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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.

*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!