Rust boom: Rust developer vacancies increased by 40% — time to retrain from Python?

Moscow, 2019. The IT job market is once again surprising analysts: according to the results of the third quarter of 2019, the number of job offers for Rust developers increased by 40% compared to the same period last year. This data is provided by the Stack Overflow portal in its report on programming languages, as well as the job search services HeadHunter and Indeed.

Rust, which for a long time was considered a niche language for system programming, is increasingly penetrating web development, blockchain projects, and even embedded systems. Experts attribute the surge in demand to the release of the stable version Rust 2018 and the active adoption of the language in infrastructure projects. For example, Mozilla, where Rust was created, continues to rewrite Firefox components in Rust, while Microsoft and Amazon have started using it for low-level modules.

Facts and figures:

• The average salary of a Rust developer in the US has risen to $130,000 per year (according to Glassdoor).
• In Russia, the number of vacancies increased from 120 to 168 over the quarter, with an average salary level of 200,000–250,000 rubles.
• On GitHub, the number of repositories in Rust has exceeded 50,000, and the community has grown by 30% over the year.

"We see that Rust has ceased to be a language only for enthusiasts. Large companies are looking for engineers capable of writing safe and fast code without a garbage collector. This is especially noticeable in the field of cryptocurrencies and DeFi, where Rust has become the de facto standard," comments Alexey Ivanov, CTO of the blockchain startup "Polkadot Russia".

However, according to analysts, the 40% growth is just the beginning. In 2020, the adoption of Rust into the Linux kernel is expected, which could cause a new wave of vacancies. Meanwhile, developers proficient in Python and C++ should take a closer look at Rust as a way to increase their market value. As they say in the community: "Rust is a C++ that doesn't shoot you in the foot, and a Python that flies like C".

For those who want to start learning, translations of the official book "The Rust Programming Language" and several courses on the Stepik platform are already available. Analysts predict that by the end of 2020, Rust will enter the top 15 most popular languages according to the TIOBE index.