Demand For Programmers Hits Full Boil as US Job Market Simmers (bloomberg.com)

When the American job market heats up, demand for technology talent boils, an anonymous reader writes citing a Bloomberg report. From the story: Nationally, the unemployment rate was 4.1 percent in January, and analysts project that it declined to 4 percent, the lowest since 2000, in Labor Department figures due Friday. For software developers, the unemployment rate was 1.9 percent in 2017, down from 4 percent in 2011. While companies are writing bigger checks, they are also adopting new strategies to find engineers for an economy where software is penetrating even mundane processes. Companies are focusing more on training, sourcing new talent through apprenticeships, and looking at atypical pools of candidates who have transferable skills.

"It is probably the most competitive market in the last 20 years that I have been doing this," said Desikan Madhavanur, chief development officer at Scottsdale, Arizona-based JDA Software, whose products help companies manage supply chains. "We have to compete better to get our fair share." What's happening in the market for software engineers may help illustrate why one of the tightest American labor markets in decades isn't leading to broader wage gains. While technology firms are looking at compensation, they are also finding ways to create the supply of workers themselves, which helps hold costs down.

Comments

Ding!

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While technology firms are looking at compensation, they are also finding ways to create the supply of workers themselves, which helps hold costs down.

And this is why the bosses (as opposed to the usually sincere workers) at Google, Microsoft, etc. are all behind these "teach every person on Earth to code" programs.

I'm sorry if little Suzy doesn't want to code, but we need her to help keep down programmer salaries.

Re:Correction

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No, it really isn't that bad. I am a 40 something white male programmer and I know many other 40 something white male programmers and none of them are having trouble getting a job, none of them are getting passed up for hiring or promotion by women or minorities. I suspect the people who complain about it are either just really twisted around and unable to see that they are also not having trouble getting hired and promoted, or they just really aren't as competent as they think they are.