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!
Md. Mahmud Ahsan
January 9th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Wordpress works are really growing. So, I’ve to look over it …
Gem
January 9th, 2009 at 11:43 am
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.
david
January 10th, 2009 at 2:57 am
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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January 10th, 2009 at 8:05 am
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Mchilly
January 11th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Good for you to collect this data and thanks for sharing then
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Karen Masullo
January 20th, 2009 at 5:41 am
This is important data. Directly applies to my audience thank you
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January 20th, 2009 at 9:43 am
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drivelocity
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:37 pm
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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affiliate.solutions
February 16th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
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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Applebees Menu
February 28th, 2009 at 3:36 am
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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March 5th, 2009 at 3:02 am
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Masha
March 10th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
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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Avery
August 13th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
nice information,thank you for sharing.
Fuad Ahasan Chowdhury
August 23rd, 2009 at 2:07 am
Thats pretty.
We hope this year the skills grows higher than ever..
globe valve
November 15th, 2009 at 12:29 am
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
sepetli platform
January 26th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
this information most important for me.
thanks…