COVID-19 forced companies to rapidly reexamine their priorities and roadmaps, both in the short- and long-term. How is that impacting what those firms are hiring for, in terms of skills and jobs?  

To find the answer, we consulted Burning Glass, which collects and analyzes millions of job postings from across the country. Specifically, we looked at the 30 days’ worth of postings, from July 12 through August 10. Here’s a breakdown to the top skills that employers are looking for:

The focus on project management suggests that companies, after long months of dealing on a day-to-day basis with the pandemic, are shifting their focus back to longer-term projects and products. This makes sense; whether employees are working from home permanently or just starting to re-enter the office, the company’s work must be done, and plans resumed.

The presence of SQL on the list also suggests that companies are hiring technologists who are skilled at storing, structuring, and wrangling data. It’s another encouraging hint that, for many businesses, things are resuming. Java, Python, and JavaScript—the highest-ranking languages on the list—are used in a variety of business software; coupled with employers’ interest in software development and engineering, it’s clear that employers are looking to building apps and services. 

And what jobs are employers actually hiring for? Burning Glass has data on that, too:

Software developers and engineers lead the list, followed by project managers, network engineers/architects, and systems engineers. And chances are good that companies can find someone with the right skills to fill these roles: As Dice’s ongoing COVID-19 Sentiment Survey makes clear, roughly a third of technologists who are currently employed full-time plan on looking for a new job sometime within the next two weeks. Even in times of uncertainty, technologists with the right skills are looking for their next gig.