Rust, C++, and Python trends in jobs on Hacker News (February 2025)
martin.wojtczyk.de
martin.wojtczyk.de
Example:
- 2021-01: posts=842, python=194, ratio = 194 / 842 = 0.23 (mentions per post)
- 2025-01: posts=487, python=87, ratio = 87 / 487 = 0.18
And then if you want to see a trend, do a moving 6 months average.
You could both normalize the figures and include a separate graph for job posting density per month or something like that. Total posts on HN monthly would also be interesting to visualize. Is it trending up or down?
It's possible there's skew where rust becomes more popular say, and gets the bulk of the new posts, but python or java aren't super interesting anymore. So those people stop showing up to HN.
I'd like to see the popularity of posts by language. I bet we'd see a lot fewer Java and Python posts compared to Rust.
You can select Perl, Fortran and Cobol, but Rust? Crickets.
I asked them half a year ago if they would add it. I included a few sources, e.g. the StackOvflow survey and a couple of sources that showed LinkedIn's parent Microsoft's investment in Rust, but I only got stock answers.
So, Rust has some way to go.
I mean the "What kind of work you are open to" section that is relevant for being matched to open positions. I just rechecked a moment ago and still no way express that I am open for Rust positions.
I would never introduce a new language to an existing code base without an exceptionally good reason.
The people that mattered were on board with the experiment though. It was a healthy enough environment that the project failing if it did wasn't going to be terrible for my career
I've had one contact from a recruiter saying they were looking for C++/Rust devs.
Obviously you won't find many on Indeed or whatever, since companies that advertise there are not really on the cutting edge or anywhere close.
Needs some kind of baseline ...
I had 2 interviews for jobs that happened to use rust, but they were cut off early from hiring someone farther in the process.
But never mind minumum wage. Thars an insulting amount of money for a systems language that is generally wielded for safety critical tasks (or tasks that benefit from that mentality,).
I pay around 700e per month (all expenses included) for a 2 room (br + living room) in a 2000+ apt building 10 minutes away by scooter from the center of Bucharest right now.
What are you doing instead? I'm curious what you're comparing it to.
Thats terrible proxy
Honestly a bit surprised how steady the increase is. Guess that "the market will bounce back here" hasn't come true at any small point in time.
Learning rust was painfull.
I tolerate c++, but I find modern c++ hard to understand. I hate gcc c++ error messages. They are the worst kind of error messages that I know.
Using Python for system testing is a godsend. This is where it shines .. but using poetry for package management is painful.
The Rust compiler is also hard to understand while learning the launage but it gets easier when you know more Rust.
The distinction is important because if it's an absolute count, I think these data would mostly just correlate with the job market overall. In that case, splitting it out by language is sort of uninteresting.
In my analysis, as a percentage of total job posts, Python jobs start to rapidly increase in 2022, even before the current AI craze started by the release of ChatGPT on November 20 2022. They peaked in 2024 and seem to have stalled since. Rust and C++ jobs (again, as a percentage of total job posts), have gone toe-to-toe since mid 2023.
That being said, many improvements to be done to my analysis, as it relies on simple word match.
I think that many of the hits on 'rust' in the job postings are actually 'trust': ```
>>> import requests
>>> page_id = 42919502 # Feb 2025
>>> url = f"https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/items/{page_id}"
>>> resp = requests.get(url, headers={'Accept': 'application/json'})
>>> data = resp.json()
>>> sum('rust' in child['text'].lower() for child in data['children'])
42
>>> sum('trust' in child['text'].lower() for child in data['children'])
13
```
Check out the gist here: https://gist.github.com/hughdbrown/f41f5f3c072067c2351460d8d...
It shows that 30-40% of 'rust' is really 'trust': ```
-------------------- 2025-02-01: rust = 42 trust = 13
-------------------- 2025-01-01: rust = 28 trust = 10
-------------------- 2024-12-01: rust = 32 trust = 14
-------------------- 2024-11-01: rust = 28 trust = 8
-------------------- 2024-10-01: rust = 36 trust = 12
-------------------- 2024-09-01: rust = 32 trust = 9
-------------------- 2024-08-01: rust = 36 trust = 10
-------------------- 2024-07-01: rust = 33 trust = 11
-------------------- 2024-06-01: rust = 36 trust = 15
-------------------- 2024-05-01: rust = 42 trust = 14
-------------------- 2024-04-01: rust = 30 trust = 12
-------------------- 2024-03-01: rust = 32 trust = 12
-------------------- 2024-02-01: rust = 25 trust = 10
-------------------- 2024-01-01: rust = 22 trust = 8
```
I have a python repo specifically for finding Rust action in Who Is Hiring: https://github.com/hughdbrown/who-is-hiring
But it's not just these languages. It's every other language pretty much. You want to be hired as Go dev? Better know how to use gRPC and Kafka. Java? Better know Spring. I can go on and on.
Majority of job postings say otherwise.
(Any sane Java projects use Quarkus (which is build on top of Vert.x, but that’s besides the point))
Isn't it because the majority of job postings are for legacy projects?
Also: glad I'm not the only one who uses nested parentheses.
I also join the tone, if what a position is advising for isn't part of what I have done on the last 5 years, than crickets, regardless if I can prove the experience during the interview, or have used the technology further away than those 5 years.
> You can't even get hired if you're proficient in a language, but don't know framework X.
You can't even get past the very first screening filter. If job asks for, say, 5 years of experience with React, it doesn't matter if you have experience in any other frameworks but "only" 4yoe with React or less. You won't pass the first filter because 4<5.
Sucks if you don't want to lie.
> I've been programming JavaScript since like 1997. Sure, I'll pick up React no problem, but I won't be touching it unless I'm paid, because React is a disgrace.
At the beginning of the month I had an interview for a role that needed to extract a Node.js project to its own microservice. I have literally done this in production (but not Node.js). I have also migrated another project from NoSQL to SQL (but the project was not Node.js). I have developed microservices currently used in production (from design to Terraform to implementation).
But long story short, I didn't pass the initial interview because I haven't been paid to use Node.js during a recent 5-year job. The interviewer even asked, quoting to the best of my memory (and translating to English), "sorry, but none of this was with Node.js?". They were hyperfocused on Node.js as specific tech.
Previous production experience with Node.js? Experience with JavaScript/TypeScript in general? Doesn't matter.
That was not even worth the benefit of allowing me to pass to the technical interview to let me prove myself. And I wouldn't have even minded a live coding/pair-programming exercise.
It means I still need to work better on how I market myself to non-tech people.
> You want to be hired as Go dev? Better know how to use gRPC and Kafka.
And you better know Kubernetes (for some reason), or enjoy working on cryptocurrency projects.
Btw, in your particular example, I think it's fair to tell them "yes, I have the exact qualifications you're looking for", because they won't be able to check anyway. And certainly not whether you had 4 or 5 years of experience with a particular thing.
Seeing as the number of job postings is rapidly decreasing (and presumably "Who is hiring" is increasing), the 'rising' trends here are greatly confounded.
i.e. python is needed -> people learn it -> and then no need anymore -> lots of people with python looking for job..