Despite the crypto-winter causing widespread layoffs for employees in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry over the last few months, there are still plenty of jobs in the field.
According to information Hard Fork gathered from Glassdoor, the US is leading the way when it comes to opportunities for blockchain related jobs, followed by the UK, and then India. But when you see who is hiring, it starts to get interesting.
How we did it
Hard Fork took a look at Glassdoor to find all the jobs that had the term “blockchain” mentioned somewhere in the job listing, from all over the world. These included all vacancies related to the field, ranging from roles in development, marketing, and more.
The US takes the cake
Glassdoor is currently advertising a total of 5,711 blockchain jobs globally. Currently, US employers account for around half of those, with 2,616 vacancies on offer. The UK is the runner-up with 1,015 blockchain-related job ads, followed by India with 257 vacancies.
The 💜 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
“Blockchain Engineer” is the most common job, what that means specifically is anyone’s guess, though. It’s certainly a broad enough title to include a whole host of responsibilities.
“Senior Software Engineer” and “Blockchain Developer” are the second and third most common job titles.
Indeed, these are the types of jobs that the likes of Facebook has been advertising. It should come as no surprise, as the social media Goliath has a secret 50-strong team working on its rumored blockchain and cryptocurrency projects.
Who’s hiring?
The below table shows the number of blockchain related jobs offered around the globe, by employer. (Though please note, we were only able to collate information from the first 3,500 jobs of the 5,711 jobs currently on offer globally.)
The rest are all familiar household names like IBM, Ernst & Young (EY), Oracle, Accenture, Deloitte, and PwC. Of course, these aren’t traditionally related to blockchain, but are all starting to get into the game.
Recently, EY announced the launch of its cryptocurrency tax accounting tool for investors, and IBM has been working in its corporate blockchain solutions for some time now. So on deeper inspection, these hires aren’t entirely surprising.
As we look further down the list, more understandable names like Ripple, and ConsenSys appear. That said, less than half of the companies in the top 20 are dedicated blockchain startups or directly related to cryptocurrency.
It certainly seems that as interest in cryptocurrency development wanes, institutional interest in blockchain tech is here to stay, and a lot of its development is happening in the US.
It should be noted that a report from PwC last year found that China was the second largest developer of blockchain technology, behind the US. What’s more, by 2023 the tables are expected to turn, and China will assume the role as a world leader in blockchain tech, so it’s still got some way to go if this is to be the case.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that Glassdoor is an English-centric website which may skew the results somewhat.
But even so, in the English-speaking world, the US is dominating with blockchain employment, and only a small fraction of the jobs are even related to cryptocurrency.
Want to find out more about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology? Check out our Hard Fork track at TNW 2019!
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.