Python job-posting volume in the US rose 18% in 2025, Dice reports, even as total tech postings fell below their 2019 baseline in early 2026. This brief tracks Python job market statistics and salary data from Stack Overflow’s October 2026 survey, BLS wages for May 2025, Dice posting reports through September 2026, and the latest IEEE Spectrum, TIOBE and GitHub rankings.
Python Job Market Statistics And Salary Data 2026
Salary Data for Python’s AI and Data Roles: $95,337 for AI/ML Engineers
Stack Overflow’s 2026 survey does not publish pay by programming language. It reports median total compensation by role, converted to USD, from 12,040 respondents to its opt-in salary question.
AI/ML engineers reported a $95,337 median, data scientists $90,982 and data engineers $90,000. GitHub’s Octoverse 2025 describes Python as dominant in AI and data science work.
Full-stack developers, the largest group at 3,761 responses, reported $79,610. AI/ML engineers averaged 12.1 years of professional experience, against 13.9 for full-stack developers.
Engineering managers hold the highest role median in the survey at $133,263. In the chart, bubble size reflects each role’s response count.
| Role | Median pay (USD) | Respondents | Avg. years of experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software engineer | $101,218 | 105 | 15.2 |
| AI/ML engineer | $95,337 | 194 | 12.1 |
| Data scientist | $90,982 | 155 | 13 |
| Data engineer | $90,000 | 233 | 15.4 |
| Developer, back-end | $85,296 | 1,922 | 14.5 |
| DevOps engineer or professional | $85,096 | 307 | 14.2 |
| Developer, full-stack | $79,610 | 3,761 | 13.9 |
| Developer, front-end | $70,320 | 441 | 11.8 |
| Data or business analyst | $67,161 | 119 | 14.6 |
Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, compensation question (n = 12,040), results published October 6, 2026
Developer Pay by Country in the 2026 Survey
The United States of America posted a $154,000 median across all roles, against $18,802 in India. Switzerland followed the US at $139,262.
Payroll and vacancy datasets produce different numbers, as these country-level developer salary benchmarks show.
| Country | Median pay (USD) | Respondents | Avg. years of experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States of America | $154,000 | 2,885 | 17.4 |
| Switzerland | $139,262 | 229 | 14.7 |
| United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland | $96,333 | 855 | 17.8 |
| Canada | $94,315 | 539 | 16.7 |
| Germany | $85,296 | 1,218 | 14.2 |
| Poland | $65,733 | 309 | 12.7 |
| Brazil | $36,002 | 244 | 15.5 |
| India | $18,802 | 472 | 8.8 |
Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, compensation by country (n = 12,040)
Is Python Still in Demand? Posting Volume Rose 18% in 2025
Python posting volume grew 18% in 2025, based on Dice’s analysis of more than 7 million US tech job postings from Lightcast, pulled January 30, 2026. SQL grew 5%, while JavaScript and project management postings fell 4% to 6%.
Dice attributes the Python and SQL gains to AI and data science applications. It puts the 2025 average tech salary in US postings at $126,848, up $6,656 from 2024.
Source: Dice Tech Sentiment Report 2026, Lightcast US job postings for 2025
Docker postings rose 29% and DevOps postings 18% in the same data. Related infrastructure hiring is tracked in these Linux IT job market figures.
The total market remains below its peak. Dice counted about 1,300,000 US tech postings in Q2 2022 and 575,000 in early 2026, below the 2019 baseline.
Postings picked up later in 2026. US tech postings rose 9% month over month in September and 17% year over year, while AI and machine learning postings rose 88% year over year.
Source: Dice September 2026 Jobs Report, data pulled October 5, 2026
In Stack Overflow’s 2026 survey, 32.6% of respondents said they were not happy at work and 22.2% said they were happy (n = 18,876). Earlier results for Linux-focused developers appear in this job satisfaction breakdown.
Respondents working alone as freelancers or sole proprietors rose to 10.5% from 3.9% a year earlier.
Remote work covers 34.8% of respondents (n = 24,602). Country splits are compared in this remote developer job market report.
Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, work chapter
Job Titles Gaining and Losing Postings in 2025
Dice lists Artificial Intelligence Engineers as the top volume gainer among its top 50 tech titles, at +208%.
| Job title | Change in posting volume, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Artificial Intelligence Engineers | +208% |
| Machine Learning Engineers | +52% |
| Full Stack Engineers | +26% |
| Java Developers | -4% |
| Business Systems Analysts | -10% |
| Software Development Engineers | -16% |
Source: Dice Tech Sentiment Report 2026, Lightcast US job postings for 2025
US Python Job Market Statistics: BLS Wages and the 2025–35 Outlook
The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks occupations, not programming languages. The figures below describe software developers and data scientists as whole groups.
Software developers earned a $135,980 median annual wage in May 2025. Data scientists earned $120,230, and software quality assurance analysts and testers earned $104,300.
