Paul Krill
Editor at Large

JavaScript is the most in-demand IT skill

news
Jan 21, 20202 mins

Report based on hiring trends cites JavaScript, SQL, and Java skills as the most sought after in the past year

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Credit: Dean Mitchell / Getty Images

JavaScript is the skill that is most in-demand for IT in 2020, according to a report from developer skills tester DevSkiller.

The report, “Top IT Skills report 2020: Demand and Hiring Trends,” has JavaScript switching places with Java when compared to last year’s report, with Java in third place this year, behind SQL. SQL is the second most in-demand IT skill for the second year in a row.

The surging popularity of JavaScript shows that the overwhelming need for developers to build web apps has eclipsed the need for developing large back-end systems, the report said.

The top five most in-demand skills in the 2020 report were:

  1. JavaScript
  2. SQL
  3. Java
  4. HTML/CSS
  5. .NET/C#

The report was published January 8, 2020, and updates were added on January 20. Data in the study came from a snapshot of users on the company’s platform beginning December 1, 2018, and ending exactly one year later. The results are based on 213,782 tests taken on the DevSkiller platform by candidates in 143 countries.

Other observations noted in the report:

  • 72 percent of companies are looking for JavaScript developers, followed by 55 percent for SQL developers and 53 percent for Java developers.
  • React, Spring, ASP.NET, MySQL, and HTML are the most popular technologies in the JavaScript, Java, .NET/C#, SQL, and CSS “stacks,” respectively.
  • For the Python stack, data analysis was the most-common IT skill, followed by Django and NumPy.
  • Latvian developers score the highest on coding tests.
  • U.S. recruits make up 24.73 percent of all overseas developer candidates, followed by Poland at 11.77 percent.
Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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