Did you know software engineering was the 2nd best job in USA? It used to be 1st but physician's assistants beat us for 2021. 🤷♀️
This is based on research I've been doing for my greencard process, here are some highlights 👇
US bureau of labor statistics projects 22% growth in software developer occupations from 2019 to 2029, classified as "much faster than average" [1]
Median salary of $110,140, top 10% salaries at $170,000+, and no certification requirements make this the most accessible 6-figure job in USA. At 1,400,000+ members and 22% projected growth, it is the biggest and among fastest growing high-paying jobs. [2]
In 2021, US News classified "software developer" as the 2nd best job in America (1st in 2020) using metrics such as median salary, unemployment rate, 10-year growth volume, 10-year growth percentage, and future job prospects. [3]
Ok so I've been doing lots of research into the Software Engineer job market to show USCIS should let me stay 🇺🇸
— Swizec Teller (@Swizec) May 17, 2021
Some highlights 👇
Software Engineer is the 2nd best job in USA. Was 1st in 2020, physician assistants beat us for 2021
US News estimates the unemployment rate among software developers at 1.4%, which is much lower than the national average of 6.1% – indicating that software developers were largely unaffected by the pandemic and the related economic shocks. [4] [5]
Despite the pandemic, the number of software developers grew by 500,000 globally in 2020 – an annual growth of 2.4%. In USA alone, demand for web developers, full-stack, and cloud engineers grew by 25% in 2020. [6]
The true number of software developers in USA is likely higher. Official metrics have a strict definition, but there's a lot of adjacent professions who consider themselves software engineers or write software as part of their job – like data scientists, information security experts, devops and systems administrators, marketing automation builders, etc.
Some estimates show over 500,000 open positions with only 50,000 new computer science graduates annually. [7] [8]
This leads to a shortage of USA-based engineers and leads to offshoring software development to Latin America, Europe, and India. With India projected to become the world's biggest employer of software developers (currently USA) by 2024. [8]
Hired's State of Software Engineering report says there were 207,000 job openings for software engineers in December 2020. Software Engineers with 6 - 10 years of experience are in highest demand. [9]
Forbes reports that in November 2019 there were 920,000 unfilled positions in tech. With over 50% of CIOs saying the talent shortage is impacting business growth.
Forbes further estimates that there were only 165,000 potential applicants for those 920,000 openings. [10]
Improving, an outsourcing company, estimates that immigrants represent up to 25% of the USA STEM workforce because USA doesn't produce enough talent. By 2030 this issue could lead to $162 billion of unrealized output.
Because employers have to fill those jobs, they resort to offshoring and nearshoring, which leads to brain and know-how drain in the US and a growing dependence on foreign talent. [11]
A report from 2019 estimated up to 1,000,000 unfilled computer programming-related jobs in USA. The pandemic dampened that impact, but not by much.
One way companies are addressing this shortage is by providing in-house training to skill-up existing engineers for new technologies. [12]
Great time to be an engineer my friend].
Cheers,
~Swizec
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