IT vacancies: some statistics

Over the current year, news of layoffs and optimization in IT has been increasingly heard from various sources. Many analysts and media outlets link the downturn to high economic rates and politics. But let's take a look at the situation from afar - let's look at different countries and try to understand 'how are things there?' 

A small clarification: in the USA, there is the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which since 1991 has maintained and supported a huge database of economic data called FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data). This database is one of the most authoritative sources of economic information in the US and the world.

Yesterday afternoon, I came across a large article and a chart from FRED and the job search service Indeed. 

Essentially, the chart itself:

Data on Software Developer job openings in different countries (FRED)

The chart shows rapid growth and decline in job openings across various professional fields in different countries around the world - I'm sharing the materials and my opinion with you.

Quick summary:

• As of 2025, the number of job openings in the US and Canada is about 65% of the January 2020 level (meaning a 35% decrease).
• There are 3.5 times fewer job openings than at the peak in mid-2022.
• Over the past year, the number of job openings has fallen by 8%.

Reasons for the decline in developer job openings in many countries:

• Changes in interest rates across countries.
• Market saturation after the 2021-2022 boom (I would call this the most official reason for optimization in large corporations, but not startups).
• The influence of artificial intelligence and generative models (GenAI in one form or another has already affected each of us today).

A reason for the hiring slowdown is the growing perception that software development and maintenance are no longer narrow specializations. However, in my humble DevOps opinion, there's no cause for concern. Despite all the noise about workforce optimization, experienced IT professionals will remain and continue to be in demand at most companies. It will be harder for juniors, although they already face huge competition, but the further we go, the more likely it is that GenAI will be able to replace junior developers.

The technology sector seems to react to sudden events with greater intensity than any other industry. Because no other industry began increasing hiring worldwide with such frenzy - and no other industry has cut back hiring as sharply in 2024-2025.

Number of job openings in sales, banking & finance, marketing, and software development on Indeed, 2020-2025. Data source: Indeed via FRED 

As we can see from the chart above, marketing and the banking sector have experienced swings closest to those in IT over the past 5 years.