Key findings

1
On the 18 platforms tracked throughout, open roles went down 3.1% like for like (about 2,520 in the week of 5 Oct 2026 and 2,717 in the week of 19 Oct 2026 as read, a count that also moved with changes in how this site reads some of their boards).
Figure 2
2
Platforms listed about 340 new roles a week over the last week, against 432 a week in the week before (-21.3%).
Figure 3
3
The median advertised rate of open roles moved from $35/hr to $50/hr between the first and the last week.
Figure 4
4
Apply clicks per open role went from 0.42 a week in the week of 5 Oct 2026 to 5.55 in the week of 19 Oct 2026, as the roles listed and the site's audience changed.
Figure 5

Figure 1

The index at a glance

How did the market change between the first and the last week?

Measure	Week of 5 Oct 2026	Week of 19 Oct 2026	Change
Open roles (fixed panel)	2,520	2,717	-3.1%
Open roles (all tracked platforms)	2,616	4,351	+66.3%
New listings in the week	219	340	+55.3%
Removed in the week	251	537	+113.9%
Median advertised rate	$35/hr	$50/hr	+42.9%
Apply clicks per open role	0.42	5.55	+1,217.9%

Sample. The first and the last complete week of 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026.

Open roles are the average over the week's days; the rate and the share of roles stating pay are read at the start of each week.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The AI Training Jobs Index, October 2026 edition.

Figure 2

Open roles, week by week

Is the number of open AI training roles rising or falling?

Week	Open roles (fixed panel)	Index	All tracked platforms
1 to 4 OctPartial week	2,600	103.2	2,600
5 to 11 Oct	2,520	100.0	2,616
12 to 18 Oct	2,570	95.8	3,501
19 to 25 Oct	2,717	96.9	4,351
26 to 31 OctPartial week	2,608	97.4	4,358

Sample. Average open roles over each week's days, on the 18 platforms tracked since 1 Oct 2026 (the fixed panel), 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026.

The index is the panel's open roles against the week of 5 Oct 2026 (100), chained week to week. Platforms first tracked later appear only in the last column, so their arrival never reads as hiring growth.

This site changed how it reads 6 platforms' boards in this span (Alignerr on 14 Oct 2026; Mindrift on 14 Oct 2026 and 22 Oct 2026; OpenTrain AI on 14 Oct 2026; Handshake AI on 14 Oct 2026; Prolific on 18 Oct 2026; Outlier (Scale AI) on 30 Oct 2026). From each change to the end of its week the roles that came into view are counted as already listed, not as new listings, and the roles that left view are not counted as removals; changes in open roles are measured like for like across it, on the roles that did not move with it. Each platform's own report says what changed.

A week the window cuts is labelled with the days it covers and marked as partial.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The AI Training Jobs Index, October 2026 edition.

Figure 3

New and removed listings, week by week

How many AI training roles are listed and taken down each week?

Week	New listings	Removed
1 to 4 OctPartial week	156	264
5 to 11 Oct	219	251
12 to 18 Oct	432	425
19 to 25 Oct	340	537
26 to 31 OctPartial week	491	541

Sample. Listings on the platforms' job boards, 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026, by ISO week (Monday to Sunday, UTC).

Each platform's first week in this dataset (its back catalogue) is not counted as new listings.

A week the window cuts is labelled with the days it covers and marked as partial.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The AI Training Jobs Index, October 2026 edition.

Figure 4

The advertised median rate, week by week

Are advertised rates for AI training work moving?

Week	Median advertised rate	Roles stating a rate	Open worldwide
1 to 4 OctPartial week	$35	83.2%	25.7%
5 to 11 Oct	$35	82.5%	21.8%
12 to 18 Oct	$40	79.0%	16.0%
19 to 25 Oct	$50	82.8%	18.5%
26 to 31 OctPartial week	$40	82.4%	19.7%

Sample. Roles open at the start of each week that state an hourly rate, 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026.

The median follows the mix of open roles as well as rates themselves.

A week the window cuts is labelled with the days it covers and marked as partial.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The AI Training Jobs Index, October 2026 edition.

Figure 5

Applicant interest per open role, week by week

Is competition for each opening rising or falling?

Week	Clicks per open role	Apply clicks on roles
1 to 4 OctPartial week	0.36	532
5 to 11 Oct	0.42	1,102
12 to 18 Oct	0.77	2,706
19 to 25 Oct	5.55	24,156
26 to 31 OctPartial week	6.77	25,303

Sample. Apply clicks on a specific role on AITraining.jobs, 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026, against the roles open that week.

It rises with AITraining.jobs's own audience as well as with interest in the work: read it beside the other weeks, not as a market total.

A week the window cuts is labelled with the days it covers and marked as partial.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The AI Training Jobs Index, October 2026 edition.

For labs, data vendors and researchers

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

11,482 roles tracked, each with its history
Every role on 62 job boards, read since 13 Jul 2026 (every hour since 18 Oct 2026): its pay and place, and the first and last day it was open.
58,632 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.
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Method and definitions

The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every hour. Apply clicks are made on AITraining.jobs. 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 already tracked when the window opens. The index follows their open roles, so a platform added later never reads as market growth.
Index: The panel's average open roles in a week, divided by the same in the base week, times 100.
Open role: A role listed by a given day and still in its platform's feed that day.
New listing: A role that first appeared during the window 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. When this site changes how it reads a platform's board (a cap lifted, a page kind or department read too, a relevance rule changed), the roles that came into view or left it from that change to the end of its week are this site's reading, not the platform's hiring: they are not new listings or removals, and changes in open roles are measured like for like across it. Each platform's report says what changed.
Removed listing: A role that left its platform's feed during the window, other than with a change in how this site reads the board (see New listing).
Advertised pay: The hourly figure a posting states (the middle of a stated range), counted once per distinct rate as the job board counts it. The median and typical pay are the board's: typical pay runs from the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each advertised range) to the 90th-percentile advertised ceiling, stated from 3 distinct rates.
Clicks per open role a week: Apply clicks on AITraining.jobs divided by the days the roles were open, times 7.
Window: Live: the last twelve complete ISO weeks (Monday to Sunday, UTC), from the week of 3 Aug 2026 at the earliest. Edition: the weeks of one calendar month.

What this data cannot tell you

Platforms that recruit without a public job board are not counted. Several large ones invite workers to projects directly.
A listing is not a hire. Some platforms keep evergreen roles open for months, and some post one listing per language or country.
Apply clicks measure interest among the people who use AITraining.jobs, and what is shown first gets clicked more.
Before 3 Aug 2026 this dataset's feeds were still being added and tuned, so the index 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.

Live dataLast 12 complete weeks
October 2026 edition (this page)Freezes on first reading
September 2026 editionFrozen 10 Oct 2026
August 2026 editionFrozen 10 Oct 2026

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). The AI Training Jobs Index, October 2026 edition. https://aitraining.jobs/research/ai-training-jobs-index/2026-10

BibTeX

@misc{aitrainingjobs_ai_training_jobs_index_2026_10,
  author = {{AITraining.jobs}},
  title = {The AI Training Jobs Index, October 2026 edition},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://aitraining.jobs/research/ai-training-jobs-index/2026-10}},
}

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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