The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 10% decline in the number of “Programmer” jobs based on how they categorize it while there is a 22% increase in demand for “Software Developers” and a 13% increase in demand for “Web Developers”. “Coder” gets no love at all.
At a minimum, this means you might want to put the right titles on your resume (no matter what your employer said your title was).
The BLS does get to the heart of the difference between the titles, a difference with which I most agree:
Computer programmers write and test code that allows computer applications and software programs to function properly.
Software developers design computer applications or programs. Software quality assurance analysts and testers identify problems with applications or programs and report defects.
Web developers create and maintain websites. Digital designers develop, create, and test website or interface layout, functions, and navigation for usability.
I noticed that they added QA and Testers relatively recently (in 2021 I think). They definitely did not lump them in before. This is also the reason that I believe Web Developers got a hit in growth since sometime between 2014 (when I started following this data) and 2018 suddenly a significant portion of Web Developers suddenly dropped while Software Developers went up.
Perhaps all the React and Vue programmers decided to call themselves something else (or at least their bosses and HR departments reporting the statistics did). Notice that Web Developers work with “websites” and not web applications. Also, “Digital Designers” look to have been combined into the “Web Developer” category. My bet is if you can call what you do an application at all you switch over to Software Developers — especially with Electron being used — and that “Web Designer” (the title from the best book on the topic) was just not enough umph to get people to use it in such a study. But if you look at the income levels, you seen that “Web Developer” really means “Web Designer”.
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#jobs #stats #terms