Is Software, IT & Cybersecurity a Good Job Market in the United States?

Executive Verdict

Market rating: competitive | Confidence: High

Nationally, this is a competitive market rather than a collapsing one: software developer employment is still projected to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, with about 106,100 openings a year for software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers.[1] Near-term conditions are mixed, though: Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows Software, IT & Cybersecurity employment down 0.9% year over year in September 2026 even as active postings are up 30.5%.[2][3] BLS also shows Information employment down 4.2% year over year, while Professional and Business Services rose 0.6%, which means the best odds are shifting away from pure consumer-tech hiring and toward services, consulting, and enterprise work.[4][5]

Best positioned: Your odds are best if you are mid-to-senior, open to on-site or hybrid work, and can show production strength in Python, AWS, Kubernetes, CI/CD, cloud security, or AI review and orchestration work.[6][7][8][9][10]

Main caution: The biggest mistake is assuming that more visible postings mean an easy market; entry-level roles are only about 10% of the sampled postings, remote is only about 15%, and tech layoffs are still elevated.[6][7][11]

What Changed Recently

• Active postings for Software, IT & Cybersecurity nationally are up 30.5% year over year, but employment in the category is down 0.9% year over year according to Revelio Public Labor Statistics.[2][3]: You should expect more open reqs to apply to, but not assume employers are broadly expanding teams.
• The BLS shows September 2026 Information employment down 4.2% year over year, while Professional and Business Services grew 0.6%.[4][5]: Openings are likely to be healthier in consulting, implementation, enterprise services, and outsourced technical work than in the parts of tech tied only to product-company headcount.
• National unemployment is 4.2%, the JOLTS layoffs and discharges rate is 1.0%, and initial jobless claims are 199,000.[32][34][37]: The broader U.S. economy is not in obvious labor-market distress, so search difficulty in this category is coming more from selectivity than from a general hiring freeze.
• U.S.-based tech companies announced 10,799 job cuts in September 2026, and tech companies had announced 165,925 cuts through September.[11]: Even good candidates should expect more competition from laid-off experienced peers, especially in software engineering and IT.
• AI-assisted development is now routine: 88.3% of surveyed organizations use AI-assisted tools daily or a few times a week, and developers spend 11.4 hours a week reviewing AI-generated code.[38][9]: Hiring is tilting toward people who can supervise, validate, secure, and operationalize AI-accelerated work rather than just write boilerplate code.

What This Means for You

Entry-Level Candidates

Difficulty: Hard nationally: only about 10% of sampled postings are entry-level, and public reporting says junior developer hiring is tighter as AI absorbs more boilerplate work.[7][9]

Best target: Aim for support, QA, cloud operations, and SOC-adjacent paths where you can show ticket handling, troubleshooting, automation, and lab work quickly.

Biggest mistake: Applying as a generic junior coder with no proof of shipping, no public portfolio, and no willingness to consider on-site or hybrid roles.

Next step: Build one production-style project plus one operations or security artifact, then make Python, AWS, and either Kubernetes or CI/CD obvious on your resume because those are among the most requested hard skills nationally.[8]

Mid-Career Candidates

Difficulty: Competitive but better than entry level: about 35% of sampled postings are mid-level and about 40% are senior-level.[7]

Best target: Aim at cloud, platform, cybersecurity, and modernization work inside IT services and consulting, software development, financial services, and defense or space employers, which make up most of the active industry mix in the sample.[20]

Biggest mistake: Leading with years of experience instead of concrete systems ownership, migration results, uptime gains, cost savings, or risk reduction.

Next step: Rebuild your resume around scale, reliability, security, and cross-functional delivery; employers are explicitly rewarding systems thinking and cross-functional engineering.[22]

Career Switchers

Difficulty: Competitive: employers are paying for proven delivery, and 42% of organizations in one U.S. survey said they were upskilling current staff instead of hiring new talent.[31]

Best target: Pivot through adjacent technical roles where your prior industry knowledge matters, such as implementation, business systems, technical customer work, or product-adjacent operations.

Biggest mistake: Trying to jump straight into general software engineering without a credible portfolio or without reusing your prior domain expertise.

Next step: Pick one lane—cloud support, security operations, QA automation, or enterprise systems—and earn proof fast through a lab, a public project, and if relevant a recognized cert such as CISSP for cyber-focused paths.[23]

Salary Reality

high pay highly concentrated

Government wage data shows high national pay, but it is somewhat lagged: BLS puts the May 2025 median annual wage for software developers at $135,980 and the mean at $148,100, while the broader computer and mathematical family had a 2025 median of $109,280.[14][16][15] On current openings, Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows a mean offered salary of about $124,229 on new Software, IT & Cybersecurity openings in September 2026 (n=44,364), and the Callings.ai job database shows posted salary ranges centered on about $130k to $198k.[24][21]

This is still a high-paying national field relative to the overall U.S. market, where new openings across all occupations average about $70,432.[24] But the premium mostly goes to candidates who can handle production systems, cloud infrastructure, security risk, or senior software ownership rather than generic entry-level coding tasks.

