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Research report ยท September 2026 edition

Where AI Labs Are Pushing: The Expertise Being Hired, Week by Week

From the week of 7 Sep 2026 to the week of 21 Sep 2026, on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, Trust, safety & child protection grew fastest among expert fields (+18% open roles), Spanish among languages (+26.5%) and Data Annotation & Labeling among kinds of work (+25.7%).

Read the month's story: The AI Training Job Market in September 2026

Data window
1 Sep 2026 to 30 Sep 2026
30 days, UTC
Frozen
11 Oct 2026, 08:10 UTC
These figures will not change
Source
The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every day. Fields and languages are read from role titles. Listings only.
Method
Version 1. Definitions
CC BY 4.0, how to cite

Every figure on this page as CSV and JSON, sent to your work email.

Key findings

  1. 1

    Trust, safety & child protection grew fastest among expert fields on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, from about 13 open roles in the week of 7 Sep 2026 to 15 in the week of 21 Sep 2026 (+18%), with 3 new listings from 1 platform; Law shrank the most (-24.5%).

    Figure 1
  2. 2

    Spanish grew fastest among languages on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, from about 37 open roles in the week of 7 Sep 2026 to 47 in the week of 21 Sep 2026 (+26.5%), with 20 new listings from 6 platforms; Polish shrank the most (-21.1%).

    Figure 2
  3. 3

    Data Annotation & Labeling grew fastest among kinds of work on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, from about 32 open roles in the week of 7 Sep 2026 to 40 in the week of 21 Sep 2026 (+25.7%), with 22 new listings from 7 platforms; Writing & Content shrank the most (-17.1%).

    Figure 3
  4. 4

    On the 15 platforms tracked throughout, from the week of 7 Sep 2026 to the week of 21 Sep 2026, no group appeared in or vanished from the open roles.

    Figure 7

Figure 1

Fastest-growing expert fields

Which professions and disciplines are AI training platforms hiring more of?

Expert fieldChange in open rolesOpen, week of 7 SepOpen, week of 21 SepNew listings, recent weeks vs before
All roles
-2.1%
1,6991,664n/a
Trust, safety & child protection
+18.0%
1315n/a
Psychology & mental health
+16.7%
1113n/a
Design & visual arts
+15.1%
3540n/a
Physics & astronomy
+10.4%
1921n/a
Voice acting, music & sound
+10.2%
5460n/a
Humanities & social sciences
+6.9%
2729n/a
Medicine & nursing
+0.8%
7373n/a
Software & computer science
+0.8%
111112n/a
Engineering (non-software)
-1.4%
5049n/a
Finance, accounting & economics
-4.1%
104100n/a
Chemistry
-6.3%
1615n/a
Mathematics & statistics
-7.3%
3129n/a
Education & teaching
-11.4%
2119n/a
Writing, editing & journalism
-13.2%
5548n/a
Business, sales & consulting
-20.6%
7157n/a
Biology & life sciences
-24.3%
2922n/a
Law
-24.5%
8262n/a

Sample. Roles on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, over the 3 complete ISO weeks from the week of 7 Sep 2026 to the week of 21 Sep 2026; 17 expert fields named in titles.

Open roles: the average number listed on the days of the week (00:00 UTC each day), on the 15 platforms tracked throughout. A platform first tracked later (2 in this window) is left out of every week, so its arrival never reads as growth.

Change: from the first to the last complete week. Rows with fewer than 10 open roles in the first week are marked as a small sample and never ranked in the findings.

New listings, recent weeks vs before: new listings a week over the most recent weeks against the same number of weeks before them; shown when those weeks hold at least 10 new listings together. A new listing is a role first seen that week on a platform past its first week in this dataset.

A role counts for an expert field when its title names it (whole words, the vocabulary of the expert fields report), and for each one it names.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Where AI Labs Are Pushing: The Expertise Being Hired, Week by Week, September 2026 edition.

Figure 2

Fastest-growing languages

Which languages are AI training platforms hiring more of?

