Tech Job Watch

Where have all the Software Development Jobs gone?

Here’s what you need to know.

Sarah Writtenhouse
Women in Technology
4 min readSep 12, 2024

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Until recently, software developers have taken their high salaries and endless job options for granted. But lately there’s been a growing uneasiness among experienced developers about job security and wage stability.

These concerns are caused by sweeping tech layoffs that started in 2022. Since then, over half a million technical jobs have been lost and salaries have been dropping as unemployed talent floods the job market.

Not only that, ChatGPT was released at about the same time. Its ability to instantly generate elegant code set off alarms throughout the coding community compounding sinking career confidence.

What caused the layoffs?

The pandemic shutdown triggered a huge surge in technical work as companies rushed to meet demand for remote work capabilities, telemedicine, e-commerce growth, and virtual services. But as lockdowns were lifted and projects wrapped up, technical demand fell sharply, spurring broad layoffs in April 2022.

Over the next year, more than 300,000 technical jobs were cut with far fewer new job openings. Some…

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