Tech Job Postings in 2026: Software Has Rebounded 28% From Its Low, but IT Support Is Still 30% Below 2020

Tech job postings in the US are recovering unevenly. On Indeed’s Job Postings Index, software development stood at 78.1 on Oct 9, 2026 (February 1, 2020 = 100), up 28% from its May 2025 low but still 22% below 2020. IT infrastructure, operations and support postings, the help desk and sysadmin roles MSPs hire, sit at 69.8.

We downloaded Indeed Hiring Lab’s open daily data for 47 occupational sectors in the US and five other countries, plus its AI tracker, and measured every tech series against the February 2020 baseline, its own peak, and its own low. The short version: software development is no longer the weakest sector, it clearly bottomed in 2025, and the IT support roles that matter most to managed service providers have now fallen behind it.

Tech job postings since February 2020

Indeed Job Postings Index, seasonally adjusted 7-day trailing average, February 1, 2020 = 100 (dotted line). Plotted weekly; end labels are the Oct 9, 2026 values. Hover a month for its averages. Source: Indeed Hiring Lab.

All four tech groups followed the same arc: a hiring boom that peaked in the first half of 2022, then a fall that took each of them far below where they started. Software development rose highest, to 233.8 on Feb 28, 2022, more than double its 2020 level, and fell furthest, losing 74% of its peak by May 2025. All US postings peaked at 161.2 in March 2022 and have hovered just above the 2020 baseline since, at 104.2 now. 19 of the 47 US sectors are below their 2020 level, including all four tech groups.

Index points, Feb 1, 2020 = 100. “A year ago” is Oct 9, 2025. Rank is among all 47 US sectors. Sample job titles (Indeed): software development, software engineer, full stack developer; IT infrastructure, operations and support, IT manager, systems administrator; IT systems and solutions, business analyst, data analyst; data and analytics, analyst, data scientist.

Are software developer postings still the furthest below pre-pandemic?

No, and that is the biggest change in the 2026 data. Software development was the single weakest of the 47 US sectors on 563 days between March 2023 and April 2025, trading places with data and analytics. The last day it held that spot was Apr 20, 2025. Today it ranks 6th of 47. The bottom of the table now belongs to data and analytics at 64.2, the weakest sector every day since May 16, 2026, with IT infrastructure, operations and support 3rd at 69.8. Between those two sits media and communications (68.7); between IT support and software sit marketing (75.3) and IT systems and solutions (77.0).

Every US occupational sector on Indeed, ranked by its index on Oct 9, 2026. Highlighted: the four tech groups (blue, software development; red, IT infrastructure, operations and support). Hover a bar for its rank.

Did software development postings bottom out?

Yes, on this measure. The index hit 61.1 on May 17, 2025 and has climbed 28% since, including 16% since January 1. A year ago it stood at 64.3. Postings that are new to Indeed in the past seven days, a quicker read on employer demand, are at 81.5 for software development, above the 78.1 for all active postings. Even so, the recovery has recouped only a small part of the post-2022 fall: software postings are 67% below their peak and 22% below February 2020.

BLS data tells a weaker story. In the federal Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, information sector openings averaged 88 thousand a month from January to August 2026, 30% below the same months of 2025, while Indeed’s software development index was up 12% on the same comparison. The two measures moved together for most of the period (a correlation of 0.87 on monthly averages since 2020) but split in 2026. They count different things: JOLTS covers one industry, including publishing and telecom, while Indeed’s sector covers software job titles at employers of every kind. Our analysis of JOLTS openings, quits, hires, and layoffs in the information sector has the full BLS picture.

IT support vs software development: the MSP-relevant split

Software development index minus IT infrastructure, operations and support index, in index points, weekly. Blue: software ahead. Red: IT support and operations ahead.

For most of the downturn, IT support roles held up better than software roles. From February 2023 until autumn 2025, the IT infrastructure, operations and support index ran above software development, by as much as 15.6 points in June 2023. That reversed in autumn 2025. Software development moved ahead on Oct 18, 2025 and has stayed there; the gap is now +8.3 points. IT infrastructure, operations and support bottomed later (Dec 12, 2025, at 63.6) and has recovered only 10%, against 28% for software. Its new-postings index (71.4) is the lowest of the four tech groups, against 81.5 for software.

Postings are only the demand side. On the supply side, WARN notices in California, Washington, and New York show tech layoffs at double the 2025 level, which our tech layoffs tracker follows month by month, and BLS projects declining employment for computer support specialists while security analyst jobs grow fast, as covered in our IT and cybersecurity jobs outlook.