LanguageChange in open rolesOpen, week of 7 SepOpen, week of 21 SepNew listings, recent weeks vs before
All roles
-2.1%
1,6991,664n/a
Spanish
+26.5%
3747n/a
French
+13.0%
3843n/a
Portuguese
+12.8%
2629n/a
English
+12.5%
91102n/a
Bengali
+9.1%
1112n/a
Marathi
+9.1%
1112n/a
Japanese
+8.9%
2628n/a
Korean
+8.3%
3134n/a
Telugu
+7.7%
1314n/a
German
+6.4%
3133n/a
Dutch
+3.5%
2021n/a
Indonesian
+1.1%
1313n/a
Chinese (Mandarin)
-0.5%
3131n/a
Hindi
-2.4%
2423n/a
Swedish
-2.8%
1010n/a
Punjabi
-3.7%
1211n/a
Italian
-4.6%
2221n/a
Thai
-4.7%
1515n/a
Arabic
-7.8%
3936n/a
Russian
-11.6%
1614n/a
Vietnamese
-12.4%
1715n/a
Polish
-21.1%
108n/a
KannadaSmall sample
+40.0%
57n/a
GujaratiSmall sample
+33.3%
68n/a
MalayalamSmall sample
+20.0%
56n/a
TamilSmall sample
+13.2%
1011n/a
BulgarianSmall sample
0.0%
55n/a
CroatianSmall sample
0.0%
66n/a
RomanianSmall sample
0.0%
66n/a
UrduSmall sample
-2.4%
66n/a
NorwegianSmall sample
-2.9%
1010n/a
UkrainianSmall sample
-3.4%
88n/a
DanishSmall sample
-4.5%
109n/a
FinnishSmall sample
-8.2%
98n/a
HebrewSmall sample
-8.9%
87n/a
CatalanSmall sample
-11.4%
54n/a
HungarianSmall sample
-20.5%
65n/a
TurkishSmall sample
-23.6%
86n/a
CzechSmall sample
-38.3%
95n/a
SlovakSmall sample
-50.0%
63n/a

Sample. Roles on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, over the 3 complete ISO weeks from the week of 7 Sep 2026 to the week of 21 Sep 2026; 40 languages (the 40 with the most open roles, of 95 named).

Open roles: the average number listed on the days of the week (00:00 UTC each day), on the 15 platforms tracked throughout. A platform first tracked later (2 in this window) is left out of every week, so its arrival never reads as growth.

Change: from the first to the last complete week. Rows with fewer than 10 open roles in the first week are marked as a small sample and never ranked in the findings.

New listings, recent weeks vs before: new listings a week over the most recent weeks against the same number of weeks before them; shown when those weeks hold at least 10 new listings together. A new listing is a role first seen that week on a platform past its first week in this dataset.

A role counts for a language when its title names it (whole words, the vocabulary of the languages report), and for each one it names.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Where AI Labs Are Pushing: The Expertise Being Hired, Week by Week, September 2026 edition.

Figure 3

Fastest-growing kinds of work

Which kinds of AI training work are platforms hiring more of?

Kind of workChange in open rolesOpen, week of 7 SepOpen, week of 21 SepNew listings, recent weeks vs before
All roles
-2.1%
1,6991,664n/a
Data Annotation & Labeling
+25.7%
3240n/a
Coding & Software Evaluation
+17.1%
124145n/a
Math & STEM
+8.4%
145157n/a
Multilingual & Localization
+5.1%
457481n/a
Transcription, Audio & Speech
+0.6%
181182n/a
Agentic Tasks & RL Environments
-5.2%
1413n/a
Robotics & Physical-AI Data
-5.4%
2120n/a
Law, Medicine & Finance
-13.2%
428372n/a
Red-Teaming & AI Safety
-15.7%
5849n/a
AI Evaluation & Rating (RLHF)
-17.1%
213177n/a
Writing & Content
-17.1%
1815n/a
Research Studies & SurveysSmall sample
+66.1%
814n/a

Sample. Roles on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, over the 3 complete ISO weeks from the week of 7 Sep 2026 to the week of 21 Sep 2026; 12 kinds of work.

