Market Indicators According to Job Postings
by Role, Skill, and Geography
Overview
The defensive mobility patterns outlined in this report are shaped by concrete shifts in compensation, demand, and geographic concentration across the tech hiring landscape.
This page provides granular market data on salary trends, job volume changes, and regional variations that staffing firms and employers can use to refine sourcing strategies, set realistic client expectations, and identify emerging opportunities. The tables that follow reveal which roles are gaining or losing ground, which skills command premium compensation, where geographic demand is concentrating, and how these indicators connect to the candidate anxieties and motivations documented throughout this report.
Use this data to move beyond assumptions about assumed hot markets, and instead ground your recruitment and placement strategy in what the job market really says about the year to come.
→ Salaries and growth trends by region
2025 Average Tech Salary
Growth Since 2024
Report Methodology
To present the job postings and salary analysis on this page, Dice used data provided by Dice’s partner, Lightcast, which maintains a database of more than 3 billion current and historical job postings worldwide. Dice pulled data on January 30, 2026 and analyzed over 7 million tech job postings in the U.S. to construct this dataset, which was filtered for “Information Technology” roles.
Salary data represents the median advertised compensation extracted directly from job postings where pay information is provided by the employer. To ensure robust reporting, Dice analyzed salary trends only for geographies, job titles, and skills with at least 5,000 U.S. tech job postings in 2025. These figures reflect advertised pay trends in the hiring market and may differ from final compensation offered or negotiated.
Geographic Trends
Geographic salary and volume data exposes opportunity for seeking out hot tech hiring markets. States showing volume growth alongside salary increases (California +9% volume, +9% salary; Texas +5% volume, +4% salary; New York +15% volume, +4% salary) indicate sustained demand where placements may be easier to close but harder to negotiate on compensation. Conversely, high-salary states with flat or declining volume (Massachusetts +8% volume despite +2% salary; Virginia 0% volume despite +6% salary) suggest tighter competition and longer time-to-fill.
At the MSA level, emerging tech hubs show explosive growth: Austin-Round Rock (+23% volume), Denver-Aurora-Centennial (+9% volume), and Columbus, OH (+16% volume) are absorbing talent with competitive salaries but less coastal premium. Meanwhile, legacy tech centers like San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont (+18% volume, +7% salary) and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (-7% volume, +1% salary) reveal divergent trajectories—San Francisco remains hot while Seattle cools. Use this to set hiring manager expectations, identify underserved markets where your sourcing efforts face less noise, and position cost-effective talent in high-growth secondary markets as a strategic advantage over coastal-only competitors.
2025 Average Tech Salaries, by City
2025 Job Posting Volume, by City
2025 Average Tech Salaries, by State
2025 Job Posting Volume, by State
Job Title Trends
The top 50 tech job titles show salary growth across the board (all at 3% or higher), but volume trends reveal where demand is concentrating. AI-related roles dominate growth: Artificial Intelligence Engineers (+208%), Full Stack Engineers (+26%), and Machine Learning Engineers (+52%) lead volume increases, signaling clients' urgent need for AI capabilities. Traditional enterprise roles are contracting—Software Development Engineers (-16%), Java Developers (-4%), and Business Systems Analysts (-10%)—as organizations shift toward modern tech stacks.
Use this to advise hiring managers on realistic time-to-fill expectations: high-growth titles will be competitive and require premium positioning, while declining-volume roles may face longer placement cycles as fewer openings emerge. Employers should prioritize building AI/ML talent pipelines now, as these roles command both salary premiums and explosive demand growth that will only intensify.
2025 Average Tech Salaries, by Job Title
2025 Job Posting Volume, by Job Title
Skill Trends
Skills demand data exposes the AI transformation reshaping tech hiring at the ground level. Innovation in AI leads volume growth with a staggering 7% salary increase and 16% volume surge, followed by Troubleshooting (+19% volume) and Power BI (+19% volume) as organizations invest in AI implementation and data-driven decision-making. Workflow Management exploded 49% in volume as companies operationalize AI into existing processes. Traditional programming languages show divergent paths: Python (+18% volume) and SQL (+5% volume) remain resilient due to AI/data science applications, while JavaScript and Project Management both declined 4-6% as organizations deprioritize legacy web development and consolidate project roles. Cloud infrastructure skills (Microsoft Azure +23%, DevOps +18%, Docker +29%) continue strong growth, reinforcing that AI adoption requires modern infrastructure capabilities. Recruiters and employers should gravitate toward candidates with AI-adjacent skill combinations—Python + Machine Learning, Cloud + Automation—rather than isolated legacy skills.