The first sentence of the article shows the problem.

For years, we heard about the tech talent shortage — that there were a glut of jobs and not enough bodies to fill them.

The problem wasn’t ever “bodies,” which people have always misunderstood. It’s qualified workers.

I worked in tech for a long time, at a bunch of different companies, and I never once worked anywhere that there was a glut of jobs and “not enough bodies” to fill them.

The people going into these careers includes a large number of people who want the money but aren’t qualified do what we’re looking for.

While the idea behind AI was that it would automate manual tasks and help workers focus on more value-added activities, some workers fear it will outright replace them — and that’s already happening

Yeah, it already happened to the journalist that would have written this article. I find it a bit funny that the picture caption is just the prompt they used to generate it

Two decades of “just learn to code bro”, will do that to a profession.

6 figure jobs are still common, but not at the entry level. The companies that used to offer such thing are taking that money and investing in AI, thinking that they won't need new blood.

They're wrong, but that's what's happening.

It’s not just grads. I have 1 open senior position, 100 applicants. A good 10% of them with 15+ years of experience have had no job in the last year, or have things like “Amazon fulfillment center” as their most recent job. Shits rough if you find yourself laid off or if the company you’re working for went out of business.

Maybe if people hadn't pushed everyone in the entire fucking world into my field we wouldn't have this problem

So old man time. In the early nineties things did not look great. Almost any college degree was not bringing in a salary one could like think about having a family with. Then came the late nineties and dot com and tech jobs were like the only thing that paid to possibly have what was, in many peoples mind, the typical middle class life. You know own your own home thing eventually. Since then its been tech or bust and now tech is bust and there is no go to field for people to run to.

Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives

The secret of the CS and IT job is that it has always been the Neuveaux Blue Collar job.

For every IT exec and formerly-technical middle-management douchebag making really good money, there are 2 to 10 actually technical resources making "okay" money relative to their skill and the insane hours and scenarios they are expected to work.

Oh and let's not forget they're constantly trying to outsource as much of that support and engineering talent as possible.

If your job can be automated. Your job will be automated. Even if the work it produces is hot runny shit.

They would rather pump out pure garbage than pay an honest wage for honest work. It doesn't even have to work. They'll just put an arbitration clause in the EULA. Then sit back and count their money.

Tech is much more than programming / software

No.

They would like it to be. We're really expensive because they can't do it. As soon as all shit hits the fan guess who starts earning more.

Relevant Doctorow post: The enshittification of tech jobs (27 Apr 2025)

What matters isn't whether you think that AI can replace you. What matters is whether the CEO thinks that AI can replace you.

Does anyone from Europe recognize this? Because it isn't what I'm seeing.

Says / asks an article in a media spin-off created by a big fintech company, which has been funded by, among others, Peter Thiel by a big digital finance publisher / SaaS and advertising company with a history of not disclosing their investors, probably laying off people and heavily investing in AI themselves.

Yes, the tech sector is in a harsh condition, but we will go on. Don't let the AI hype / lay off waves for an overhired tech workforce from covid break your minds. There will be a need for smart people building and maintaining ecosystems, as long as a rising tech oligarchy won't gatekeep us all out, which should be the headline here.

Edit: I can't find a link between the fintech wise and the publisher wise. I still don't like this type of sensationalist headlines as all technology gets allegedly obsoleted every other year.

Maybe we should start with kicking out the non-nerds ??

Of course it is. Your employer will replace you with an immigrant or AI as soon as they can, that's how capitalism works.

Maybe…? This just seems like a massive over-correction here, and an over-correction to something other than the existence of LLMs at that. They shovelled so many people into IT via boot camps to correct the perceived overvaluation of software professionals that now there’s nothing to be seen for all that investment, and the market has snapped back. Actual experienced engineers became even more desirable a resource due to overseeing all the boot camp kids, and now we’re less than months away from a massive mess of instant legacy code everywhere due to CTOs who saw $s in their eyes from the low low cost of Claude versus a junior.