Open roles: the average number listed on the days of the week (00:00 UTC each day), on the 15 platforms tracked throughout. A platform first tracked later (2 in this window) is left out of every week, so its arrival never reads as growth.

Change: from the first to the last complete week. Rows with fewer than 10 open roles in the first week are marked as a small sample and never ranked in the findings.

New listings, recent weeks vs before: new listings a week over the most recent weeks against the same number of weeks before them; shown when those weeks hold at least 10 new listings together. A new listing is a role first seen that week on a platform past its first week in this dataset.

Every role is classified into one kind of work.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Where AI Labs Are Pushing: The Expertise Being Hired, Week by Week, September 2026 edition.

Figure 4

New listings per week, by expert field

Week by week, how many new roles do platforms list in each of the largest expert fields?

Expert field7 Sep14 Sep21 SepTotal
Finance, accounting & economics6261042
Medicine & nursing8141133
Business, sales & consulting416727
Software & computer science147526
Design & visual arts116522
Law58821

Sample. New listings on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, by ISO week (Monday to Sunday, UTC), over the 3 complete ISO weeks from the week of 7 Sep 2026 to the week of 21 Sep 2026: the 6 expert fields with the most.

A column is the week starting on the Monday it names. Each platform's first week in this dataset (its back catalogue) is not counted as new listings.

One platform posting a batch shows as a single dark week; the growth table says how many platforms listed new roles in each group.

Rows with fewer than 10 new listings in all are marked as a small sample.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Where AI Labs Are Pushing: The Expertise Being Hired, Week by Week, September 2026 edition.

Figure 5

New listings per week, by language

Week by week, how many new roles do platforms list for each of the most-hired languages?

Language7 Sep14 Sep21 SepTotal
Spanish49720
English312419
Chinese (Mandarin)Small sample3249
FrenchSmall sample2619
PortugueseSmall sample1427
ArabicSmall sample2125

Sample. New listings on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, by ISO week (Monday to Sunday, UTC), over the 3 complete ISO weeks from the week of 7 Sep 2026 to the week of 21 Sep 2026: the 6 languages with the most.

A column is the week starting on the Monday it names. Each platform's first week in this dataset (its back catalogue) is not counted as new listings.

One platform posting a batch shows as a single dark week; the growth table says how many platforms listed new roles in each group.

Rows with fewer than 10 new listings in all are marked as a small sample.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Where AI Labs Are Pushing: The Expertise Being Hired, Week by Week, September 2026 edition.

Figure 6

New listings per week, by kind of work

Week by week, how many new roles do platforms list in each of the largest kinds of AI training work?

Sample. New listings on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, by ISO week (Monday to Sunday, UTC), over the 3 complete ISO weeks from the week of 7 Sep 2026 to the week of 21 Sep 2026: the 6 kinds of work with the most.

A column is the week starting on the Monday it names. Each platform's first week in this dataset (its back catalogue) is not counted as new listings.

One platform posting a batch shows as a single dark week; the growth table says how many platforms listed new roles in each group.

Rows with fewer than 10 new listings in all are marked as a small sample.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Where AI Labs Are Pushing: The Expertise Being Hired, Week by Week, September 2026 edition.

Figure 7

Groups that appeared or vanished

Which fields, languages and kinds of work started or stopped being hired over the weeks?

No data in this window.

Sample. None of the expert fields, languages or kinds of work on the 15 platforms tracked throughout appeared, vanished, began or stopped getting new listings over the 3 complete ISO weeks from the week of 7 Sep 2026 to the week of 21 Sep 2026.

Appeared: no role open on any day of the first week, and at least one open on average in the last. Vanished: the reverse.

With fewer than 4 complete weeks, only groups that appeared or vanished outright are listed: new listings are not compared.

Rows resting on fewer than 10 roles (open roles for appeared or vanished, new listings otherwise) are marked as a small sample: one or two postings can make a group appear or vanish.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, Where AI Labs Are Pushing: The Expertise Being Hired, Week by Week, September 2026 edition.

