In my opinion the best numbers come from TIOBE's index http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/paperinfo/tpci/Python.html but as you will see languages have large shifts in their popularity. Currently in 2011, Python has been shedding popularity at a fast clip, but it has done so before so it is not reliable to use it in support of the argument that Python is loosing popularity as the overall trend has been upward. The thing I would caution is that the original post was asking why so many job seekers with python where looking and my summation was that due to language popularity NEW development house may not be adoption Python. In reference to you seeing Python in your environment I would assume it is because you already have Python in your environment so language selection has been made and many times there is inertia within the environment that makes language replacement a bad value proposition. I fear I poorly worded my original post when I was basically trying to say that languages go through a life-cycle of popularity and you may be seeing the result of NEW development houses opting for what is popularity because they don't have language based technical debt to consider. As well over the lifetime of a language it will shed adopters for other more popular languages. My summation was in no way intended as a critique of Python it would have been they same answer had it been Java or Perl. I was just trying to explain the life-cycle of language popularity. Which will always be an imperfect summation due to trends and resurgence of trends.