Weekly Skills Pulse — March 18, 2026

The job market for the week of March 18, 2026 spans 2,673 active listings across 78 companies, with 447 new roles added this week. AWS Security is the biggest mover, surging to 19.0% demand in DevOps & Infrastructure — a jump of 10.4 percentage points week-over-week — while Data & Analytics holds the title of most volatile category.

Key Movements This Week

• Stakeholder Mgmt: 26.5% demand (down 45.4pp from last week) — Demand cooled materially in Product & Design, likely due to changing implementation preferences.
• Excel: 24.0% demand (down 28.4pp from last week) — This pullback in Product & Design suggests employers are reducing emphasis on this skill.
• AWS: 18.8% demand (down 27.2pp from last week) — A sizable decline in Product & Design may point to stack consolidation or tooling shifts.
• GCP: 43.0% demand (down 24.2pp from last week) — A sizable decline in DevOps & Infrastructure may point to stack consolidation or tooling shifts.
• Node.js: 4.3% demand (down 23.4pp from last week) — A sizable decline in Software Engineering may point to stack consolidation or tooling shifts.
• Stakeholder Mgmt: 23.4% demand (down 20.9pp from last week) — A sizable decline in Data & Analytics may point to stack consolidation or tooling shifts.
• SQL: 27.8% demand (down 20.6pp from last week) — Demand cooled materially in Data & Analytics, likely due to changing implementation preferences.
• AWS: 14.8% demand (down 20.6pp from last week) — A sizable decline in Software Engineering may point to stack consolidation or tooling shifts.

Category Spotlight: Data & Analytics

1. SQL — 27.8% (↓ 20.6pp)
2. Stakeholder Mgmt — 23.4% (↓ 20.9pp)
3. Python — 23.1% (↓ 18.8pp)
4. AWS — 20.7% (↓ 14.7pp)
5. Excel — 16.4% (↓ 18.2pp)
6. Scala — 14.7% (↓ 13.3pp)
7. Machine Learning — 12.4% (↓ 11.2pp)
8. Data Pipeline — 11.4% (↓ 9.7pp)
9. Node.js — 10.7% (↓ 15.3pp)
10. A/B Testing — 10.4% (↓ 10.3pp)

Rising Signals

Skills with the strongest upward momentum across all categories:

• AWS Security +10.4pp — now at 19.0% in DevOps & Infrastructure
• CI/CD +9.8pp — now at 46.0% in DevOps & Infrastructure
• Agile / Scrum +8.3pp — now at 10.0% in DevOps & Infrastructure
• Ruby +7.6pp — now at 11.0% in DevOps & Infrastructure
• Jira +7.0pp — now at 7.0% in DevOps & Infrastructure

Declining

• Stakeholder Mgmt -45.4pp — down to 26.5% in Product & Design
• Excel -28.4pp — down to 24.0% in Product & Design
• AWS -27.2pp — down to 18.8% in Product & Design

What This Signals

AWS Security, CI/CD and Agile/Scrum are the skills to prioritise right now, with demand jumping 10.4, 9.8 and 8.3 percentage points respectively in DevOps & Infrastructure this week. Job seekers should deprioritise Stakeholder Management and Excel, which fell 45.4pp and 28.4pp — a signal that hiring managers are screening harder for technical depth over soft or generalist skills. With 886 of 2,673 active listings targeting Full Stack Developers and 447 new roles posted this week, both candidates and recruiters should move quickly, particularly in Data & Analytics where volatility is highest.

By the Numbers

• Total active listings: 2,673
• New listings this week: 447
• Most-hired role: Full Stack Developer (886 listings)
• Top skill overall: AWS (76.7%)

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Data sourced from 78 company career pages via Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby APIs. Updated daily. About our data & methodology.