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Welcome to Lenny's Reads, where I bring you audio versions of my newsletter about building product, driving growth and accelerating your career. Welcome to our bi yearly State of the product job market, our fourth and very surprisingly, the most optimistic. In spite of the headlines about layoffs and AI taking jobs, we're actually seeing a lot of promising signs in tech jobs and some interesting new trends. Product management openings are at the highest levels we've seen in over three years. AI hasn't slowed the demand for software engineers, at least not yet. AI roles in general are absolutely exploding. Design roles have plateaued. The Bay Area is increasing in importance. Remote work opportunities continue to decline. Despite ongoing layoffs, the overall number of tech jobs continues to grow. While these numbers are promising, I know a lot of people are having a hard time finding a job right now, and more openings doesn't automatically mean people are finding jobs more quickly for anyone in that situation. First of all, I'm sorry. Second, I'm working on ways to help. In the meantime, you'll find resources in the show notes that'll improve your odds of landing a gig. Let's get into it. This analysis is based on data from TrueUp, one of my favorite collaborators, and sources of data. They track job openings at tech companies and top startups around the world, covering over 9,000 companies, and make it easy to browse open gigs. Their data looks at roles at tech companies, the most sought after and lucrative jobs, but doesn't include roles at non tech companies and consulting agencies. All of the following data is visualized with graphs in the written version of this episode, which will be linked in the show notes. Our first key finding Product management openings are at the highest levels we've seen in over three years. There are currently over 7,300 open PM roles at tech companies globally and the trend is moving upward. This is 75% above the low we saw in early 2023 and already up nearly 20% since the start of this year. Today we have the most open PM roles we've seen since 2022. The same trend is true for engineering roles. AI hasn't slowed the demand for software engineers, at least not yet. There are over 67,000 engineering openings at tech companies globally right now, with 26,000 just in the United States, representing a 78% increase from the low of 37,982 positions. We don't know if there would have been more open roles if not for AI or if AI is actually leading to more open roles. But since the start of this year, there's the increase in open engineering roles is accelerating even more. If you're skeptical that this growth is real and likely to be sustained, we're also seeing a surge in demand for tech recruiters. The data shows 2,280 open tech recruiting jobs representing a 237% increase from the low of 676 positions. The number of open recruiter roles is almost back to 2022 peak levels. This role got hit the hardest post Covid and also recovered the quickest. By definition, recruiting headcount expands and contracts with hiring demand, so it's likely a leading indication that we're tracking towards sustained highs in hiring demand in tech. The third finding is that AI jobs in general are absolutely exploding. AI roles were already growing fast in our last update mid last year, but they are now hockey sticking. The data reveals 36,686 OpenAI jobs showing a 335% increase from the low of 8,437 positions. AI roles include all open roles at AI driven companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor and Lovable, as well as AI specific roles at non AI companies like an AIPM at figma. The link to these roles can be found in the show notes. Demand for AI engineers and AI PMS is similarly exploding. The data shows 14,937 OpenAI engineering jobs, up 4 438% from the low of 2,776 positions. For AIPM roles, there are 1,135 openings, representing a 465% increase from the low of 201 positions. Whether this is simply the number of AI companies being created or the headcount at top AI companies growing, it's a good time to be an AI. Unlike PM and engineering roles, open design jobs have been relatively flat since early 2023 and there are also fewer of these roles than PMs and engineers. In absolute terms, the data shows 5,716 open design jobs, which is 32% above the low of 4,341 positions. I don't know exactly what's going on here, but it does feel AI related. Unlike PM and engineering which started growing in 2024 two years post ChatGPT design didn't. And if I had to venture a theory, I'd say that because AI is allowing engineers to move so quickly, there's less opportunity and desire to involve the traditional design process. That said, you'd think design would become a differentiator as more products compete for your attention. Something to think about for your company. We'll keep watching this trend and AI's impact on organizational design more generally. An interesting observation we made when we went one level deeper is that the ratio of demand for PMs versus designers has flipped. I think mid 2023 we went from more open designer roles to more open PM roles and ever since PM demand has been pulling away, currently at 1.27 times more demand than design roles. This will be another interesting trend to monitor in terms of how AI is reshaping organizational design. The fifth finding is that the Bay Area continues increasing in importance. The Bay Area has long had the highest share of tech roles, but that share is still growing. Over 20% of all engineering and designer roles are now in the Bay area, and over 23% of OpenPM roles are too, up 50% since 2022. A whopping 32.3% of OpenAI roles are based in the Bay Area, but interestingly, this number has stayed relatively flat in the past few years. That tells me that the Bay Area unquestionably continues to be the center of AI, with the next city being New York at 10.2%, but at the same time AI roles outside the Bay Area continue to grow at the same rate. One more interesting data point New York City has established itself as the number two tech jobs location in the world, despite not being the headquarters of any of the leading tech companies. The top PM job locations show San Francisco Bay area leading with 1,442 jobs, followed by remote United States positions with 864 jobs and New York City with 673 jobs. Bengaluru, formerly Bengalur, London, Tel Aviv and Singapore continue to be the top international hubs for tech. Remote work opportunities continue to decline. This is the end of your free preview. To hear the full episode, become a paid subscriber@lennysnewsletter.com subscribe if you're already a premium member, you can add the private feed to your podcast app by going to add.lenny'sreads.com thanks for listening and see you on the next show.