Tech job postings by country

Same scale on every panel. Each series is indexed to its own country’s February 1, 2020 level, so the panels compare trends, not posting volumes.

The US software rebound is not happening everywhere. In Germany and France, software development is now the weakest of all sectors Indeed tracks. Germany’s index (47.6) set a new low within the past 30 days and is down 18% on a year ago; France (51.7) is down 9%. The UK sits close to its 2025 low at 59.6, and its IT infrastructure, operations and support index (46.3) is the lowest tech reading in any of the six countries, set within the past 30 days. Australia is the outlier: both of its tech series are above their 2020 levels, with software at 107.8 and IT support at 113.9.

Latest values are for Oct 9, 2026. Number of sectors differs by country (US 47, GB 49, CA 47, DE 45, FR 34, AU 47).

How many job postings mention AI?

Share of all job postings on Indeed that mention AI keywords such as machine learning, data science, or artificial intelligence, 7-day trailing average. Through Sep 30, 2026. Source: Indeed Hiring Lab AI Tracker.

7.3% of all US postings on Indeed mentioned AI on Sep 30, 2026, up from 3.7% a year earlier and 4.2 times the 2019 average of 1.7%. The share is across every job, not only tech roles. It is at a record high in data that starts in 2019. Canada’s share has risen fastest, to 19.0%, the highest of the nine countries in the tracker; the open data does not break that down, so we cannot say which roles drive it. Rising AI mentions and rising software postings arrived together in the US, but the two series alone do not show that one caused the other.

What this means for MSPs

Read the data as a hiring window that is starting to close for some roles and not others. Software postings have turned up, so expect more competition for developers and automation engineers than in 2025. Sysadmin and help desk postings remain about 30% below 2020 and are recovering slowly, so employers are competing for far fewer advertised infrastructure roles than in 2021 and 2022; that favors hiring ahead of contract wins rather than after them. For sales, the gap between a recovering economy-wide index (104.2) and depressed in-house IT postings is a talking point with clients who have frozen IT headcount: position managed services as coverage for roles they are not reposting. If you recruit in the UK, Germany, or France, budget for a softer market than in the US. And track the AI share in your own job ads and client conversations: 7.3% of all US postings now mention AI, up from 3.7% a year ago.

Frequently asked questions

Are tech job postings going up in 2026?

Yes for software development. Indeed’s US software development postings index was 78.1 on Oct 9, 2026, up 16% since January 1 and 21% on a year earlier. IT infrastructure, operations and support postings rose more slowly, up 8% since January 1.

Are software engineering job postings back to pre-pandemic levels?

No. At 78.1, US software development postings on Indeed are 22% below February 1, 2020 and 67% below their peak of 233.8 on Feb 28, 2022. All US postings stand at 104.2, above the 2020 baseline.

Which tech jobs have the fewest postings compared with 2020?

Data and analytics (64.2) is the furthest below its 2020 level of all 47 sectors Indeed tracks in the US. IT infrastructure, ops and support (69.8) ranks 3rd lowest of 47 and software development (78.1) ranks 6th.

When did tech job postings bottom out?

US software development postings hit their low of 61.1 on May 17, 2025 and have risen 28% since. IT infrastructure, operations and support postings bottomed later, at 63.6 on Dec 12, 2025, and are up 10%.

How many job postings mention AI?

7.3% of US job postings on Indeed mentioned AI keywords on Sep 30, 2026, up from 3.7% a year earlier and an average of 1.7% in 2019. Canada’s share is the highest of the nine countries Indeed publishes, at 19.0%.

Is the software developer job market better in the US than in Europe?

On Indeed’s postings data, yes. US software development postings are at 78.1 and rising, while Germany (47.6) and France (51.7) are lower, falling year on year, and rank last of all sectors in their countries.

The download repackages Indeed Hiring Lab data (CC BY 4.0). Please credit Indeed Hiring Lab as the source of the index values and The Uptime Report for the compilation.

Methodology

References

1. Indeed Hiring Lab, Job Postings Index data (job_postings_tracker), CC BY 4.0. Accessed October 2026.
2. Indeed Hiring Lab, AI Tracker data (ai-tracker), CC BY 4.0. Accessed October 2026.
3. Indeed Hiring Lab, sector job title examples. Accessed October 2026.
4. FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: Software Development Job Postings on Indeed in the United States (and IHLIDXUSTPITOPHE, IHLIDXUSTPINDEDO, IHLIDXUSTPMATH, used to confirm sector renames). Accessed October 2026.
5. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey data files (series JTS510000000000000JOL). Accessed October 2026.
6. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Accessed October 2026.