32 Top IT Skills for 2018

As IT functions continue to stretch deeper into every industry and sector, there’s no denying how robust the market is. The tech unemployment rate sits at just 2.5 percent, often dropping as low as zero percent in fields like cybersecurity. But it’s not enough to say that the IT industry is booming. What do these statistics mean as you drill down into specific technical roles? To be of any use, either to IT professionals who are seeking new opportunities or to leaders who are planning this year’s IT initiatives, we need to dig deeper into the actual technologies and languages that are driving the flow of supply and demand.

Dice.com has built a valuable data science tool that gives us insight into how supply and demand relate to specific tech skills. The technologies listed below have the highest ratio of demand to supply. While they are not necessarily the most in-demand skills across the IT function, they are the areas that are hurting the most when it comes to filling positions:

Hot Programming Languages

Hot Data Skills

The competition for IT professionals with any of these skills is high, with many organizations experiencing a significant skills gap and an overall shortage of talent for these positions. To attract the talent that does exist, companies may need to evaluate their hiring processes and employer branding in order to stay ahead of the competition.

What about the IT skills that are being advertised the most? While the difference between supply and demand is on more equal footing for the following skills, these are the technologies which are in highest demand overall. The following are the most advertised IT skills:

These skills have remained in high demand with such consistency in recent years that professionals and organizations alike can have confidence in continuing to use these technologies for years to come.

Finally, it is valuable to consider the technologies and skills with the greatest year-over-year increase in both job seeker and company search activity. Indeed provides key insight into which skills are growing the fastest:

Greatest Growth in Job Seeker Activity

Greatest Growth in Employer Search Activity

For IT professionals looking to develop their technical skill sets, these areas provide an indication into what technologies may be in future demand. Likewise, for companies exploring new technology initiatives or trying to future-proof their technical infrastructure and operations, these fast-growing IT skills will likely serve as a solid foundation.

With 60 percent of CIOs from various industries reporting a skills shortage, it’s important for both job seekers and companies to gain a greater understanding of the market in order to protect their futures. Studying the top tech skills from a variety of perspectives, including greatest skills gap, highest demand, and fastest growth, will help both parties understand what actions to take when preparing for the future.

How are you preparing for the future of IT?

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