Eight hundred thousand U.S. job postings recorded between January 2025 and March 2026 show Python leading at 46% of listings and SQL following at 45%. In 38 of 50 states, SQL is the top language requirement. The gap between developer community perception and employer behaviour is notable.
The research comes from Oxylabs, which analysed more than 800,000 U.S. job postings requiring at least one programming language. The dataset covers a period when major tech layoffs were reshaping the market and AI skills dominated the discourse around hiring.
Despite that discourse, the top languages by employer demand are established tools: Python, SQL, Java, and JavaScript. Neither the AI wave nor the headline layoffs have displaced them. The most requested pairing is Python and SQL together, appearing in one in five tech job postings — well ahead of any other combination.
The SQL finding is the sharpest divergence from developer self-assessment. Community rankings and developer surveys have historically treated SQL as utility rather than craft, often excluded from lists of programming languages proper. Hiring data does not reflect that distinction. SQL is required at rates that track Python almost exactly across the full dataset, and it tops Python as the single highest-demand language in most states.
Sectoral breakdown matters here. Data science and analytics roles, which account for a significant share of postings, weight SQL heavily. Remove those roles and Python's lead widens — but employers advertising simultaneously for backend, DevOps, and data science create a market in which SQL competency is structural rather than optional.
One outlier in the dataset: Apple's job postings in Q1 2026 rose to nine times the 2025 quarterly average, with the majority of the increase in software engineering and AI/ML roles. The company is expanding while peers contract, and the scale of the shift skews aggregate readings of the tech hiring market.
The full breakdown by role, industry, and U.S. state is available in Oxylabs' report.
