Linux job numbers surge, remain behind Windows

If Dice’s numbers are any indication, then the Linux job market it experiencing a healthy surge right now. Dice, for those not in the know, is “career website for technology and engineering professionals, and the companies that seek to employ them, in the United States,” according to the Dice.com web site. And if you read all the way to the end of this post, then your IT library could see a surge in free books.

An article over at Datamation tells it like it is:

Dice, the tech jobs site, reports that it had 9,631 Linux job listings in August. While this is a big number, what’s truly eye-catching is the percentage growth since January: Linux job listing are up a robust 30% – three times the increase of overall tech job listings. (Since January, Dice job listings have grown by 10.2%, to a total of 96,548 tech jobs.)

To be sure, Linux jobs continue to trail the mighty Windows, which had 16,895 listings. Linux also falls behind Unix – still healthy after all these years – which boasted 14,954 listings. (The AIX flavor of Unix had 2,302 jobs, and Solaris posted 4,055.)

So, while Linux job growth remains healthy, it still lags behind Windows and Unix — which is not really a surprise at all.

Salary numbers were also healthy for Linux pros, which Paul Melde, Dice’s VP of technology described as both “systems administrator as well as software developer.” The average 2006 salary for Linux professionals was $77,950. The national average for all tech professionals of $73,308. The best paying area of the country for Linux professionals is Silicon Valley, where Linux pros make $96,578! Other top-paying Linux areas, according to Dice, are Washington, D.C. ($86,882), Los Angeles ($86,618), and New York ($86,305).

Let me know all about your own IT job search–past present or future. The “best” comment — meaning randomly selected by yours truly — gets a free copy of the Dice Technology Job Search Guide Matt Stansberry and I picked up and video blogged about from LinuxWorld last month (the book has a $24.99 value. Our video, however, is priceless).