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The Linux Foundation’s 2024 State of Tech Talent Report found that organizations were relying heavily on developing existing employees while seeking skills in cloud, DevOps, cybersecurity, and AI/ML. It also recorded divided expectations about generative AI’s effect on technical headcount, alongside lengthy hiring and onboarding timelines. The findings describe surveyed organizations’ reported practices and plans in late 2023 and early 2024—not a forecast of what every employer is doing now.
How the survey was conducted—and what it can show
Published in April 2024 by Linux Foundation Research with Linux Foundation Training & Certification, the report examines technical-talent acquisition, retention, and management. Its web survey ran from late December 2023 to early February 2024. It began with 1,455 candidates and retained 418 records after screening; the questionnaire contained 42 questions.
Respondents were people involved in hiring or training IT professionals, across multiple industries, geographies, and organization sizes. The results therefore reflect the views and reported practices of those decision-makers, not a census of technology workers or a controlled test of training outcomes. Percentages below refer to organizations or respondents as described by the report; the report’s 48% figure is an average across technology domains.
Organizations were emphasizing internal skills development
Cross-skilling—preparing employees to work in additional areas—was named as a key technical-talent strategy by 47% of organizations, while 43% named upskilling employees in their existing areas. Overall, 98% considered upskilling important, including 36% who rated it extremely important.
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Across technology domains, organizations prioritized upskilling or cross-skilling existing staff over hiring or using consultants by an average of 48%. That average signals a broad preference for building skills internally, but it does not mean every organization or every domain favored training over external talent.
Why employers valued upskilling
Three benefits were each cited by 40% of respondents: redeploying current employees, supporting career progression, and developing junior staff. These motivations point to more than filling an immediate vacancy: internal development was also viewed as a way to move people into needed roles and build capability over time.
What made training difficult
The leading reported barriers were nurturing a culture of continuous learning, cited by 39%, and helping employees apply knowledge in practice, cited by 35% in the report’s detailed figure. The report’s announcement summary gives the latter as 36%, so the detailed figure is the more precise value to use when describing that finding. The two barriers distinguish access to learning from transfer: offering training alone does not ensure that employees have the time, support, or work opportunities to use it.
Cloud, DevOps, cybersecurity, and AI/ML led staffing priorities
Organizations were asked which technical domains they prioritized for staffing. The most frequently selected were:
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| Technical domain | Organizations selecting it as a staffing priority |
|---|---|
| Cloud | 55% |
| DevOps | 51% |
| Cybersecurity | 49% |
| AI/ML | 43% |
These are reported priorities, not vacancy counts or measures of how many qualified workers were available. The report also found that organizations often preferred developing current employees across technology domains, so a staffing priority should not be read as evidence that employers planned to fill every need through external hiring.
GenAI plans pointed in different directions
Organizations did not share a single expectation about generative AI and technical staffing. In the survey, 27% planned to reduce technical headcount because of GenAI, while 23% planned to increase it. These are reported plans from the survey period, not verified later workforce changes.
Planned GenAI use cases
The report’s leading planned applications were:
| Planned use | Organizations selecting it |
|---|---|
| Data analysis and reporting | 45% |
| IT infrastructure monitoring | 42% |
| Software development | 35% |
Together, these findings suggest that surveyed organizations were considering GenAI for both operational work and development tasks, while anticipating either reductions or growth in technical staffing. The survey does not establish that GenAI caused subsequent staffing changes or quantify the effect of these tools on productivity.
Hiring and onboarding could take nearly a year
The report’s executive summary gives an average of 10.2 months for hiring and onboarding a technical employee. Its detailed figures break that timeline into roughly 5.4 months to hire and 4.8 months to onboard. The executive-summary figure describes the combined hiring-and-onboarding timeline; the components are approximate.
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The executive summary also reports turnover among 38% of new hires. That figure highlights retention as part of the talent challenge, although the survey result alone does not establish why new hires left or how turnover varied by role or organization.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Certifications were selected more often than degrees in one assessment question
When asked about ways of assessing technical skills, 23% selected certifications, compared with 16% who selected college or university degrees. This is a comparison of responses to that assessment question; it does not show that certifications are universally required, that employers disregard degrees, or that a credential by itself demonstrates job performance.
The report also identifies several training approaches in this context: online virtual courses, employer-funded training and certifications, instructor-led training, and performance-based training. Its findings support treating credentials and coursework as parts of a skills strategy, while the reported difficulty of applying learning in practice underscores the importance of connecting training to real work.
What the report says about the wider headcount picture
For 2023, 29% of sampled organizations reported reducing technical headcount, 34% reported no change, and 37% reported an increase. These retrospective figures provide context for the survey’s hiring and GenAI questions, but they should be kept separate from plans reported for 2024: the survey measured both reported past activity and intentions, not confirmed outcomes after publication.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →The report, authored by Adrienn Lawson and Stephen Hendrick with a foreword by Clyde Seepersad, is titled 2024 State of Tech Talent Report and is dated April 2024.
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