Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Despite the vicissitudes of cryptocurrency, demand for blockchain developers is apparently exploding. The increase in job listings seeking those with experience in the distributed-ledger technology topped the growth rankings in LinkedIn’s 2018 “Emerging Jobs Report,” with 33 times more listings than last year, according to a Dec. 13 post from the business-related social network. Indeed, interest in blockchain skills easily outdistanced the change in listings for “machine-learning engineer,” the second-ranked category at a 12-time increase.
In the blockchain field, the related skills most in demand lie in fields including Solidity, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, and Node.js, the report says. Demand is highest in New York City, San Francisco, and Atlanta.
The surge in interest in hiring developers with blockchain skills follows a year in which the most prominent exemplar of the technology, Bitcoin, has experienced two major crashes and now trades at roughly half the value it commanded a month ago. But experts say distributed ledgers, which enable decentralized parties to record and process irrevocable transactions, can bring efficiencies in payments and related financial fields well beyond their usefulness in cryptocurrency.
“It … may not shock you that Blockchain Developer is topping the list following this year’s surge in interest around blockchain and cryptocurrency,” said Guy Berger, LinkedIn’s chief economist, in an introduction to the post. “Only time will tell if blockchain will be a longstanding trend in the job market.”
Looking back four years, the report finds certain fields exhibiting “strong and steady demand.” In terms of the number of actual openings, the number-one category in this ranking is, simply, “software engineer,” at 80,000, with Square Inc. among the top companies seeking candidates.
The jobs report is derived from LinkedIn’s Economic Graph.
