With so many JavaScript frameworks out there, it can be difficult to choose which one you should focus on. But, if you are looking for a career as a front-end developer, the job description is likely to include a JavaScript framework. But which one should you focus on?
Companies might not be using the framework that you are trying to get to grips with. It is important to choose one which one has plenty of support available, and what job opportunities are out there.
I did some research on the job recruitment website, Indeed. On there, I did a search for some of the JavaScript frameworks out there and how many jobs were available in the United Kingdom.
| JavaScript Framework | Search Query | Job Count |
|---|---|---|
| React | react developer | 4,105 |
| Angular | angular developer | 3,106 |
| jQuery | jquery developer | 2,221 |
| Vue.JS | vue developer | 967 |
| AngularJS | angularjs developer | 719 |
| Backbone | backbone developer | 294 |
| Knockout | knockout developer | 177 |
* Searches performed on indeed.co.uk on Sunday 28th July 2019, using "United Kingdom" as the location
Now that we have a general idea of how many jobs are available for each framework, that's analyse the top 5 frameworks.
AngularJS is basically version 1 of Angular, and according to it's website, it is now in "Long Term Support" according to this blog article on the Angular website. Basically that means that the only changes to the framework will be bug fixes. That means that the number of career opportunities is likely to decrease as time goes on.
Vue.JS seems to prides itself as a light-weight framework. On it's website, it states that you can "Build APIs you need in minutes instead of days, for free."
And who would argue with the following code example. In it, I've added a div tag, and inside the div tag, I'm getting Vue.JS to append the text "This is my Text".
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<!-- index.html -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/marked@0.3.6"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/lodash@4.16.0"></script>
<div id="round-the-code">
<div v-html="sampleText"></div>
</div>
// my-vue.js
new Vue({
el: '#round-the-code',
computed: {
sampleText: function () {
return "This is my text";
}
}
});
jQuery has been around since 2006 and still continues to be popular with developers. It has an extensive list of documentation on it's website and there are a number of third party plugins available.
It was incredibly easy to append some text inside a div element which can be seen here:
<!-- index.html -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Parcel Sandbox</title>
<meta charset="UTF-8" />
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.4.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="round-the-code">
<div class="sampleText"></div>
</div>
</body>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.js"></script>
</html>
// jquery.js
$("#round-the-code .sampleText").html("This is my text");
From version 2, Angular was rewritten with many differences to AngularJS and is now on version 8 of the framework.
I wasn't able to use Angular without creating a web application for the framework, but it was fairly quick to set up the web app. The Angular website houses extensive document with a number of tutorials to get your teeth into.
Angular has also been written in TypeScript. TypeScript is a popular JavaScript superset that was written by Microsoft.
React has become one of the JavaScript framework that more and more companies are using for their applications.
React's website has a number of examples and documentation that allows you to use the framework.
And the framework can be set up very easily in a HTML file as this demostration shows:
<!-- index.html -->
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<div id="root"></div>
<script src='https://unpkg.com/react/umd/react.development.js'></script>
<script src='https://unpkg.com/react-dom/umd/react-dom.development.js'></script>
<div id="round-the-code"></div>
<script id="rendered-js">
ReactDOM.render(
React.createElement("p", null, "This is my text"),
document.getElementById('round-the-code'));
</script>
</body>
</html>
It's worth noting that the results from Indeed are only based to jobs in the United Kingdom. It's also worth noting that some of the jobs found on the search terms may not be related to the technology, but for something of a similar term.
However, I believe it gives us a good idea of how the job market sits in-terms of JavaScript frameworks. But it's also worth noting that you should do your own research as the number of jobs available for each framework may differ from area-to-area, and how much support you will need to get each one working.
At the end of the day, the person using the end product will not care what framework it's written in. They will just want something that works, and works well.
