I’ve been analyzing Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Hired? threads going back three years and built HireIndex to make the data explorable.
Given how much the industry has changed, a few trends stood out:
1. A sharp increase in posts starting in 2023 There’s a significant jump in the number of people posting beginning in 2023, which aligns with the broader tech downturn and layoffs. This marks a clear break from prior years and sets the baseline for many of the shifts below.
2. Job seekers are more senior than before The average experience level has risen from ~7.5 years in 2022 to ~9+ years in Dec 2025 and Jan 2026. In other words, the typical person posting today is noticeably more senior than a few years ago. Interestingly, this shift is much less pronounced when you look at US-only data.
3. Fewer juniors, more very senior candidates Posts from junior candidates (0–2 years of experience) have steadily declined. At the same time, there’s a clear rise in people with 15+ years of experience looking for work. This trend is much stronger outside the US, where the US shows only a modest increase.
4. More international job seekers There’s been a growing share of posts from outside the US, especially from countries like Canada and India, relative to US-based job seekers.
If you want to explore the data yourself, including charts and breakdowns: https://hireindex.xyz/#stats
If you’re hiring, HireIndex also provides a searchable directory of candidates with direct links to resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and original HN posts. https://hireindex.xyz/#directory
Would love feedback, questions, or ideas for other cuts of the data to add.
