1. Talent Insights
Talent Pool Report
Software Engineers
Technical Salespeople September 2012
Executive Summary Where should you look for talent?
Did you know that a software engineer in the SF Bay • Hidden Gems: These mid-sized markets have relatively
Area is over two times more likely to be contacted by lower demand, meaning hiring is likely to be easier
a recruiter than a software engineer in New York or
Boston – the second and third largest markets for this • High-Demand: These are the largest markets, where
talent? LinkedIn data shows that: overall demand is also highest and hiring may be difficult
• There are close to 480,000 total software engineers • Saturated: These small to mid-sized markets also have
throughout the United States very high demand, meaning hiring is likely to be difficult
• The SF Bay Area has the biggest population of talent,
but also has 2x greater-than-average demand
Region Quadrant
• Medium, lower-demand markets like Washington D.C.,
100
Dallas, Atlanta, Austin, and Denver are likely to offer SATURATED HIGH-DEMAND San Francisco Bay
untapped sources of talent 90
• Big Data, specialty Java development, and web 80
application skills are in high demand 70
• While this pool is driven primarily by good work-life Seattle
60
balance, excellent compensation and benefits, and
challenging work, they differ from other talent in that 50
Los Angeles
New York City
they value the ability to work with high-caliber people Chicago
Demand Index
Boston
40 Austin
Atlanta
Denver
Overview Orange County, CA San Diego
30 Minneapolis/ Washington D.C.
A world of insights can be gathered from LinkedIn’s 175 Portland, OR
St. Paul
Dallas/Fort Worth
million members - the world’s largest professional network. Raleigh/Durham, NC Philadelphia
Phoenix, AZ
“Java”, ”.net”, ”iOS”, and “C++” are some of the most
frequently searched terms by recruiters, showing that the
market for software engineering talent is one of the hottest 20
in the US. LinkedIn recruiter activity and member data can
be used to determine supply and demand for this talent HIDDEN GEMS
pool. A higher demand index means that the average 2,000 5,000 10,000 20,000 50,000
professional in a region is receiving more contact from Supply (# Professionals)
recruiters than peers in other regions.
Demand based on recruiter activity on LinkedIn
Which skills are in short supply?
Large, high-demand Recruiter activity can also highlight which skills are in high
regions
demand. For software engineers, our data shows that
expertise with skills like Hadoop, HTML5, REST and Ruby
on Rails is highly sought after on LinkedIn. Professionals
DEMAND
with these skills are up to 6x more likely to be contacted by
Large, low-demand a recruiter. Therefore, expect to spend more time filling
regions “Hidden Gems” positions that require these skills.
SUPPLY
Number of talent pool members in each region
