> "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.
this is a good point. Similar to minimum wage, if the value of a young hire is zero, then working for free to gain experience is probably necessary (otherwise no one will hire).
We have other structural issues in society that make this difficult now. For example the fact that without a large pay check, few young people will be able to live near the place where jobs are available, afford essentials, and will have no health care.
But yes, if we returned to a culture of "children live with parents until married" and "apprentice at a company until your work is valuable", and companies returned to "hire what you actually need, then invest heavily in employee growth for the long term", and reducing churn of employees (so that employees and employers have incentive to do this), then it might be possible.
So how do you solve the problem of the company investing in their employees to make them more valuable and then the employees go to another company to get paid more (because that company does not spend on developing employing employees) or the employees leave to start their own company to compete with their original employer?
That was my point, to make a system of apprenticeship work, we have to solve this problem (I wasn't saying it was possible). Otherwise one company is churning out qualified apprentices at their detriment, others are hiring at a discount and reaping the rewards of not training.
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.
whiddershins · · focus · HN ↗
program_whiz · · focus · HN ↗
We have other structural issues in society that make this difficult now. For example the fact that without a large pay check, few young people will be able to live near the place where jobs are available, afford essentials, and will have no health care.
But yes, if we returned to a culture of "children live with parents until married" and "apprentice at a company until your work is valuable", and companies returned to "hire what you actually need, then invest heavily in employee growth for the long term", and reducing churn of employees (so that employees and employers have incentive to do this), then it might be possible.
andrewlgood · · focus · HN ↗
program_whiz · · focus · HN ↗