April 2025 Jobs Report
Methodology
To present the insights in this report, Dice used job posting data provided by Dice’s partner, Lightcast, which has a database of more than 1 billion current and historical job postings worldwide. Dice pulled data on April 8, 2025 and analyzed over 7 million tech job postings in the U.S. to gather our specific dataset, which we then filtered for “Information Technology” jobs that fall under “Full Time,” “Part Time” and “Flexible Hours.” We gathered the list of top employers in the “Industry Analysis” section by using the above criteria, with an additional filter for job postings that only derive from employer sites. The information in this report is a snapshot of tech job posting data as of April 8, 2025, and backward revisions to prior month’s data may occur from the sources used in this report.
How are Tech Jobs Faring in the Hiring Market?
The tech unemployment rate dipped from 3.3% in February to 3.1% in March, even as the national unemployment rate ticked upward slightly from 4.1% to 4.2%. A handful of industries enjoyed notable month-over-month increases in job postings, including technology (up 134%), finance/banking (up 76%), manufacturing (up 40%), and retail (up 37%). That hints at employers still hungry to hire tech professionals for a variety of roles, despite broader fears of economic uncertainty.
After falling at the beginning of the year, the share of tech job postings requiring AI skills climbed a bit, from 27% to 29% between February and March (in relation to the total number of open tech jobs, that translates into a rise of 7%). Year-over-year, job postings with AI skill requirements rose 109%, suggesting that, despite some concerns over the cost and effectiveness of AI within company workflows, employers continue to need tech professionals who’ve mastered AI tools and processes.
Meanwhile, other tech skills enjoying significant month-over-month gains in job postings included SAP ERP (up 74%), payment card industry (PCI) data security standards (up 59%), real-time data (up 57%), Datadog (up 56%), and private cloud (also up 56%).
Where are Tech Job Postings Concentrated?
As we mentioned above, technology and finance/banking enjoyed significant growth in job postings between February and March, at 134% and 76% respectively, followed by manufacturing with 40% growth.
When it comes to year-over-year tech job posting growth, telecommunications leads the way with 279%, followed by technology with 188% and retail with 56%. Each of these segments, of course, relies on specialized tech professionals for a variety of functions; for example, retail needs data scientists and other types of analysts to discern consumer trends amidst economic uncertainty.
Regional hiring strengthened in some of the nation's up-and-coming and well-established hubs. Washington DC enjoyed 15% growth in tech job postings month over month, followed by North Carolina (13%), California (8%) and Georgia (5%). Texas, which has made a great effort to grow its tech communities in the past few years, experienced 2% growth.
Seattle and its surrounding areas surged ahead in March, with month-over-month growth of 13% that put it just ahead of San Francisco (12%) and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA (holding steady at 10%). Dallas and Atlanta, which have diligently invested in their local tech scenes, each saw 6% growth.
Who Are Companies Hiring Right Now?
As in previous months, companies continue to hunger for highly specialized tech professionals who can work with data and the cloud. Roles that experienced the strongest month-over-month growth included lead data scientists (up 216%), staff data engineers (up 208%), operations engineers (up 178%), and analytics analysts (up 174%). Companies everywhere need tech professionals who can effectively build out data infrastructure, store vital data in an accessible matter, and then retrieve that data for quick analysis; tech professionals who know their way around these systems and tools have considerable leverage when it comes to hiring negotiations.
On a year-over-year basis, tech jobs with the biggest increases in job postings included IT help desk support technicians (up 449%), application programmers (up 270%), operations engineers (up 255%), directors of data science (up 252%), and lead software developers (up 230%). Although some pundits have argued that AI tools will eventually reduce the need for IT help desk technicians and various types of developers and programmers, it’s clear that employers very much want humans to remain part of the equation when it comes to building and iterating the modern tech stack.
Long-term key skills remain centered around both technical and soft capabilities, with trustworthiness, Ubuntu, scalability design, cross-functional collaboration, CPT coding, and workflow automation all topping the list of skills that have grown over the past 12 months. Companies are also interested in hiring tech professionals with generative AI (up 129% year-over-year), artificial intelligence (up 119%), and machine learning operations (up 119%), suggesting that AI-related hiring will sustain for the foreseeable future.
As we progress further into 2025, keep an eye on how new tariffs could have an impact on both the tech industry and the broader economy. If companies need to cut costs as a result of new tariff policies, particularly those that engage in trade with other countries, it could potentially restrict hiring, at least in the near term.
Check out these additional resources for more tips and strategies for winning tech talent:
Sourcing Strategies eBook
From diversifying your sourcing channels to optimizing your outreach, use these five strategies to more efficiently find the right tech hires for your organization.
About Dice
Dice’s hiring solutions help thousands of companies find and filter through millions of quality technology professional profiles, so you can quickly fill your open roles with the best tech talent. Equipped with AI matching tools, employer branding solutions and hiring insights tailored to individual recruiting needs, Dice makes it easy for recruiters and HR managers to post their jobs, source ideal talent and elevate their brands all in one place. With a fresh perspective on connecting technology professionals to the companies that need them, Dice is the trusted way to hire and get hired in tech. To learn more about what Dice can do to elevate your tech hiring, visit Dice.com/hiring today.