Weekly Skills Pulse — April 17, 2026

Software Engineering leads hiring activity the week of April 17, 2026, with 8,584 new listings added across 16,202 active roles from 128 companies. Agile / Scrum is the biggest mover, with demand jumping 2.1 percentage points week-over-week to 7.7% in the most volatile category of the week.

Key Movements This Week

• Stakeholder Mgmt: 44.1% demand (down 13.7pp from last week) — This pullback in Product & Design suggests employers are reducing emphasis on this skill.
• AWS: 21.4% demand (down 9.9pp from last week) — A sizable decline in Software Engineering may point to stack consolidation or tooling shifts.
• Scala: 24.5% demand (down 9.7pp from last week) — Demand cooled materially in Software Engineering, likely due to changing implementation preferences.
• AWS: 23.2% demand (down 9.4pp from last week) — This pullback in Security suggests employers are reducing emphasis on this skill.
• Excel: 16.2% demand (down 9.2pp from last week) — Demand cooled materially in Software Engineering, likely due to changing implementation preferences.
• AWS: 21.1% demand (down 9.0pp from last week) — This pullback in Product & Design suggests employers are reducing emphasis on this skill.
• Excel: 27.3% demand (down 8.8pp from last week) — A sizable decline in Product & Design may point to stack consolidation or tooling shifts.
• Node.js: 14.8% demand (down 7.9pp from last week) — This pullback in Product & Design suggests employers are reducing emphasis on this skill.

Category Spotlight: Software Engineering

1. Scala — 24.5% (↓ 9.7pp)
2. AWS — 21.4% (↓ 9.9pp)
3. Stakeholder Mgmt — 19.0% (↓ 5.9pp)
4. Excel — 16.2% (↓ 9.2pp)
5. Python — 14.5% (↓ 5.0pp)
6. React — 14.0% (↓ 2.9pp)
7. Java — 13.0% (↓ 4.8pp)
8. Node.js — 12.7% (↓ 5.7pp)
9. SQL — 12.4% (↓ 4.2pp)
10. TypeScript — 12.0% (↓ 2.6pp)

Rising Signals

Skills with the strongest upward momentum across all categories:

• Agile / Scrum +2.1 percentage points — now at 7.7% in Software Engineering
• Agile / Scrum +2.0 percentage points — now at 7.6% in AI & Machine Learning
• Data Modeling +-1.6 percentage points — now at 5.3% in Data & Analytics
• Tableau +-1.6 percentage points — now at 3.4% in Data & Analytics
• LLMs / GenAI +-1.6 percentage points — now at 3.3% in Data & Analytics

Declining

• Stakeholder Mgmt -13.7 percentage points — down to 44.1% in Product & Design
• AWS -9.9 percentage points — down to 21.4% in Software Engineering
• Scala -9.7 percentage points — down to 24.5% in Software Engineering

What This Signals

Agile and Scrum skills are gaining ground fast — up 2.1 percentage points in Software Engineering and 2.0pp in AI & Machine Learning this week — so job seekers should make sure these methodologies are prominent on their CVs and in interviews. Hiring managers should move quickly: with 8,584 new listings entering a market of 16,202 active roles and Full Stack Developer alone accounting for 5,341 of them, competition for qualified candidates is intensifying. Drop Stakeholder Management from your must-have requirements for now — its 13.7pp decline signals oversaturation — and reconsider hard AWS dependencies given its 9.9pp fall, at least until demand stabilises.

By the Numbers

• Total active listings: 16,202
• New listings this week: 8,584
• Most-hired role: Full Stack Developer (5341 listings)
• Top skill overall: Machine Learning (45.2%)

Frequently Asked Questions

What tech skills are trending this week?

The fastest-rising skills this week are Agile / Scrum, Agile / Scrum, Data Modeling. These showed the largest week-over-week demand increases across 16,202 active listings.

How many tech jobs were posted this week?

This week saw 8,584 new postings added, bringing the total active listings to 16,202 across 128 companies.

Which tech category has the most hiring activity?

Software Engineering showed the most hiring activity this week, with the largest aggregate skill movement across all tracked categories.

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Data sourced from 128 company career pages via Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby APIs. Updated daily. About our data & methodology.