If Facebook can get Hack to go mainstream, PHP may have a second chance. But for now, it seems like PHP is dying. There are now 2x more Ruby jobs than PHP in the Bay Area. Here's a link to Google Trends for PHP
I have the most experience in PHP, but I've been purposefully avoiding it lately just in case it becomes Perl. I've been using Node lately and will probably start using Ruby.
That may be true for the Bay Area, but it's different literally everywhere else. In Europe for instance Ruby is still quite rare compared to PHP and .NET.
Also, Google trends is hardly a metric. Compare indeed trends or StackOverflow tags, and you'll see PHP is much more relevant.
... And what a shock it was to see that Ruby is not more popular where I am in Europe. However, when I was looking for work, I had other skills to work with.
There is plenty of JavaScript jobs here, outside Java and .NET. Possibly though, that's a given.
Agreed. I've been in the Bay Area for ~1 year and definitely see the Ruby / Node / Java trend but back in Michigan it seemed like every tech job I'd run across was PHP or .NET.
The PHP ecosystem is huge. There are so many different platforms and frameworks. I can see myself as a PHP dev the rest of my career. It's easy money and if you're a decent dev you automatically stand out from everyone else.
Worldwide: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=php%2C%20ruby%2C%20py...
US: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=php,+ruby,+python,+pe...
Bay Area: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#geo=807&q=php,+ruby,+py...
I have the most experience in PHP, but I've been purposefully avoiding it lately just in case it becomes Perl. I've been using Node lately and will probably start using Ruby.