Rust, C++, and Python trends in jobs on Hacker News (February 2025)
95 comments
·February 20, 2025fdsf111
a-dub
probably more like number of job posts that include at least one programming language for conditioning. (if you want to look at relative trends). distribution over job class as well as an accurate count of actual jobs per post here also probably makes sense for measures of overall activity and longitudinal analysis. could maybe skip the deep counting if you can show that it's static across the dataset.
math_dandy
Number of job posts itself seems like a better measure of the state of the job market than mentions or mention-density. What aspects might mentions capture that number of postings wouldn’t?
snek_case
There's also the popularity of HN itself and the popularity of posting jobs on HN that's an important factor.
You could both normalize the figures and include a separate graph for job posting density per month or something like that. Total posts on HN monthly would also be interesting to visualize. Is it trending up or down?
bb88
There's also the popularity for HN based upon the particular language.
It's possible there's skew where rust becomes more popular say, and gets the bulk of the new posts, but python or java aren't super interesting anymore. So those people stop showing up to HN.
I'd like to see the popularity of posts by language. I bet we'd see a lot fewer Java and Python posts compared to Rust.
internet101010
It would capture the shift in need for each language.
wslh
Optionally, the novelty factor plays here: C++ created 40 years ago, Python a little bit later, and Rust less than two decades ago. The selection of programming languages should be augmented/benchamrked with the TIOBE index.
mountaineer
Yeah, I found the percentage of job posts with the keyword in https://www.hntrends.com when I was publishing it, was effective.
feverzsj
It's just Hacker News attracts more rust users, so more rust jobs here. You can search on actual job sites. Rust jobs are still rare.
IshKebab
But growing rapidly. Most Rust jobs are still "invisible" in that they were C++ jobs that have turned into Rust jobs without hiring anyone.
I've had one contact from a recruiter saying they were looking for C++/Rust devs.
Obviously you won't find many on Indeed or whatever, since companies that advertise there are not really on the cutting edge or anywhere close.
pjmlp
Definitely, doing this on a game development board, or data engineering would give completely different numbers.
tayo42
This is what I've noticed in the real world working. I haven't seen much enthusiasm for it. I actuslly introduced it for a new experimental project and got a bunch of push back on it.
3eb7988a1663
How many other people know Rust? Introducing a new language is a huge burden that needs some potential payoff.
vunderba
This. Even if it's just an experimental project, at some point down the line if there's a possibility that it's going to have to integrate with the rest of the system - you've just introduced significant expectations for the existing and new developers on the team. While I don't think that rust has a huge learning curve, it's different enough that you can't just easily transition from a different high-level language.
I would never introduce a new language to an existing code base without an exceptionally good reason.
tayo42
That's a catch 22 though. If you never introduce it no one will learn it?
The people that mattered were on board with the experiment though. It was a healthy enough environment that the project failing if it did wasn't going to be terrible for my career
weinzierl
LinkedIn doesn't even recognize Rust as a language you can select.
You can select Perl, Fortran and Cobol, but Rust? Crickets.
I asked them half a year ago if they would add it. I included a few sources, e.g. the StackOvflow survey and a couple of sources that showed LinkedIn's parent Microsoft's investment in Rust, but I only got stock answers.
So, Rust has some way to go.
koakuma-chan
I doubt you can "ask" a company like LinkedIn. Your best chance is probably their Twitter account manager responding to your tweet.
throw-the-towel
What exactly do you mean? I do have Rust as a "skill" on my LinkedIn, for what it's worth.
weinzierl
"Skills" is a free-form field, I can add "foobar cook" as a skill if I like.
I mean the "What kind of work you are open to" section that is relevant for being matched to open positions. I just rechecked a moment ago and still no way express that I am open for Rust positions.
Terretta
Are posts not mentioning any languages? Are posts dwindling, which means Rust is actually going through the roof? Is some other language the one with rising demand?
Needs some kind of baseline ...
jeremyjh
Yes, since everything is declining, I'm left assuming that this is just an absolute count not normalized for the total number of postings. And we're seeing the total number declining.
booleandilemma
Maybe there's another language people are mentioning that isn't Rust, C++, or Python?
raffraffraff
Me, on seeing the post: "I'm learning go. Oh my god am I making a mistake? Oh no. Oh no. Oh no."
johnnyanmac
Unless you're trying to work for a very specific Google team, probably. Not that I subscribe to the idea that engineers can't learn the tools on the job as long as they have fundamentals, but this market is so rough as is.
millerm
I’ve been a developer since the 90s. Mainly on the JVM, some Objective-C, and too much JavaScript garbage. I would gladly take a junior position, making junior pay if I could get an entry-level Rust gig. I know that’s not going to happen, but I sure would like it too.
fnord77
I did Rust full time in a senior position around 2020 for a year. It's interesting at first and then it gets tedious. I have no interest in going back to Rust.
whytevuhuni
> I have no interest in going back to Rust.