The upside is offset by tougher screening: only about 10% of sampled postings are entry-level, about 40% are senior, and only about 15% are remote.[6][7] You are usually trading salary for specialization, on-site flexibility, and stronger proof of execution.

Best-paying path: The strongest pay tends to sit in senior software and platform work, especially where postings ask for Python, AWS, Kubernetes, and CI/CD, and where employers pay Information-sector wage levels that averaged $56.08 an hour in September 2026.[8][25]

Caution: Do not overread the top of the range: BLS 90th-percentile pay for the broader computer and mathematical family was $191,450 in 2025, but that mixes many senior specialties, and posted ranges do not guarantee final offers.[26][21]

Where the Opportunities Are Concentrated

Real opportunity is not evenly spread across "tech." In the Callings.ai sample, software development accounts for about 25% of postings and IT services and consulting about 20%, with another about 10% each in technology, financial services, and defense and space manufacturing.[20] That matters because BLS shows Information employment down 4.2% year over year, while Professional and Business Services is still growing slightly at 0.6%; the market is rewarding employers that sell implementation, infrastructure, and enterprise services more than broad consumer-tech headcount growth.[4][5] Opportunity is also spread across many employers rather than concentrated in a few giants. The sample looks fragmented, and the most active named employers were Deloitte with more than 1,000 postings, re-zoo-me with more than 500, and Microsoft with more than 450 over the last 90 days.[18][19] Search strategy matters because only about 15% of sampled roles are remote, while about 55% are on-site and about 25% are hybrid.[6]

• IT services and consulting (high): About 20% of sampled postings sit in IT services and consulting, a good lane for candidates who can do migrations, implementations, client-facing delivery, or managed infrastructure work.[20]
• Software development and product engineering (moderate): Software development accounts for about 25% of sampled postings, but BLS also shows Information employment down 4.2% year over year, so product-company hiring is active but selective.[20][4]
• Financial services and defense-adjacent employers (moderate): Financial services and defense and space manufacturing each make up about 10% of the sample, giving security, infrastructure, and reliability-minded candidates a steadier lane than consumer apps alone.[20]
• Remote-only search (limited): Only about 15% of sampled postings are remote, versus about 55% on-site and about 25% hybrid, so a remote-only search sharply narrows the field.[6]

Where to focus: Prioritize employers that sell or run critical systems—consulting, financial services, defense, and enterprise software—rather than waiting for a fully remote consumer-tech opening.

Skills and Credentials Worth Pursuing

• Python (table stakes): Python appears in about 40% of sampled Software, IT & Cybersecurity postings nationally, making it the clearest broad-based language signal in this market.[8]
• AWS (table stakes): AWS shows up in about 20% of sampled postings, which makes cloud fluency a mainstream requirement rather than a niche bonus.[8]
• Kubernetes and CI/CD (differentiator): Kubernetes and CI/CD each appear in about 20% of sampled postings, signaling that employers value deployment, reliability, and operational maturity, not just coding ability.[8]
• AI evaluation and multi-agent orchestration (premium): Demand is rising for developers who can evaluate AI outputs, orchestrate multiple agents, and perform security reviews around AI-assisted work.[9]
• Systems thinking and cross-functional engineering (differentiator): Deloitte says demand is expected to rise for developers with systems thinking, customer-experience awareness, and cross-functional engineering strength.[22]
• Cloud security (premium): Cloud security was cited as a significant skill shortage by 36% of respondents in the 2025 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study.[10]
• CISSP (differentiator): CISSP is the most commonly required certification named in the sampled postings, even though explicit certification requirements are still less than 5% overall.[23]

Adjacent Roles to Consider

• Technical Product Manager (pivot): It lets strong engineers or sysadmins use technical depth plus stakeholder communication when pure hands-on roles stall.
• Implementation Consultant (bridge): This is a practical bridge for candidates with platform, integration, or enterprise-software experience.
• Solutions Consultant or Sales Engineer (both): It rewards technical credibility while reducing dependence on saturated pure engineering funnels.
• Business Systems Analyst (bridge): It is a credible move for career switchers or IT candidates who know enterprise workflows and tools.

30 / 60 / 90-Day Plan

First 30 Days

• Pick one lane only: product engineering, cloud/platform, IT operations, or cybersecurity, and rewrite your resume so every bullet supports that lane.
• Create one portfolio artifact that proves production judgment, not just code volume: a system design, incident review, cloud deployment, security write-up, or automation workflow.
• Broaden your search filters to include on-site and hybrid roles, because remote-only targeting cuts out most of the current sample.
• Build a target list by employer type rather than brand name: consulting, enterprise software, financial services, defense-adjacent, and internal platform teams.