The chart shows each occupation’s published 10th-to-90th percentile range. Software developers ran from $82,460 to $214,670, and data scientists from $67,240 to $199,130.
All occupations are projected to grow 3% from 2025 to 2035. BLS expects about 106,100 openings a year for software developers, QA analysts and testers combined, and 24,800 for data scientists.
Software publishers paid software developers a $164,550 median in May 2025, the highest among the top industries BLS lists.
| Occupation | Median wage, May 2025 | Jobs, 2025 | Projected change, 2025–35 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software developers | $135,980 | 1,717,800 | 10% |
| Data scientists | $120,230 | 275,600 | 35% |
| Software quality assurance analysts and testers | $104,300 | 187,600 | 6% |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook (OEWS wages May 2025; projections 2025–35), updated August 27, 2026
How Many Developers Use Python at Each Career Stage?
58.0% of the 14,099 respondents to Stack Overflow’s 2026 language question did extensive work in Python. That places it fourth, behind JavaScript (62.0%), SQL (58.4%) and HTML/CSS (58.2%).
Early-career developers use Python most. 66.6% of respondents with 1 to 5 years of work experience used it, ahead of JavaScript at 61.6% and HTML/CSS at 60.6%.
Usage drops to 56.1% at 6 to 15 years and 53.2% at 16 or more years. JavaScript stays between 61.6% and 63.3% across the three groups; its web-side rivals are compared in this web development languages breakdown.
Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, language question (all respondents n = 14,099; cohorts n = 3,304, 4,649 and 5,296)
Python tops the 2026 desired list at 33.4%, ahead of SQL at 32.0%. Its admired score, the share of current users who want to keep using it, is 50.6%, against 67.4% for Rust.
Respondents also used Python with AI tools more than any other language, at 39.0% against 38.4% for JavaScript.
Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, desired, admired and AI-use rows of the language question (n = 14,099)
Python Ranks First on IEEE Spectrum’s 2025 Jobs List and TIOBE’s October Index
IEEE Spectrum’s 2025 ranking, published September 23, 2025, placed Python first in its Jobs view, which looks at the skills employers seek. Python was second in 2024, and the 2025 edition is the latest available.
TIOBE’s search-based index rated Python 19.23% in October 2026, still first, with C second at 11.33%. Python’s rating sits 5.23 points below October 2025.
TIOBE began counting Mandarin Chinese search terms that month, weighted at 44.2% of English terms, so the October reading coincided with a method change. This programming language rankings data sets TIOBE against survey and GitHub measures.
Source: IEEE Spectrum Top Programming Languages 2025; TIOBE Index, October 2026
On GitHub, Python had about 2.6 million monthly contributors in August 2025, up 48.78% year over year. TypeScript passed it by about 42,000 contributors, as covered in this TypeScript growth analysis.
Python’s lead holds inside AI-tagged repositories, where GitHub says it powers close to half of new AI projects.
| Language or environment | AI-tagged repositories | Year-over-year change |
|---|---|---|
| Python | 582,196 | +50.7% |
| Jupyter Notebook | 402,643 | +17.8% |
| JavaScript | 88,023 | +24.8% |
| TypeScript | 85,746 | +77.9% |
Source: GitHub Octoverse 2025, September 2024 to August 2025
Stack Overflow’s own history shows the long climb. Python’s share of respondents rose from 31.7% in 2017 to 58.0% in 2026, with each year drawn from a different opt-in sample.
Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, language time series, 2017–2026
FAQs
Is Python still in demand in 2026?
Yes, on posting data. Dice recorded an 18% rise in US Python job-posting volume in 2025, and IEEE Spectrum’s 2025 Jobs ranking placed Python first, up from second in 2024.
How much does a Python developer earn?
No 2026 survey publishes pay by language. Stack Overflow’s 2026 survey reports global medians of $95,337 for AI/ML engineers and $90,982 for data scientists, fields where GitHub says Python dominates.
What do data scientists earn in the US?
$120,230 was the median annual wage in May 2025, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The lowest 10% earned under $67,240 and the top 10% earned more than $199,130.
Are Python-related jobs projected to grow?
BLS projects occupations, not languages. Data scientist jobs are projected to grow 35% and software developer jobs 10% from 2025 to 2035, against 3% for all occupations.
Is the Python job market drying up, as some Reddit threads claim?
Dice data shows Python posting volume up 18% in 2025, though total US tech postings fell below the 2019 baseline in early 2026. September 2026 postings were up 17% year over year.
Sources
- https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026
- https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm
- https://www.dice.com/hiring/recruitment/reports/tech-sentiment-report
- https://github.blog/news-insights/octoverse/octoverse-a-new-developer-joins-github-every-second-as-ai-leads-typescript-to-1/
- https://fosspost.org/python-statistics/
