What’s Hot? Skills with Fastest Growing Demand in 2008
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We are going to take a look today at the technologies or skills that enjoyed the greatest percentage increase in 2008 by keywords listed in job postings on oDesk. The numbers in the table below show the number of job postings on oDesk in which the skills were listed as “required,” and their relative increase from the end of 2007 to the end of 2008. You will notice some variance in the numbers between the table and the charts below as the numbers on the charts show keyword mentions in the job post titles, not required skills.
| Skill/Experience | Openings Last 60 Days 2007 | Openings Last 60 Days 2008 | Change |
| WordPress | 37 | 195 | 427.0% |
| Writing* | 32 | 138 | 331.3% |
| Excel* | 30 | 118 | 293.3% |
| SEO | 73 | 250 | 242.5% |
| XHTML | 24 | 61 | 154.2% |
| Linux | 23 | 58 | 152.2% |
| Drupal | 70 | 169 | 141.4% |
| Joomla | 157 | 352 | 124.2% |
| CSS | 119 | 250 | 110.1% |
| Graphic Design* | 20 | 42 | 110.0% |
*Because writing, graphic design, and excel have small starting points, we believe their change reflects oDesk growth, not a general trend.
Since oDesk is a job board for freelance and contract technical jobs, the numbers here may vary from permanent placement job data. There are definitely other skills that are in more demand as noted here and here but these skills represent the greatest increase by percentage in 2008.
Blogging seems to dominate as a tech growth area in 2008. Demand for WordPress designers has increased by more than 4 times. Demand for freelance writers, a good portion of which are online or blog related, more than tripled.
Website (or blog) development and design show up elsewhere on our list with strong demand growth shown for SEO consultants, XHTML designers, Drupal developers, Joomla developers, CSS designers and Graphic Designers. This list really shows that “web presence” and any of the skills associated with this area were the fastest growing area in 2008.
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Linux continues its march into the mainstream with its 152% increase.
We’ve summarized this data in our latest presentation on the fastest growing skills in 2008:
Enjoy!
WordPress works are really growing. So, I’ve to look over it …
I surely agree that there is indeed a growing demand for WordPress developers. WordPress is easy and fast and there are always a bunch of plugins that can be used to fully customize it. And its under-the-hood features can also be easily navigated by less-techy users.
Thank you for your articles, the collection of such data must be very hard, right? Thank you again, the article to my help! Very grateful!
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I have a feeling we will see a fall in demand for SEO services in 09 & a switch to “landing page design” & “PPC services”. Companies will want to see immediate results & this may be their only option – It is sure going to be an interesting year…
Good for you to collect this data and thanks for sharing then
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This is important data. Directly applies to my audience thank you
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Great info! AFAIK even government departments are utilizing blogs more, and since they’re usually behind the curve, a lot of the data presented definitely makes sense!
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You have sparked some of my interest and I am going to do some additional research. Feel free to check out some my blog in the near future… as I just posted a great blog about the 36 Best WordPress plugins for 2009. thanks
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I must say that you provide genuine, quality information. Thanks for this!
BTW, dpn’t you think your blog needs a better wordpress template?
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А как бы мне подписаться на Вашу RSS? Не могу найти ссылку
. Напишите на 54632два1 в ICQ или masha_golovanova в skype. В крайнем случае – используйте почту. Заранее спасибо всем неравнодушным.
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nice information,thank you for sharing.
Thats pretty.
We hope this year the skills grows higher than ever..
You have sparked some of my interest and I am going to do some additional research. Feel free to check out some my blog in the near future… as I just posted a great blog about the 36 Best WordPress plugins for 2009. thanks
this information most important for me.
thanks…
its really helpfull for odesk user
Thanks for sharing such great data.
If any one would like to know about oDex, then the tutorial would be definitely good.
very nice article.
thanks.
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We love to do work with odesk and the really nice article to know more about odesk!
Its quite dramatic how the skills used in 2008 have changed!