Top 20 In‑Demand Tech Skills in the US (2014‑2019) – Insights from Indeed Hiring Lab

Indeed’s hiring lab examined millions of US job postings from 2014 to 2019, extracting 571 technology‑skill keywords to identify the most sought‑after capabilities among employers.

The study found that SQL and Java remain the top two skills, with Python rising to third place and achieving a 123% increase, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) surged 418% to become the sixth‑most‑demanded skill.

Charts show SQL still holds roughly 22% of demand despite a slight decline, Java maintains steady growth, and Python’s popularity is driven by data‑science and data‑engineering roles. Linux ranks fourth and JavaScript fifth.

A deeper look explains Python’s rise as developers and full‑stack engineers adopt it for data‑science tasks, whereas AWS’s growth is linked to the expanding need for DevOps, full‑stack, and cloud‑native positions rather than directly to data‑science jobs.

The report also notes that traditional languages such as C, C++, and C# remain in the top ten with modest growth, while .NET fell 15% and older technologies like Oracle, Unix, and HTML saw significant declines.

Concluding, the data suggests employers prioritize SQL, Java, and Python, with JavaScript and AWS also gaining momentum; however, choosing a language to learn should consider personal career goals, project requirements, and domain‑specific needs rather than trends alone.