October 2026 labor market report

The 60,000 global job postings tyomarkkinadata tracked this month, distilled for international talent in Finland.

The short version

• Software engineering, AI, and machine learning postings continue to rise, with AI in 3,713 postings and software engineering in 5,937.
• Sales and customer-service volumes fell sharply, both down over 20 percent by share, signaling a shift in commercial hiring patterns.
• High demand continues for project management, devops, data engineering, and cybersecurity professionals.
• Mid-level roles dominate open positions, but startup hiring volume nearly doubled, indicating renewed employer activity in early-stage tech.

What changed this month

• Startup job postings grew by 90 percent (6,831, up from 3,595). International postings declined by 11 percent.
• Top risers (by count): Software Engineer (+1,416), Operations (+765), Sales (+1,125), Marketing (+459).
• Largest relative declines (by share): Customer Service (down from 70.5 to 51.7 per 1,000), Sales (down from 69.9 to 55.8 per 1,000), Project Management (25.8 to 23.3 per 1,000).
• Technical skills saw modest but broad-based absolute increases. Commercial and customer-facing skills experienced double-digit percentage declines.

Skills in demand

Clusters are based on co-occurrence in postings and technology stack:

AI and data

• AI: 3,713 mentions, 89.7 per 1,000 (up from 3,708; 87.4 per 1,000)
• Machine Learning: 1,189 mentions, 28.7 per 1,000 (up from 941; 22.2 per 1,000)
• Data Analysis: 1,628 mentions, 39.3 per 1,000 (up from 1,541; 36.3 per 1,000)
• Python: 1,029 mentions, 24.8 per 1,000 (up from 999; 23.6 per 1,000)
• SQL: 574 mentions, 13.9 per 1,000 (up from 542; 12.8 per 1,000)

Cloud and infrastructure

• Cloud: 1,113 mentions, 26.9 per 1,000 (up from 951; 22.4 per 1,000)
• AWS: 926 mentions, 22.4 per 1,000 (up from 872; 20.6 per 1,000)
• Infrastructure: 919 mentions, 22.2 per 1,000 (up from 747; 17.6 per 1,000)
• Kubernetes: 431 mentions, 10.4 per 1,000 (up from 402; 9.5 per 1,000)
• DevOps: 503 mentions, 12.1 per 1,000 (up from 416; 9.8 per 1,000)

Cybersecurity

• Cybersecurity: 1,045 mentions, 25.2 per 1,000 (up from 906; 21.4 per 1,000)
• Security: 546 mentions, 13.2 per 1,000 (up from 395; 9.3 per 1,000)
• Risk Management: 686 mentions, 16.6 per 1,000 (up from 664; 15.7 per 1,000)

Commercial and people skills

• Sales: 2,310 mentions, 55.8 per 1,000 (down from 2,964; 69.9 per 1,000)
• Customer Service: 2,142 mentions, 51.7 per 1,000 (down from 2,988; 70.5 per 1,000)
• Project Management: 964 mentions, 23.3 per 1,000 (down from 1,094; 25.8 per 1,000)
• Communication: 506 mentions, 12.2 per 1,000 (down from 707; 16.7 per 1,000)

Professions in demand

• Software Engineer: 5,937 postings, 107.7 per 1,000 (up from 4,521; 89.2 per 1,000)
• Account Executive: 2,293 postings, 41.6 per 1,000 (down from 2,566; 50.7 per 1,000)
• Operations: 2,097 postings, 38 per 1,000 (up from 1,332; 26.3 per 1,000)
• Sales: 1,793 postings, 32.5 per 1,000 (up from 668; 13.2 per 1,000)
• Product Manager: 1,316 postings, 23.9 per 1,000 (up from 963; 19 per 1,000)
• Machine Learning Engineer: 1,010 postings, 18.3 per 1,000 (up from 707; 14 per 1,000)
• DevOps Engineer: 925 postings, 16.8 per 1,000 (up from 743; 14.7 per 1,000)
• Recruiter: 818 postings, 14.8 per 1,000 (up from 612; 12.1 per 1,000)
• Security Engineer: 739 postings, 13.4 per 1,000 (up from 673; 13.3 per 1,000)
• Marketing: 724 postings, 13.1 per 1,000 (up from 265; 5.2 per 1,000)
• Engineering Manager: 692 postings, 12.6 per 1,000 (up from 413; 8.2 per 1,000)

Industry and seniority

• Most hiring by industry (postings count): Technology (19,226), Healthcare (4,245), Retail (2,635), Education (2,064), Government (2,004).
• Other active sectors: Manufacturing (1,759), Logistics (1,483), Finance (1,264), Consulting (763), Media (731).
• Seniority breakdown: Mid-level roles make up 26,550 postings. Senior roles are 9,240. Interns: 1,394, and junior roles: 903.
• Startups gained momentum: Startup roles reached 6,831, up 90 percent from last month, suggesting increased activity at the early-stage end.

What this means for international talent in Finland

The data shows continued growth and resilience across core technical hiring, especially in software engineering, machine learning, and cloud infrastructure. These functions remain the backbone of global and Nordic innovation, and signal that skills in Python, AI, and associated data stacks will remain marketable in Finland through at least Q2 2027. The increase in DevOps demand aligns with ongoing cloud migration and system automation trends, which typically reach Finland within six months of global peaks.

Commercial and customer-facing functions (sales, customer service) saw substantial relative declines this month, both by count and per-job-share. For international professionals targeting these fields, expect more competition and a slower pace of new opportunities than earlier in the year. However, the rebound in startup hiring points to renewed dynamism—early-stage companies may offer faster entry points for career pivots or for those willing to take on hybrid roles blending sales, product, and technology.

Mid-level positions account for nearly half of all openings, echoing a sustained demand for experienced generalists and subject-matter experts rather than entry-level staff. For international talent, this means that strong portfolios and domain experience remain critical for conversion to interviews and offers, especially as senior and intern-level hiring volume remains nearly flat.

Finally, the technology sector maintains a disproportionate share of open roles. This entrenched pattern means that non-Finnish speakers will find more entry points and less language barrier within technical, product, and engineering teams than in customer-facing segments.

Methodology

tyomarkkinadata samples ~60k global job postings per month across Stripe, NVIDIA, Salesforce, and 200+ other companies. Numbers in this report come from their 4 listed sources for the period ending October 2026. Skill / profession mentions are extracted from posting text; the same role can appear under multiple skills.