2015.
Software Titles
For our analysis of searches and postings by
job title, we organized the software industry
by 18 distinct job titles. We drew the job titles
from the most popular job titles inside of the
Computer and Mathematical occupational
category, compiling a list that covered most
aspects of the software industry, including
software design, mobile, applications and
data analysis.
Data and methodology
US Tech Hub Ranking Methodology
Worldwide Ranking
Using our subset of 18 software job

titles (listed on page 21), we ranked 25
US cities based on job postings and job
search volume in 2013. For each city we
considered, we calculated the share of
overall job postings for each job title and
then added these shares together so each
city had one number to represent the share
of postings for all software job titles. The
city with the highest software postings
share is ranked first. A similar process was
conducted to arrive at a single number
for the share of overall searches for all job
titles in each city. San Francisco, San Jose,
Seattle, and Austin took the top four spots
in searches in both 2013 and 2015. After
these four there was a substantial drop
in interest. Thus, throughout this report
we refer to these four cities as tech hubs
based on job seeker interest.
To get a better sense of concentrations

of tech interest worldwide, we developed
a ranking of global cities based on the
number of job postings with Java in the
title based on Indeed job postings in the
first quarter of 2015. This ranking does
not control for population, since many of
these jobs will be searched for and filled by
people outside the local population. The
result is that many high-population cities
appear near the top of the list. At the same
time, there are some surprisingly small
cities among these 25 locations.
Programming Languages
For our analysis of job seeker interest in
programming languages we focused on a
set of 11 languages drawn from a list of the
most widely used programming languages
on the web-based repository hosting
service GitHub.
49 Indeed
Top 100 Global Cities by Java Job Postings
This is a list of global cities ranked by the number of job postings calling for Java skills.
Throughout this report, we use this ranking as a rough measure of employer demand for
tech talent in a city.
(Rankings taken from Q1 2015)
1
London
26 Berlin
51 Belfast
76
Porto Alegre
Bangalore
27 Dublin
52 Glasgow
77
Frankfurt
Beijing
28 Cape Town
53 St. Petersburg
78
Turin
Madrid
29 Mexico City
54 Manchester
79
Phoenix
New York
30 Hong Kong
55 Prague
80
Porto
Lisbon
31 Singapore
56 Zrich
81
Navi Mumbai
Pune
32 Florida (AR)
57 San Miguel (AR)
82
Minneapolis
Chennai
33 Washington DC
58 Petah Tikva
83
Makati
Hyderabad
34 Santiago
59 Austin
84
St. Louis
10 Shanghai
35 Don Torcuato
60 Constitucin
85
Sandton
11 Milan
36 Paternal
61 Noida
86
Chongqing
12 Mumbai
37 Boston
62 Charlotte
87
A Corua
13 Rome
38 Gurgaon
63 Gdask
88
Greater Noida
14 Paris
39 Johannesburg
64 Dallas
89
Seattle
15 Krakw
40 Sydney
65 Brussels
90
McLean
16 Delhi
41 Bristol
66 Hamburg
91
Lyon
17 Warsaw
42 Montral
67 Lodz
92
Raleigh
18 Barcelona
43 Ramos Meja
68 Budapest
93
Denver
19 Munich
44 Leeds
69 Sunnyvale (US)
94
Alpharetta
20 Atlanta
45 Edinburgh
70 Amsterdam
95
Reading (UK)
21 So Paulo
46 Jersey City
71 Columbus
96
Rio de Janeiro
22 Chicago
47 San Jose
72 Cambridge
97
Herndon
23 Moscow
48 Saavedra
73 Hanoi
98
Alexandria
24 San Francisco
49 Toronto
74 Ahmedabad
99
Mountain View
25 Wroclaw
50 San Fernando
75 Ho Chi Minh City
100 Tianjin
50 Indeed
Ranking of US Cities by Number of Software Job Searches
This is a ranking of US cities based on the number of job searches for the 18 job titles that
make up this report. The full list of those titles can be found on page 21.
(Rankings taken from 2013)
Number of software job searches

