Lenny's late-2026 report: PMs winning, engineers plateauing, designers at record low
lennysan · x · 2026-11-11
Lenny Rachitsky's latest tech job market report (built on TrueUp data covering 9,000+ companies and Live Data Technologies data on 124M professionals) is his most surprising yet:
- PMs are the AI era's biggest winners, despite predictions AI would replace them.
- Engineering demand has stalled.
- Design roles are at a record low — designers are hurting most.
- Everyone now needs AI skills, across roles.
- Jobs are concentrating in the Bay Area, and remote is at a record low.
- The biggest AI hiring boom isn't in software: tech employment is growing fast, but mostly outside software companies.
The divergence between the two datasets itself reveals structural shifts in the industry.
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