Just in case the xkcd that crntaylor posted doesn't explain the situation well enough: Let's assume that there's 10,000 total job postings in your graph. If th

Just in case the xkcd that crntaylor posted doesn't explain the situation well enough: Let's assume that there's 10,000 total job postings in your graph. If the "rock star" trend grew from just 1 posting to just 70 postings, that would represent a 7000% growth over the period, even though "rock star" would still represent just .007 of the total market. Growth graphs answer a very specific kind of question, and it's rarely the question that people mean to ask. Or, put another way: click the "Absolute" link next to "Scale", under "engineer, programming, engineering, rock star Job Trends".