State of the Product Job Market in Early 2026

The job market statistics tell one story. Candidates tell another. Over 7,300 product management roles are open globally right now — the highest count in three years. Engineering has 67,000 open positions. AI-specific roles grew 340% since 2024. By every headline metric, the tech hiring market is in recovery. Yet talk to anyone who has been searching for six months, and you hear something different: a market that moves fast for the right profile and goes silent for everyone else. Both stories are true. This is a selective recovery, not a broad one, and the selection criteria shifted fast. The PM Numbers Lenny Rachitsky's biannual State of the Product Job Market report is the most systematic tracking of PM openings available, drawing from data across over 9,000 tech companies worldwide. The early 2026 edition recorded the most optimistic outlook across four consecutive reports. Over 7,300 open PM roles globally represent a 75% increase from the 2023 lows and roughly 20% growth since the