What are you doing instead? I'm curious what you're comparing it to.
roland35
Too many rust jobs are in crypto or web3 stuff right now. Even if you like that tech, it's pretty undeniable that those industries are boom/bust and quite risky.
convolvatron
There are fewer rust jobs, but those that are there are reallly pretty desperate. Most have stopped agreeing to train people because of the time involved, and the risk someone won’t really take to it. Learn rust in your own to a basic fluency and you’ll be able to find a job
millerm
Oh, I've taken the time to learn the language and tooling. It means I would take a junior position, and I don't mind that. I'm not chasing money anymore, I just want to enjoy what I do again, because I don't anymore.
johnnyanmac
So... Where are these jobs? I have basic fluency and I'll take anything.
I had 2 interviews for jobs that happened to use rust, but they were cut off early from hiring someone farther in the process.
convolvatron
I've talked to AI hardware companies using rust for firmware. A couple other companies needing firmware that decided to use rust. Another three companies doing firmware infrastructure in rust. One company doing wide area SDN services. Two database companies. Every single crypto/web3/defi company. Two groups doing datalog-esque work. Two cloud AI infrastructure companies.
kstrauser
Be the change you want to see. I work at a polyglot company, and I intend to start using Rust for my own projects when it’s an appropriate fit (which it would be for a lot of the stuff I’m doing).
johnnyanmac
Sadly I'd need to get a job first then be credible enough to start working on an "exotic" language. It'd be nice to hit two birds with one stone but jobs in general are still far from bouncing back.
koakuma-chan
I had an opportunity to get an entry-level Rust job, but I rejected it because it paid only $500/mo. Now I regret it.
bookofjoe
That's not even close to minimum wage!
noname120
Depends in which country.
koakuma-chan
Yeah that's why I rejected it. I'm a Ukranian national and that was a remote job at a Ukranian company, and I had to reject it because I live in Canada. But now I think maybe it could have been worth it to accept it and just move to like Poland or something, but you never know.
jayd16
At this rate, just take unpaid leave to learn Rust yourself.
Xebenebex
I’m so confused by this graph, it seems to literally just confirm that hiring is way down across the board. The relationship between language popularity seems mostly the same (maybe less python?)
high_na_euv
>As a proxy measure for programming language trends, let’s analyze the frequency of programming language mentions in the monthly “Ask HN: Who is hiring?” and “Ask HN: Who wants to be hired?” postings on Hacker News for a few years up until February 2025. Below are the graphs.
Thats terrible proxy
johnnyanmac
Bad for general trends for what jobs are you there. Good to help confirm a general trend of declining job posting and rising job seekers.
Honestly a bit surprised how steady the increase is. Guess that "the market will bounce back here" hasn't come true at any small point in time.
kevmo314
The article didn't claim it was a good proxy.
wojciii
I write rust, c++ and python for a living. All in the same project.
Learning rust was painfull.
I tolerate c++, but I find modern c++ hard to understand. I hate gcc c++ error messages. They are the worst kind of error messages that I know.
Using Python for system testing is a godsend. This is where it shines .. but using poetry for package management is painful.
daviddavis
Have you tried uv? I switched to it from poetry a couple months ago. It’s not perfect but I’m enjoying it a lot more than poetry.
wojciii
I could switch and plan to evaluate it soon. :)
fouronnes3
Quality of error messages is a really interesting quality metric. At the far worst end of the spectrum I nominate the latex compiler. "Missing $ inserted" anyone? What's the other extreme?
wojciii
It should be a metric for compilers.
The Rust compiler is also hard to understand while learning the launage but it gets easier when you know more Rust.
kevin_thibedeau
Those trendlines are somewhat bogus because there is a COVID induced bump [1] that is hidden here by the cutoff at 2021. Add another five years and the slopes will be less steep.
johnnyanmac
Still seems to be the same trend for everything except some certain web tech. Jobs today are roughly half of ore-covid levels.
marifjeren
The chart titles say "frequency" but the y axis seems to be ambiguous about whether it's an absolute count of mentions or mentions-per-word or mentions-per-something-else.
The distinction is important because if it's an absolute count, I think these data would mostly just correlate with the job market overall. In that case, splitting it out by language is sort of uninteresting.
gorkaerana
I cannot quite replicate those results myself: https://github.com/gorkaerana/hn-programming-language-trends.
In my analysis, as a percentage of total job posts, Python jobs start to rapidly increase in 2022, even before the current AI craze started by the release of ChatGPT on November 20 2022. They peaked in 2024 and seem to have stalled since. Rust and C++ jobs (again, as a percentage of total job posts), have gone toe-to-toe since mid 2023.
That being said, many improvements to be done to my analysis, as it relies on simple word match.
null
null
The number of mentions needs to be normalized by the number of job posts.
Example:
- 2021-01: posts=842, python=194, ratio = 194 / 842 = 0.23 (mentions per post)
- 2025-01: posts=487, python=87, ratio = 87 / 487 = 0.18
And then if you want to see a trend, do a moving 6 months average.
[2021-01] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25632982
[2025-01] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42575537