Job Prospects

The total current employment for software workers in the United States is about two million. As Table 7-2 shows, jobs are divided among computer scientists, computer programmers, systems analysts, network analysts, and software engineers. (Some of these government-statistic job titles might sound old fashioned, but they do include modern software jobs.)

Job prospects for software developers in the United States are very good. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, computer and data processing services will be the fastest growing industry from 2000 to 2010, with a projected increase of 86 percent during this period. Software engineering is expected to be the fastest growing job category overall. All computer-related job categories are expected to increase.^[21]

Table 7-2. Job breakdown for software workers^[22]

JOB TITLE	CURRENT NUMBER OF SOFTWARE PERSONNEL IN THE U.S.
Computer and information scientists, research	28,000
Computer programmers	585,000
Computer software engineers, applications	380,000
Computer software engineers, systems software	317,000
Computer systems analysts	431,000
Network systems and data communications analysts	119,000
Other computer specialists	203,000
Total	2,063,000

Table 7-3. Software development jobs worldwide^[23]

YEAR	TOTAL PROGRAMMERS
1950	100
1960	10,000
1970	100,000
1980	2,000,000
1990	7,000,000
2000	10,000,000
2010	14,000,000
2020	21,000,000

Worldwide, software development jobs are expected to increase as dramatically as they are increasing in the United States. Table 7-3 shows the projected increase.

With a 15,000-job-per-year gap between baccalaureate degrees awarded and jobs created, demand for computer programmers should remain high in the United States for at least the next several years, despite cyclical ups and downs in the job market. Labor shortages have been a perennial feature of the software world at least since the mid-1960s.^[24] Software-related jobs are rated well in terms of salary, benefits, work environment, job stress, job security, and other factors.^[25] Programmers know that, desirable as their jobs are, there isn't much competition for them.