> "The prediction was that software engineers would lose their jobs first, and the recent trend went the other way: demand for software engineers is higher than ever"
Hard to take anything the author says seriously making nonsensical claims like this. The software engineering job market has been getting worse every year since 2022 by virtually every metric. This is especially true at the entry and mid level. For example, computer engineering and computer science majors now have the #2 and #4 highest unemployment rates amongst recent graduates [1]
Students are smart to be cautious about the future, and it's annoying that adults with no skin in the game so flippantly dismiss these concerns without any data to back it up.
The market rebound appears to be mostly in senior roles [1] while everyone else are falling out of favor including new grads. Definitely puts the "higher than ever" claim in question. Indeed is looking at job postings data and I personally think this is a poor unit of measure. In my humble opinion the market isn't anywhere near where it used to be even several years prior to the pandemic.
Even before AI we were trending toward an economy with very few entry level jobs anywhere. AI is supercharging this, and I can easily now imagine a future where there's basically zero (good) jobs for anyone who isn't an expert.
So how do we get the next generation of senior professionals then?
This, I think, is a civilization-scale problem we will need to confront in the next 20-ish years.
No worries, obviously the AI will cure aging so we will be able to run civilisation with the current experts forever.
...at least, until they accumulate enough stocks to retire on.
...however, for each one that retires and cannot be replaced due to the no-upcoming-juniors problem, evidently, the value of the companies they own goes down. So they won't be able to retire, or at least not all of them. So there's no problem!
JSavageOne · · focus · HN ↗
Hard to take anything the author says seriously making nonsensical claims like this. The software engineering job market has been getting worse every year since 2022 by virtually every metric. This is especially true at the entry and mid level. For example, computer engineering and computer science majors now have the #2 and #4 highest unemployment rates amongst recent graduates [1]
Students are smart to be cautious about the future, and it's annoying that adults with no skin in the game so flippantly dismiss these concerns without any data to back it up.
[1] <a href="https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market?utm_source=chatgpt.com#--:explore:outcomes-by-major" rel="nofollow">https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market?utm...
sakopov · · focus · HN ↗
[1] <a href="https://hiringlab.indeed.com/2026/07/08/ai-and-job-postings-from-destruction-to-creation/" rel="nofollow">https://hiringlab.indeed.com/2026/07/08/ai-and-job-postings-...
api · · focus · HN ↗
So how do we get the next generation of senior professionals then?
This, I think, is a civilization-scale problem we will need to confront in the next 20-ish years.
kingofmen · · focus · HN ↗
...at least, until they accumulate enough stocks to retire on.
...however, for each one that retires and cannot be replaced due to the no-upcoming-juniors problem, evidently, the value of the companies they own goes down. So they won't be able to retire, or at least not all of them. So there's no problem!