According to a recent report from global hiring marketplace oDesk, demand for developers with Android skills is up 710% in October 2010 versus October 2009. The increased demand is not surprising, given the mobile operating system’s rapid climb over the past 12+ months, now reaching its new status as the number one mobile OS in the United States and number two worldwide, as of Q3 2010.
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In oDesk’s latest Online Employment Report, which examines aggregated data from its platform of over 57,000 jobs, “Android” as a skill set moved up 70 spots (+70 YoY) since the previous report last October when it was ranked at #110. It’s now listed at the 40th most in-demand skill. iPhone meanwhile, at #23, has not changed positions in the rankings. (For what it’s worth PHP, HTML, English, CSS and SEO are the top five skills).
Says oDesk’s marketing and communications manager, Erica Benton, the change reflects a general trend in which employers are seeking those with the ability to work on mobile applications, but it also reflects the momentum of the Android platform specifically. “The launch of the Android Market, and the easy access to mobile applications it provides to millions of users has made developing for the platform very attractive to businesses of all sizes,” she said.
For comparison purposes, during the entire year of 2009 there were roughly 350 Android positions advertised on oDesk. In the month of October 2010 alone, that amount has more than doubled.
You can see the growth charted here, month-by-month, to visualize this trend.
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