Is product manager hiring recovering in 2026?
US employers hired about nine outside PMs for every ten who left in 2025. AI or ML PM hiring is the part still growing.
Is product manager hiring recovering in 2026?
US employers hired about nine outside PMs for every ten who left in 2025. AI or ML PM hiring is the part still growing.
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Four of the ten companies hiring the most PMs worldwide are banks or payment networks.
US outside PM hires per PM who left: 1.15 in 2022, 0.89 in 2025.
February to June 2026, early read: AI or ML PM hires up 11% on 2025, all outside PM hires down about 10%.
Figure 1
PM hires fell below one per exit after 2022; AI or ML PM hires stayed above one
Outside PM hires per PM who left, US, by year
Source: Live Data Technologies data. The newest months are still being recorded, so counts are a floor.
Featured in Product Growth: State of the PM Hiring Market 2026, by Aakash Gupta.
Four of the ten biggest PM employers worldwide are banks or payment networks
Ranked by outside PM hires worldwide from May 2025 to April 2026, Capital One was third, JPMorgan Chase fifth, Mastercard sixth and Visa ninth. Capital One, JPMorgan Chase and Mastercard each made more outside PM hires than Meta.
- Amazon
- Capital One
- Microsoft
- JPMorgan Chase
- Mastercard
- Meta
- Walmart
- Visa
- Salesforce
The 10 employers with the most outside PM hires worldwide, May 2025 to April 2026, counted at the parent company. Capital One's total includes an unusually large May and June 2025. Source: Live Data Technologies data.
About nine outside hires for every ten PMs who leave
It has been that way since 2023 (0.89 in 2025, against 1.15 in 2022). For PM titles with AI or ML in them the ratio was 1.31 in 2025, down from 1.82 in 2022. This counts outside hires and exits only, so a ratio below one does not by itself mean the number of PMs is falling.
In 2026, US PM hiring is down and AI PM hiring is up
February to June 2026 against the same months of 2025: outside PM hires ran about 7 to 10% lower, and hires into AI or ML PM titles ran 11% higher. May and June 2026 are still being recorded, so the 2026 figure for all PM titles may rise a little.
Figure 2
AI or ML PM hiring has more than doubled since 2022
Outside PM hires, US, February to June each year, 2022 = 100
Source: Live Data Technologies data to 30 Jun 2026. The newest months are still being recorded, so counts are a floor.
The ten biggest US PM employers moved in opposite directions
US outside PM hiring was down 5% in the year to April 2026 against the year before. Google made more outside PM hires, and Microsoft and Walmart made fewer, in both calendar 2025 and the year to April 2026.
Figure 3
The ten biggest US PM employers moved in opposite directions
Change in outside PM hires, May 2025 to April 2026 against the 12 months before, per cent
Source: Live Data Technologies data to 30 Jun 2026. The newest months are still being recorded, so counts are a floor.
Adobe has a small base. Capital One is not shown: its latest 12 months include an unusually large May and June 2025, and outside those months it ran slightly below the year before. Single-employer figures are approximate, and for some employers the direction changes with the window.
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How we counted
The worldwide ranking counts PMs wherever they are based. Every other chart on this page counts people based in the US.
Who is counted: people based in the US today with a product manager title, from associate PM to chief product officer. Project, program and product marketing managers, product owners and designers are left out. AI or ML means those terms appear in the title, with no adjustment for false matches.
A hire is someone starting a PM role at an employer they did not work for before. An exit is someone leaving a PM role at their employer, including people who moved to other roles or left work. Promotions and internal moves count as neither.
The yearly ratio stops at 2025 because exits for recent months are still being recorded. The 2026 chart counts hires only, February to June, and leaves January out because records that carry only a year land there.
Part of the exit count since 2023 may reflect the large 2021 to 2022 hiring class reaching typical tenure.
Employers are counted at the parent company, so AWS sits in Amazon and YouTube in Google.
Job postings are a different measure, and this page does not count them. Trackers of open PM roles reported openings in early 2026 at their highest since 2022. Both can be true: postings count roles advertised, and this page counts people who started a PM job at a new employer.
Live Data counts people's public job histories collected from the open web. It is not a census.
Want this for your own companies, sector or story? Request a data cut
Related: CMO exit rates, same method.
About the data
People based in the US with a product manager title, from associate PM to chief product officer. A hire is someone starting a PM role at an employer they did not work for before; an exit is someone leaving a PM role at their employer. Promotions and internal moves count as neither.
How to cite this
Alex Hamilton
Head of Insights, Live Data Technologies
Alex leads Live Data's in-house analysis of workforce trends. He studied economics and worked in economic research at the Financial Times and in insights at Dealroom.co. His analysis has been covered by The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Business Insider.
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