Glassdoor, an employer review company, published a report on Oct. 18 that showed impressive growth in blockchain-job-related openings this year, with job listings proposing a median salary 61.8% higher than the US national one. The report also found out that employers are mainly looking for subject-matter experts, mostly software engineers and coders rather than traditional finance roles, like investment analysts or traders.

Regardless of the governing uncertainty over the cryptocurrency space, which mainly stems from regulatory crackdowns and extreme price volatility of most crypto assets, long-term trends tend to point out toward a well-established nascent market, which also remains to be seen.

The report published by Glassdoor Economic Research Blog on Oct. 18, titled “The Rise of Bitcoin and Blockchain: A Growing Demand for Talent,” was based on a large sample of online job postings from Glassdoor and aimed at assessing how the blockchain job market is performing at the moment, as compared to last year.

The study counted 1,775 blockchain-related job openings in the US alone, as opposed to only 446 similar listings in 2017. This represents an impressive 300% increase.

In fact, the steady growth in employers’ demand for professionals in the space, despite the ongoing downtrend in most cryptocurrencies’ valuation, suggests that employers are making long-term investments and that they remain confident when it comes to this nascent market opportunity.

Jobs Opening Locations

Whether it’s in the US or worldwide, the study reports that most jobs are located in major financial and technology hubs. In fact, the top 15 metropolitan areas in the US account for 79% of the total blockchain-related job listings, with New York and San Francisco accounting for 24% and 21%, respectively. San Jose, Chicago, and Seattle (respectively 6%, 5%, and 4%) close the list of top 5 cities in the US for blockchain-related job openings.

Outside the US, London, Singapore, Toronto, Hong Kong, and Berlin (respectively 16%, 7%, 7%, 6%, 4%) are the top five cities in terms of listed blockchain-related jobs, totaling 488 out of the 1,218 listings found by Glassdoor.

Role Distribution

Engineering, technical, and science roles represent the lion share with 55% of the listings. Those technical roles are mainly centered on software engineering, front-end/back-end development, and technology architecture.

On the other hand, the study recalls an older report published by Glassdoor that alleges a data-backed finding that shows that when tech start-ups scale up, their demand for nontech positions grows as well. The claim is consistent with the present reported results, with analyst relations manager openings totaling 5% of the listings, product manager with 4% and risk analyst 3%.

Another interesting finding backed up by the report data is that the top employers in the space are start-ups rather than major tech companies. In fact, ConsenSys, a start-up with less than 1,000 employees, has 214 blockchain-related job listings, as much as IBM, which already counts a 300,000+ employees. Coinbase, Figure, Oracle, and Kraken are also among the top employers hiring for blockchain-related positions.

The absence of traditional finance roles is yet another interesting finding by the study. As the report reads:

“Surprisingly, more traditional finance roles like traders and investment analysts don’t feature in the top 15 occupations — perhaps pointing to a focus on the non-financial applications of blockchain technologies or the hesitance of more traditional institutional investors to break into the cryptocurrency space.”

Blockchain Jobs Pay 61.8% More Than the National Median Salary in the US

Using an in-house-developed numerical simulation tool, Glassdoor’s data showed a median base salary of $84,884 per year for blockchain-related listings. This is 61.8% higher than the national median salary in the US of $52,461. However, the same data show a wide distribution with salaries ranging from $36,046 to $223,667.

The distribution of the jobs, which is mainly across high cost-of-living cities like San Francisco or New York, could be the reason for the high median salaries in blockchain-related openings. Furthermore, the fact that most positions require subject-matter experts and specialized engineers pushes employers to offer hefty paychecks in order to attract talent.