Days 31-60

• Add one market-relevant proof point tied to your lane: an AWS deployment, Kubernetes project, CI/CD pipeline, security lab, or documented AI-evaluation workflow.
• Replace generic networking with interview-sourcing outreach: ask former colleagues and second-degree contacts for introductions to hiring managers on roles that match your exact stack.
• Prepare three evidence-heavy stories on reliability, security, speed, or cost reduction so you can interview as an operator, not just an applicant.
• Track rejection reasons by funnel stage and adjust accordingly: resume, recruiter screen, technical screen, or final round.

Days 61-90

• If response rates are still weak, widen to adjacent roles such as implementation, business systems, or solutions consulting instead of repeating the same pure engineering search.
• Pursue one recognized signal that matches your lane: a cyber credential, a cloud cert, or a public project with measurable usage and documentation.
• Target contract, project-based, or modernization work if permanent product roles remain crowded; those paths often reopen the funnel faster.
• Reprice your search honestly: decide whether you are optimizing for comp, remote work, title, or speed to offer, because trying to maximize all four at once is usually what stalls national searches.

Methodology and Confidence

This September 2026 report was generated on October 10, 2026. Latest direct national data: October 2026. Some items are proxy evidence; latest proxy data: October 2026.

Confidence: Overall confidence: High. The report combines current national labor-market indicators with direct occupation data and supporting salary, posting, and layoff signals.

Limitations

• National figures average over very different metro markets, and the metro reports for this category show that hiring conditions, pay, and remote-work mix can differ a lot across the country.
• Several September 2026 employment and openings readings are early estimates that can be revised in later releases, so short-term swings should be read as direction rather than final totals.[12][4][5][13]
• Some of the clearest wage benchmarks in this report come from 2025 BLS occupation data, which is reliable but lagged; current posted and offered salaries can move faster than those benchmarks.[14][15][16]
• This category mixes software engineering, IT operations, and cybersecurity, so software-developer wage and growth figures are not a perfect stand-in for help desk, network, sysadmin, or security-specialist roles.
• The Callings.ai job database is a partial, deduplicated sample of online postings, so its direction of demand, leading employer names, and skill patterns are more reliable than its exact counts or shares.[17][18][19][20][21][6][7][8]

References

1. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers · 2026-08 · bls.gov
2. Reveliolabs. Employment — Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-09 · reveliolabs.com
3. Reveliolabs. Job Openings — Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-09 · reveliolabs.com
4. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-09 · data.bls.gov
5. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-09 · data.bls.gov
6. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
7. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
8. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
9. Ipwithease. How AI is Reshaping Software Development in 2026 - IP With Ease · 2026-09 · ipwithease.com
10. Isc2. 2025 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study · 2025-12 · isc2.org
11. Informationweek. 2026 tech company layoffs · 2026-10 · informationweek.com
12. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-09 · data.bls.gov
13. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-08 · data.bls.gov
14. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers · 2026-08 · bls.gov
15. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · data.bls.gov
16. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Employment and Wages News Release - 2025 A01 Results · 2026-05 · bls.gov
17. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
18. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
19. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
20. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
21. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
22. Deloitte. 2026 Global Software Industry Outlook · 2026-02 · deloitte.com
23. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
24. Reveliolabs. Salaries — Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-09 · reveliolabs.com
25. Federal Reserve Economic Data. Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Information · 2026-09 · fred.stlouisfed.org
26. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · data.bls.gov
27. Reveliolabs. Mass-layoff Notices — Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-09 · reveliolabs.com
28. Warntracker. Chime Financial, Inc. Lays Off 135 Workers — San Francisco, CA WARN Notice September 2026 · 2026-09 · warntracker.com
29. Warntracker. Capital One Lays Off 58 Workers — Deerfield, IL WARN Notice September 2026 · 2026-09 · warntracker.com
30. Computerworld. Tech layoffs: A 2026 timeline · 2026-10 · computerworld.com
31. Salaryguide-americas. U.S. - 2026 Salary & Hiring Trends Guide | Hays · 2026-01 · salaryguide-americas.hays.com
32. Federal Reserve Economic Data. Unemployment Rate · 2026-09 · fred.stlouisfed.org
33. Federal Reserve Economic Data. All Employees, Total Nonfarm · 2026-09 · fred.stlouisfed.org
34. Federal Reserve Economic Data. Layoffs and Discharges: Total Nonfarm · 2026-08 · fred.stlouisfed.org
35. Federal Reserve Economic Data. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average · 2026-08 · fred.stlouisfed.org
36. Federal Reserve Economic Data. Federal Funds Effective Rate · 2026-09 · fred.stlouisfed.org
37. Federal Reserve Economic Data. Initial Claims · 2026-09 · fred.stlouisfed.org
38. Linearb. Engineering benchmarks 2026: data from 8.1M pull requests · 2026-09 · linearb.io

Software, IT & Cybersecurity job market by metro, September 2026

The latest monthly report for each metro. Postings and pay come from the Callings.ai job database (active postings over the last 90 days), hedged because the sample is partial.