US companies hired about 113,000 software engineers in the 12 months to April 2026, less than half the 2022 peak of 239,000, according to Lenny Rachitsky’s latest job-market report. That is 47% of the peak, by our arithmetic.
The report, published on 10 November, uses job openings from TrueUp, which tracks more than 9,000 tech companies, and US hiring data from Live Data Technologies. Rachitsky calls it “the most surprising and interesting” of his five reports.
Business Pill · AI Agents Explained
A one-minute explainer of AI agents and what they do inside companies. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss this report.
The key insight: Lenny Rachitsky’s report puts US software-engineer hiring at about 113,000 in the past year, 47% of the 2022 peak by our arithmetic. Open PM roles are near a four-year high, design openings are at a record low, and LLM is the top skill in PM job descriptions.
Product managers are the outlier. Open PM roles are at their highest in nearly four years, up 75% from the March 2023 low, the report says. Engineering openings grew 29% through 2024, 15% through 2025 and “just 2.5% this past year”, and Rachitsky writes that there are “fewer open eng roles at tech companies today than there were even this past March”.
Design is at a record low, with about 1,900 open productdesign roles globally, and there are “3.8 open PM roles for every open design role”, up from 1.9 in early 2023. US companies hired about 12,600 product designers in the past year, against 27,600 in 2022, the report says.
US software engineers hired in the 2022 peak year and in the 12 months to April 2026, from Lenny Rachitsky’s 10 November report. The 47% share is our arithmetic.
What Was Posted on X
STATE OF THE TECH JOB MARKET IN 2026
Twice a year, I dig into trends in hiring and job openings. This is the fifth report I’ve done, and the most surprising yet:
1. PMs are winning in the AI era 2. Engineering demand has stalled 3. Design openings are at a record low 4. Every role now requires AI skills 5. Tech jobs are concentrating in the Bay Area 6. Remote roles are at a record low 7. The tech job market is growing fast, but mostly outside of software (gasp!)
Lenny Rachitsky posted at 17:47 UTC on 10 November the seven headline findings of his State of the Tech Job Market report, including that PMs are winning in the AI era, engineering demand has stalled and remote roles are at a record low, with a link to the full report. This piece takes its figures from the report.
Where AI Shows Up
Rachitsky writes that “LLM” is now the most mentioned skill in product manager job descriptions, and that “Claude” is the third most mentioned term there. In designer job descriptions, Claude became the second most mentioned skill this spring, passing CSS, according to the report.
Forward-deployed engineer openings are up 4.6x in the past year, to around 1,500, the report says, adding that the growth is likely partly other roles being renamed. Forward-deployed engineers also figure in two pieces we ran this week: a 67-firm AI deployment map and the IBM and Microsoft agent platform.
Where the Jobs Are
Fifteen percent of open roles at tech companies are now in the Bay Area, a record, and open Bay Area jobs are up 43% in a year, the report says. Just 14% of open tech roles offer a remote option, down from 21% in late 2022. Rachitsky summarised the findings on X.
The Structural Read
As we read it, the report shows two clocks running at once: openings for some roles are rising while actual hiring in every core role is flat or falling. Rachitsky reads the gap as demand that is getting harder to fill.
Lenny Rachitsky, Lenny’s Newsletter, 10 November 2026
“There are now 3.8 open PM roles for every open design role”
Three Implications
FOR ENGINEERS The report says engineering openings grew just 2.5% in the past year, after 29% through 2024 and 15% through 2025.
FOR DESIGNERS The report counts about 1,900 open productdesign roles globally, the lowest since it began tracking.
FOR EMPLOYERS The report says just 14% of open tech roles offer a remote option, down from 21% in late 2022, while 15% of open roles are now in the Bay Area.
The framework reads: “technical capability has far outpaced organizational readiness”.
As we read it, the report’s 4.6x rise in forward-deployed engineer openings is one place that gap shows up in hiring. The framework predates the report and does not discuss it.
What Is Not Established
The figures are from Rachitsky’s report and its two data providers; we did not see the underlying datasets. Openings and hires measure different things, and the report itself notes openings rising while hiring falls. The report’s seventh takeaway sits behind a paywall, and we did not read it.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
The Great Convergence of Capital, Power, and Geopolitics
This week’s issue: for two years the AI build-out was priced as a supply story, and last week as a credit story. This week it was priced as a permission story, and the answer arrived as a cost, not a ban.
Lenny Rachitsky’s report puts US software-engineer hiring at about 113,000 in the past year, 47% of the 2022 peak by our arithmetic, while open PM roles sit near a four-year high and design openings at a record low. It says LLM is now the top skill in PM job descriptions.
A note on sourcing. All figures are from Lenny Rachitsky’s report of 10 November 2026 and the data providers it names. The 47% share is ours. We did not contact Rachitsky.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
