jQuery is dead.

That's a statement I've read countless times during the last few years. All over the web.

But do these words hold any truth?

Indeed, many developers across the globe — and particularly in the West (where the rate of development moves much, much faster) — hold this belief. They tout that jQuery "has passed its time", or is "no longer relevant". To be frank, it's a scary thought. For many years, jQuery's has proudly occupied the space as the front-end JavaScript library of choice. It's garnered unparalleled support, and has remained one of the most popular JS frameworks in web development.

jQuery has been an industry leader.

jQuery is an extensive JavaScript library, and is a great tool for front-end developers. It makes working with JavaScript a significantly easier task for developers, allowing them to produce work of a high quality in much less time than working with core JavaScript itself.

While there’s certainly no denying that jQuery is powerful and allows both front-end and full-stack developers to work incredibly efficiently, it’s understandable that you might be concerned regarding its uses today.

There are now alternative JavaScript frameworks, such as Angular and React, which are far more powerful. That doesn’t mean to say that there isn’t a place for jQuery anymore — in fact, quite the opposite. It means that jQuery is positioned to soon become a far more niche library, utilized for specific use-cases, while more powerful frameworks such as React are adopted by an increasing audience.

As for the future of jQuery, nobody can possibly know. But for now, I’d definitely suggest learning both jQuery and more complex JavaScript frameworks, like Angular and React. This way, you’ve covered all the bases, and you can rest assured that you have the skills to work with the jQuery library as well as more modern JavaScript frameworks.