(per million)
1
San Jose
13426.7
14 Chicago
3729.7
San Francisco
10879.2
15 Atlanta
3669.7
Austin
8202.8
16 Los Angeles
3535.5
Seattle
8118.8
17 Houston
3500.9
San Diego
6534.4
18 Columbus
3436.1
Boston
5714.2
19 Denver
3418.2
Dallas
5095.9
20 Charlotte
3320.9
Salt Lake City
5040.0
21 Phoenix
2817.9
Minneapolis
4935.3
22 Kansas City
2779.2
10 Arlington
4887.6
23 Orlando
2671.9
11 Alexandria
4874.1
24 Indianapolis
2569.6
12 New York City
4131.4
25 Philadelphia
2558.6
13 Washington DC
3773.8
26 San Antonio
2320.2
51 Indeed
Ranking of US Cities by Number of Software Job Postings
This is a ranking of US cities by the number of job postings for the 18 job titles that
make up this report.
(Rankings taken from 2013)
Number of software job postings

(per million)
1
San Francisco
149141.0
14 Washington DC 56147.3
San Jose
133114.9
15 Columbus
51314.6
Seattle
126527.8
16 Denver
50510.6
Austin
98513.4
17 Salt Lake City
50181.3
San Diego
90282.2
18 Los Angeles
46917.0
Atlanta
78787.9
19 Dallas
39477.2
Boston
76485.7
20 Philadelphia
38247.3
Arlington
74987.3
21 Kansas City
38057.5
New York City
70599.5
22 Phoenix
35455.6
10 Charlotte
66860.5
23 Indianapolis
33674.3
11 Chicago
66680.2
24 Orlando
29826.6
12 Alexandria
64665.7
25 Houston
24215.3
13 Minneapolis
61511.8
26 San Antonio
18260.8
52 Indeed
About the author
Tara M. Sinclair, PhD, is chief economist

at Indeed and an associate professor of
economics and international affairs at
The George Washington University. Her
research focuses on examining historical
patterns in data to understand both the
current and past structure of the labor
market and to forecast future movements.
Under Taras direction, the Indeed Hiring
Lab is developing original research using
proprietary Indeed data to uncover
exclusive insights into the labor market.
53 Indeed
In addition to conducting her research,

Tara is frequently invited to brief the media
on economic and labor trends as well as
offer commentary. She has been quoted
in the New York Times, the Wall Street
Journal, and the Washington Post, and she
has appeared on CNN, C-Span, NPR, Fox
Business, Bloomberg Radio and TV, and
many other local and international
news programs.
About the Indeed Hiring Lab
The Indeed Hiring Lab is a global research institute committed to advancing

the knowledge of human resource and talent management professionals worldwide.
Contributors
Nayna Ahmed
Daniel Culbertson
Victoria Goss
Eleanor Hooker
Mariano Mamertino
Valerie Rodden
Ryan Sawyer
Andre Szejko
About Indeed
More people find jobs on Indeed than anywhere else. Job seekers can search millions of
jobs on web or mobile in over 50 countries. Each month, more than 180 million people
search for jobs, post resumes, and research companies on Indeed, and Indeed is the #1
source of external hire for thousands of companies.
For more information, visit indeed.com.
54 Indeed

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Beyond the

For over a decade, both employers

Tara M. Sinclair, PhD

employers hire them reveals that there are

The ecosystem of technology

engineers, web developers, data scientists

What is the state of employment in

Software jobs are

for talent to come to them. Job seekers

Java is the most popular programming

popular hubs despite their companys base

Tech jobs are spread out across

Worldwide Ranking of Cities by Java Job Postings

24. San Francisco

Several other important cities for tech appear

47. San Jose

Note: Java consistently ranks among the top

these jobs will be searched for and filled by people

for example, is a city of just over 800,000 yet it

While employer demand for tech

Most popular tech job seeker destinations:

5. Salt Lake City

14. Los Angeles

22. Kansas City

11. New York City

San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and

And that interest

In 2013, interest in the 18

In 2015, tech job seekers are nearly 4X more interested in tech

With the growth of software jobs in all

three years, the ranking from the employer

Our analysis of job seeker interest

10 cities where the talent shortage decreased the most:

6. Salt Lake City

A rapid increase in software capabilities

Where Employers Are Hiring Tech Talent

We approached our analysis of

Our analysis in this report is based on these 18 job titles:

Front End Developer

Front End Developer

Senior Software Engineer

Senior Software Engineer

Senior Software Developer

Senior Software Developer

And these 11 programming languages:

Where Employers Are Hiring Tech Talent

Job seekers and employers dont

At the same time, it may be that tech talent

Job Seeker Rank

Salt Lake City

New York City

New York City

Salt Lake City

(Postings Per M 2015)

(Searches Per M 2015)

Candidates search for

Candidates for jobs in software often search

Measuring Job Seeker Interest in Tech Jobs

San Francisco and San Jose

of these languages. Boston ranks in the top

Most popular cities for each

New York City