How Blockchain is Adding to the Boom in The U.S. Job Market

The job climate in the United States has been looking good in the past couple of months and it is interesting to know that blockchain technology is playing a part in this. Blockchain and other Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) are gaining is gaining acceptance in various industries and processes.

With global attention come a demand for a whole new area of expertise—blockchain skills. More and more blockchain-related vacancies are beginning to pop out from blockchain startups as well as other established businesses seeking to explore the technology for its business. Though a global phenomenon, the U.S. seems to be getting more than a fair share of these blockchain openings.

Jobs in the United States

The Job space in the United States has stayed in healthy levels in recent months, according to several statistical indications. In August, for instance, there were more than 7 million unfilled job openings. A lot of these openings are related to emerging technologies including blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.

Demand for Blockchain Skills

As Smartereum reported, blockchain topped the list of most sought-after skills released by U.S.-based freelancing platform, Upwork. In Upwork’s quarterly skill index, blockchain retained top spot for the second consecutive time, consistently being among the top 10 fastest growing skills since Q3, 2017.

A recent survey by Coinbase, one of the biggest cryptocurrency operator in the United States, revealed that graduates with blockchain skills were having an easier path to jobs compared to others. Benedikt Bunz, a doctoral student at Stanford told Coinbase that the due to this demand, cryptocurrency experts are usually snapped up immediately after graduation. Campbell Harvey a professor at Duke University added:

“If you’re graduating from law school it’s a tough market these days…However, the law students that are trained in blockchain, they don’t need to apply anywhere.”

This makes sense given that blockchain jobs increased 300 percent since August of last year and about 1,700 blockchain-related jobs were unfilled as at August 2018.

Coinbase Hiring Spree

Since 2018, Coinbase, seems to have embarked on a hiring spree. The firm has been adding continuously to its talent pool just as it is broadening its offerings and opening new offices.

The company recently announced that it would hire about 100 new staff to fill its newly opened office in New York. As Smartereum reported, the New York brand will focus on Institutional clients.

But it’s not just rank and file, blockchain forms have been recruiting top talents from top financial institutions, technology companies, and ex-government officials. In Coinbase’s case, alumni from Pershing LLC, LinkedIn, and AWS has made the switch. Other companies like IBM and Consensys have added a lot of blockchain professionals to their ranks.

What are the Blockchain Jobs?

Not only are these jobs in high demand, but they are also equally lucrative paying an estimated 60 percent more than the average base salary in the country.

In this previous article, we explained the various types of blockchain jobs. While some of the jobs are core technical blockchain professionals, like developers and designers, others are more conventional roles with added blockchain experience. Roles like blockchain project manager, blockchain legal consultants, and blockchain quality engineers are becoming popular due to the unique requirements of blockchain projects.

Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.

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