There's a lazy narrative going around social media about how software eng jobs are dying, by screenshotting the image on the left - a massive decline in job postings. Unfortunately, those posting it never looked closer. I did. This is the "COVID effect." It's everywhere. - ThreadSky

gergely.pragmaticengineer.com • 23 hours ago

There's a lazy narrative going around social media about how software eng jobs are dying, by screenshotting the image on the left - a massive decline in job postings.

Unfortunately, those posting it never looked closer. I did.

This is the "COVID effect." It's everywhere.

Comments

flowian.bsky.social•23 hours ago

As you pointed, the question is more "Why is the software job market more reactive" ? Higher highs, lower lows...

serdarkalayci.bsky.social•23 hours ago

Because the software industry is seen by investors as "project-based". "We hire a team and bring the project to market within 6 months" they say. And that works in the short term, especially on occasions like the delivery boom during COVID, which is good enough for investors.

serdarkalayci.bsky.social•22 hours ago

In the long run though, when you don't continuously improve your product, users tend to run for other services which are better (like people leaving X for Bluesky).

flowian.bsky.social•21 hours ago

True, but that can be said of many other industries. I think the difference is more on the reversibility of the hire / deliverable.

When you buy 10 factories or launch 10 financial products, you need to live with them longer that a sunseted product.

petermorrow.dev•23 hours ago

The x and y axis cut offs are doing a lot of work here too.

It’s just reversion to the mean.

gergely.pragmaticengineer.com•23 hours ago

in all fairness this is to do with how this one data source started to become available from Feb 2020 - just a coincidence that COVID started in March 2020...

typeoneerror.com•22 hours ago

so it's not just this guy? this feels like it's being pushed by the valley? or is the AI egregore just that powerful?

https://bsky.app/profile/typeoneerror.com/post/3lj44nqdmys2a

gergely.pragmaticengineer.com•3 hours ago

Seeing a lot more posts copying the original image and missing broader context. Eg https://www.linkedin.com/posts/csreyes92_your-150k-engineering-job-is-doa-and-its-activity-7300152597473083392-KEdy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAAIk0KwBsmE3oBadWSg2ettxmEyKbqZKG34

gergely.pragmaticengineer.com•23 hours ago

I analyzed it, with details: about what industries saw a massive boom and bust, and which ones did not.Spoiler: software engineering saw far more jobs during COVID than any other industry. The contraction is worse as well... but not by much.

https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/software-engineer-jobs-five-year-low/

ianb.dev•23 hours ago

Those charts should also ideally start at 0, not 60. This way it looks a bit misleading to me

gergely.pragmaticengineer.com•23 hours ago

"It would be interesting to see the trend in a bit longer perspective, e.g. since 2010 or even earlier. I think it would also bring another view to the topic."

Also in my longer analysis. This one :)

https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/software-engineer-jobs-five-year-low/

weijland.it•3 hours ago

What also would be interesting is to take into account how many IT professionals there are. I can imagine there are a lot more IT guys now than there were back in the early 2000. That would mean that we have less jobs per IT capita now than before.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply