Because Angular 1.x has a long term support plan in place that should see maintenance provided to the framework for at least a couple of years after Angular 2 drops. Another major component of that plan is building out a compatibility layer between Angular 1 and Angular 2.

For more information on that plan, see here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xvBZoFuNq9hsgRhPPZOJC-Z4...

I don't think it is. Also, isn't that sort of the deal with semantic versioning, i.e. a change in the major version # mean there are breaking changes?

Why are you looking for jobs that specifically require Angular?

You'd be better off in the long run looking for jobs that require Javascript knowledge and are familiar with at least one current framework. Those are the types of companies who will be more likely to upgrade their stack as technology progresses.

Even if Angular 2.0 is not backwards compatible, it doesn't mean that once Angular 2.0 comes out that all of Angular 1.x is no longer useable. I'd imagine 1.x will be used for a long time to come. Also, having a good idea of Angular 1.x especially 1.4 will prepare people a lot for 2.0.

Because not everybody will upgrade to Angular 2.0 if there is no need. So the people who know Angular 1.* will be fine.

It will be possible to write Angular 2 and Angular 1 code as part of the same application.

http://www.effectiveui.com/blog/2015/04/20/learned-ng-conf-w...

Because it was hyped, and was chosen for some project on the hype alone, without anybody bothering to check what is all about and how the future with it will look like.