How many product managers are there?
How many product managers are there in the world? How many of them are employed? How many PMs compete for a single job posting in an average company and in a FAANG?
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Product management has been glorified as a career. Glassdoor named it the #10 best job in the US. Comprehensive.io puts senior product manager on a pedestal as the #2 most popular job posting.
There are many reasons for that. Compensation is one (dived extensively on that topic here). Another one is influence. According to the Product School’s massive survey of 7k respondents, product management is getting a “seat at a C-suite table”.
At the same time, product managers seem to have higher job security. According to layoffs.fyi, in 2022-2023, out of all the job cuts, only 4% of product managers were affected. On top of that, amidst the hiring freezes, 44% of companies are still investing in hiring more product managers in 2023 (in 2022, the number was 43%). What’s more, the unemployment rate for an experienced product manager has dropped by 40% from 2010 to 2021 (from 7.5% to 4.6%).
Similarly, the amount of job postings related to product management has increased. Lightcast report shows that in the UK alone, the total number of jobs related to product management has spiked up by 85% from 2015 to 2021 (from ~0.04% to 0.3% of all UK job postings). In the US, the number of PM jobs has risen by 32% from 2017 to 2019.
I’ve decided to dig deeper than the existing qualitative studies and figure out: how many product managers are there in total and across the key tech hubs? What is the seniority level distribution? How many are employed vs. unemployed? What's the average competition for a position in a FAANG or a product company?
Buckle up; let's dive in.
🔍 Methodology
A good old triage.
For candidates, I’ve referred to LinkedIn Recruiter and looked only at the current and active CVs.
Unemployed candidates were assumed as "Open for Work."
For job postings, I’ve referred to basic LinkedIn search.
For application rates at FAANG companies I’ve used publicly available data from glassdoor.
Disclaimer: Such studies are pure averages; hence, the conclusions should be taken with a grain of salt.
🤔 How many product managers are there?
Historically, there were 2.4M product managers, but active ones represent only a chunk of 0.85M (based on LinkedIn Recruiter data).
Basic LinkedIn search returns 5.6M PMs, but this number is misleading as it’s a mixbag of inactive CVs, skills and expertise of candidates from other professions.
Let's break this number down further.
I’ve looked at the 11 biggest tech hubs (according to LinkedIn) and included Estonia out of personal curiosity.
Total numbers
Out of the active pool of 850k product managers, exactly 50% (or 428k) are located in the top 11 hubs. The rest are spread across a longer tail of smaller hubs around the world.
Three leading countries in terms of PM expertise concentration are the US (200k or 47%), India (72k or 17%), and the UK (50k or 12%).
Seniority
If we look deeper, 85% of PMs are within the earlier levels of seniority (Associate, Middle, Senior). 14% (61k) carry the title of "Senior PM", and 68% (289k) of candidates have "Product Manager" as their role description.
Of course, these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, as competence levels are interpreted differently depending on company maturity. The earlier the stage of the company, the less accurate the seniority level. A Director/VP might perform an SPM role, or vice versa - a title of "Product Manager" might conceal highly-skilled GPM/Director level work.
87% of PMs globally are ICs, and 13% are leaders managing teams. The rarest seniority level is VP, with 1.96% (8.3k) of managers across the key hubs.
Employed vs. unemployed
On average, 26% of PMs (or 113k) are unemployed, with the highest numbers in the Arab Emirates (37%) and Singapore (also 37%). The lowest unemployment numbers are seen in Estonia (16%) and France (21%).
The most unemployed level of seniority is Senior Product Manager (32%), followed by Group Product Manager (at 28%).
The least unemployed are the highest levels of seniority - VP/CPO, with 22% and 21% respectively.
💼 How many product jobs are there?
Currently, there are 5k job postings available across key tech hubs. The highest number of jobs are open in the US (38%), followed by India (16%) and both Germany and France (at 13%). The fewest jobs are available in the Arab Emirates (0.5%), Estonia (0.7%), and Portugal (1%).
Seniority-wise, the number of open jobs mimics the competence levels of existing candidates (72% are PMs, 15% are SPMs) with a few exceptions (Director level jobs represent 4% and APM jobs 5%).
🥊 What’s the competition per job posting?
On average
On average, a PM competes with 25 other candidates for the same position. The higher the seniority level, the more intense the competition. On an SPM level, there are typically 22 candidates applying for a position, on a Director level the number jumps to 70, and on a CPO level to 100.
FAANG competition
According to surfaced data, Meta receives 50k CVs a week, and 8% (or 4k) of them are product management related. The average time-to-hire for high-caliber product roles is ~3 months.
There are currently 38 job openings at Meta, 20 job openings at Google, and 5 at Netflix. This means that over the course of the position’s lifetime, 1263 PMs would apply at Meta, 2400 PMs at Google, and 9600 at Netflix.
On average, competition in FAANG is 177 times higher than in other tech companies 😱.
📌 TL;DR
How many product managers are there?
There are 850k active product managers in the world, and 50% of them are located in the top 11 hubs.
The top 3 countries with PM expertise are the US (47%), India (17%), and the UK (12%).
The earlier maturity level PMs (APM, Mid-PMs, and SPMs) represent 85% of all product managers.
87% of PMs are ICs, and 13% are team leaders.
How many product managers are unemployed?
On average, 26% of PMs are unemployed, with the highest prevalence of unemployment in the United Arab Emirates and Singapore (both at 37%).
The most unemployed are SPMs (32%), followed by GPMs (28%). The least unemployed are the highest seniority levels: VP (22%) and CPO (21%).
The tech hubs with the lowest unemployment rates are Estonia (16%) and France (21%).
How many jobs are available?
Currently, there are 5k PM jobs available across the top 11 tech hubs.
The highest number of jobs are open in the US (38%), followed by India (16%) and both Germany and France (at 13%).
The fewest jobs are available in the Arab Emirates (0.5%), Estonia (0.7%), and Portugal (1%).
The most job openings are for PM (72%) and SPM (5%) positions.
What’s the competition for a single job?
On average, 25 candidates apply for a single position.
The higher the seniority level, the greater the competition, with 70 candidates competing for a single Director role and 100 for a CPO position.
FAANG job openings have 177x higher competition, with 4,421 candidates per position applying on average.