State of tech hiring, September 2026: up 4.8%

Tech hiring rose 4.8% month over month in September 2026, with 411,122 listings posted in the last 30 days. This is a current snapshot of jobs in our index, not a forecast for the whole economy. For your search this week, the useful signal is where hiring is moving and which role families offer better tradeoffs on pay or remote work.

Tech hiring is rising across the index in September 2026

We counted 1,028,340 active listings across 56,360 companies. The latest 30-day period produced more new listings than the preceding period’s 392,433. That gives you a broader pool to search, although the overall count cannot tell you whether your role is gaining ground.

If you paused your search, this is a reasonable time to look again. Start with the role families whose new-posting totals are moving upward, then narrow by your skills, pay requirements, and workplace needs.

A listing enters the measure when it was posted during the relevant 30-day window. The comparison period covers the 30 days before that. The index counts available postings, rather than every technology job or each employer’s hiring plan. Browse live roles to apply against the current inventory.

Customer support and account executive roles are growing while software and frontend roles are shrinking

Customer support postings rose 22.7% compared with the prior 30-day period, the largest increase among the measured families. Account executive postings rose 12.6%, while DevOps, SRE, and platform roles rose 7.5%. If your experience transfers, these are the first families worth testing because their new-posting flow is expanding.

Software engineer postings fell 9.0%, and frontend postings fell 7.2%. That means fewer new openings than in the preceding period, so make each application more specific to the employer’s stack, product, and stated needs.

Backend roles grew 4.7% and full-stack roles grew 2.4%. For software or frontend candidates, those searches widen the funnel while keeping your existing experience relevant. Rewrite the top third of your résumé for the target family. Put the overlapping tools and outcomes first.

Our reading is that employers are adding more customer-facing and revenue-linked capacity while reducing some general engineering intake. That is an interpretation; the measured finding is the change in postings. Check whether each opening is genuinely new, then compare its requirements with work you have already done.

Role fit still matters more than momentum. A growing family can be a poor target if you cannot show the required work, while a shrinking family may still produce a strong match. Split your applications by both evidence of fit and the direction of new postings.

AI/ML engineering has the highest median published salary

AI/ML roles have a median published US midpoint of $212,500, compared with $198,500 for backend roles. That difference gives you a useful target when you assess compensation, while the midpoint remains a published range marker rather than an offer.

Software engineer roles have a midpoint of $190,587. Security engineering is at $187,475, and product management is at $186,225. Use these comparisons to sanity-check a posted range before spending time on interviews. A higher family median is useful only if your background supports the role.

Employers disclose salary for 231,665 active listings, equal to 22.5% of the active index. The salary view therefore covers a selected part of the market. It excludes undisclosed pay and does not measure equity, bonuses, benefits, seniority mix, or accepted offers.

If pay is your priority, use AI/ML as a target and compare the stated range with your experience. If you lack the required background, a nearby engineering family may offer a more credible path to an offer. Ask how the company defines level and total compensation before the process goes too far.

Customer support and account executive roles lead in remote share

Account executive listings have a remote share of 51.2%, while customer support reaches 51.0%. Full-stack is at 49.8%, ahead of frontend at 46.7% and backend at 45.3%. If remote work is a firm requirement, begin with families near the top of this range and confirm the policy in each posting.

Software engineer roles have a remote share of 40.2%. DevOps, SRE, and platform roles are at 41.9%, while AI/ML roles are at 42.2%. A title that sounds suited to remote work is weak evidence for an individual opening. Read the workplace field and check whether the policy applies in your location.

Remote share uses only listings where the employer states a workplace type. The denominator differs from the full listing pool, so the result describes disclosed policy rather than the entire market. Before applying, verify time-zone, travel, and residency requirements.

Use momentum, pay, and workplace policy to choose your next applications

What the data cannot tell you

Role families are matched from job titles. They are a floor rather than a census of every job involving the same work. A title can omit relevant duties, and similar work can appear under different labels. Search adjacent titles when your skills cross family boundaries.

Salary figures describe what employers publish. They do not tell you what people earn after negotiation or whether a range includes meaningful equity and bonus compensation. Ask for the level, range, and total-compensation structure early enough to avoid a late mismatch.

Remote figures describe stated workplace type. They cannot resolve location exceptions, office visits, or a policy that changes after hiring. Confirm those conditions with the recruiter or hiring manager.

Month-over-month movement is a short comparison. Use it to decide where to spend time now, then check a later update before treating a change as durable.