For labs, data vendors and researchers

Buy the data behind this report

The figures above are a summary. Behind them are records we collect ourselves, every day:

  • 9,572 roles tracked, each with its history

    Every role on 29 job boards, read daily since 13 Jul 2026: its pay and place, and the first and last day it was open.

  • 6,200 apply clicks in 28 days

    Which roles people actually apply to, by field, pay and kind of work. It happens on this site, so nobody else can count it.

  • 39 lab and vendor hiring boards

    The job boards of 25 AI labs and 14 human-data vendors, read every day: who is hiring for human data, and who is hiring to buy it.

What you can buy

  • The records

    The rows behind any figure, with their history, not only the totals.

  • A regular feed

    The same figures every week or month, as files.

  • A custom cut or benchmark

    Your countries, languages or fields, or your own platform against the market.

Method and definitions

The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every day. Fields and languages are read from role titles. Listings only. Every figure is computed by one database query over the window shown, the same query for the live report and for every edition. Each figure states its sample beneath it.

Fixed panel
The platforms tracked for at least a full week before the first week counted. A platform added later never reads as growth, and neither do the old roles a newly tracked board surfaces in its first days.
Open roles in a week
The average number of the group's roles listed on the week's days (00:00 UTC each day), on the fixed panel.
Change
Open roles in the last complete week against the first, in percent. Groups with fewer than 10 open roles in the first week are marked as small samples and never ranked.
New listing
A role that first appeared during the week on a platform already tracked before that week. A platform's first week in this dataset is its back catalogue and is not counted as new.
Acceleration
New listings a week over the last four complete weeks against the four before, in percent (two against two in an edition month with four complete weeks). Shown when those weeks hold at least 10 new listings.
Appeared, vanished, began, stopped
Appeared: no role open on any day of the first week, at least one on average in the last; vanished, the reverse. Began: no new listing before the last weeks of the acceleration comparison, some in them; stopped, the reverse.
Expert field and language
Named in a role's title, matched as whole words with the vocabularies of the expert fields and languages reports. A role naming two counts for both.
Kind of work
Each role is classified from its title and description into one of the twelve kinds of AI training work this site tracks. Every kind links to its own page.
Window
Live: the last twelve complete ISO weeks (Monday to Sunday, UTC), from the week of 3 Aug 2026 at the earliest. Edition: the complete ISO weeks of one calendar month.

What this data cannot tell you

  • Platforms recruit for their clients' projects, so hiring is a sign of where labs buy data, not a statement by any lab. Which lab is behind a role is not published.
  • One platform posting a batch moves a group's numbers; the growth tables say how many platforms listed new roles in each group.
  • A listing is not a hire. Some platforms keep evergreen roles open for months, and some post one listing per language or country.
  • Generic titles hide the field or language of many roles, so a group's counts are a floor.
  • Platforms that recruit without a public job board are not counted, and platforms added to the dataset after the window opens are left out of it.
  • Before 3 Aug 2026 this dataset's feeds were still being added and tuned, so the series does not reach back further.

How the job feeds are read and roles are classified: site methodology. How fresh, complete and consistent the data is, checked every day: data quality and coverage.

Editions

The live report covers the last 12 complete weeks (from 3 Aug 2026 at the earliest) and moves on every Monday. Each complete month is also published as an edition, frozen two days after the month ends, so a figure you cite from an edition never moves.

Cite and reuse

Free to quote, chart and republish under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. This edition is frozen, so its figures will read the same later.

Citation

AITraining.jobs (2026). Where AI Labs Are Pushing: The Expertise Being Hired, Week by Week, September 2026 edition. https://www.aitraining.team/research/where-labs-are-pushing/2026-09

BibTeX

@misc{aitrainingjobs_where_labs_are_pushing_2026_09,
  author = {{AITraining.jobs}},
  title = {Where AI Labs Are Pushing: The Expertise Being Hired, Week by Week, September 2026 edition},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://www.aitraining.team/research/where-labs-are-pushing/2026-09}},
}
Data: every figure as CSV (one line per value) and JSON, sent to your work email.Pay and open-roles data

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