News

Blockchain Developer Tops Emerging Jobs Report

• By David Ramel
• January 9, 2019

LinkedIn's annual Emerging Jobs report says blockchain developer is the top emerging job among all occupations, with machine learning skills also in high demand.

The business-oriented social site conducts the study each year to highlight the jobs and skills experiencing the most rapid growth in the U.S.

While it's perhaps not surprising that tech jobs -- especially developer-related tech jobs -- dominate the list, the position of blockchain developer wasn't even mentioned in the 2017 report.

The 2018 report, however notes the position is in high demand because of the surging interest in blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. "Only time will tell if blockchain will be a long-standing trend in the job market," LinkedIn Chief Economist Guy Berger said.

One theme common to both the 2017 and 2018 reports is artificial intelligence, especially machine learning. The position of "machine learning engineer" topped the 2017 list, and similar skills figure prominently in the new report.

In fact, the company's biggest takeaway from the report is: "Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay. No, this doesn’t mean robots are coming for your job, but we are likely to see continued growth in fields and functions related to AI. This year, six out of the 15 emerging jobs are related in some way to AI, and our research shows that skills related to AI are starting to infiltrate every industry, not just tech. In fact, AI skills are among the fastest-growing skills on LinkedIn, and globally saw a 190 percent increase from 2015 to 2017."

"Machine learning engineer" placed No. 2 on the 2018 list, with "machine learning specialist" coming in at No. 4. As can be seen from the following top 15 list, various other machine learning and other data science positions are also experiencing high growth rates:

1. Blockchain Developer (33X growth)
2. Machine Learning Engineer (12X growth)
3. Application Sales Executive (8X growth)
4. Machine Learning Specialist (6X growth)
5. Professional Medical Representative (6X growth)
6. Relationship Consultant (5.5X growth)
7. Data Science Specialist (5X growth)
8. Assurance Staff (5X growth)
9. Sales Development Representative (4X growth)
10. Business Support Consultant (4X growth)
11. Solar Power Consultant (4X growth)
12. Administrative Assistant (4X growth)
13. Background Investigator (4X growth)
14. Machine Learning Researcher (4X growth)
15. Data Science Manager (4X growth)

LinkedIn also charted the jobs with the largest hiring growth, described as the jobs that saw strong and steady demand over the last four years and experienced the largest growth in hiring rates in the country, where "software engineer" was No. 1, reflecting the findings of many other tech job reports.

LinkedIn produces the annual report by analyzing its Economic Graph data between 2014 and 2018.