data labeling jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills
As of 2026-09-28, data labeling appears in 893 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — Generative AI Specialist has the most postings mentioning data labeling, with demand up 22% vs the prior 4 weeks.
Last updated · 90d ending 2026-09-28
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Frequently asked questions about data labeling
+Is data labeling in demand in 2026?
Yes. data labeling appears in 893 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-09-28, with demand up 22% vs the prior 4 weeks. Generative AI Specialist accounts for the most postings mentioning data labeling (6.0% of all postings mentioning data labeling).
+What jobs require data labeling?
According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-28, among roles with at least 20 postings, the highest shares mentioning data labeling are Data Labeling Analyst (100.0% of that role’s postings mention data labeling), Generative AI Specialist (93.1% of that role’s postings mention data labeling), AI Tutor (73.9% of that role’s postings mention data labeling).
+What skills are commonly paired with data labeling?
Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-09-28), data labeling most often appears alongside machine learning, Python, data annotation, model evaluation, AI training.
+Where is data labeling most in demand?
As of 2026-09-28, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring data labeling are San Francisco, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Boston, New York City, according to the Skillenai jobs index.
+How can I keep up with new data labeling content and jobs?
Skillenai indexes news, blog posts, and research papers mentioning data labeling alongside the jobs index. You can subscribe to a daily email digest of new data labeling content from your Skillenai account.
Weekly job postings requiring data labeling — last 90 days
Salary distribution
Box = 25th–75th percentile · tick = median · whisker = 10th–90th · USD, annualized
Roles most likely to require data labeling
Among roles with at least 20 postings in the same period.
| Role | Postings mentioning skill | % of role postings mentioning skill |
|---|---|---|
| Data Labeling Analyst | 29 | 100.0% |
| Generative AI Specialist | 54 | 93.1% |
| AI Tutor | 34 | 73.9% |
| AI Training Expert | 29 | 46.8% |
| AI Evaluator | 9 | 33.3% |
| AI Response Evaluator | 9 | 33.3% |
| AI Training Specialist | 12 | 30.8% |
| AI Safety Evaluator | 8 | 29.6% |
| AI Quality Analyst | 7 | 29.2% |
| Algorithm Engineer | 9 | 26.5% |
Roles with the most data labeling postings
| Role | Postings mentioning skill | Share of skill postings |
|---|---|---|
| Generative AI Specialist | 54 | 6.0% |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 39 | 4.4% |
| AI Tutor | 34 | 3.8% |
| AI Training Expert | 29 | 3.2% |
| Data Labeling Analyst | 29 | 3.2% |
| Software Engineer | 22 | 2.5% |
| AI Trainer | 18 | 2.0% |
| Data Scientist | 17 | 1.9% |
| AI Quality Evaluator | 15 | 1.7% |
| Product Manager | 14 | 1.6% |
Top metros hiring for data labeling
| Name | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 39 | 4.4% |
| Mountain View | 21 | 2.4% |
| Sunnyvale | 19 | 2.1% |
| Boston | 12 | 1.3% |
| New York City | 12 | 1.3% |
| Berlin | 8 | 0.9% |
| London | 8 | 0.9% |
| Palo Alto | 7 | 0.8% |
| Paris | 7 | 0.8% |
Skills commonly paired with data labeling
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How this was computed
Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-28. Skills are resolved against the Skillenai canonical taxonomy, so the same entity is counted whether a posting writes 'Python', 'Python 3', or 'python'. Role prevalence divides postings mentioning data labeling by all postings for each role in the same window, ranking roles with at least 20 postings. Role distribution divides each role’s data labeling postings by all data labeling postings, including postings without a role. Shares need not sum to 100% for the displayed roles. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-requested skills).
- source
- Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
- entity_id
- 6210150622556b0b
- data_as_of
- 2026-09-28
- window_days
- 90
The demand, skills, and geo numbers on this page come from the same Skillenai labor market index that powers our API. Use it for compensation benchmarking, hiring-competition analysis, and skill-adoption tracking.
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