U.S. software-development job postings have risen nearly 15% since February 2025, when Anthropic launched Claude Code, while employment among early-career software developers fell 20%, according to data cited in the report. The gains favor senior and AI-oriented roles. Younger workers face a weaker path into the profession.
Hiring Shifts Upward
Senior positions accounted for 71% of the increase in software-development postings between May 2025 and May 2026, Indeed Hiring Lab data show. Titles mentioning AI made up 37% of the increase. Overall postings fell during the period described in the report.
The rebound follows a steep drop from the 2022 hiring peak, when technology companies pulled back after a pandemic-era surge. Even after the recovery, software-development postings remained about 27.5% below their pre-pandemic level, according to Indeed Hiring Lab.
Steve Rattner analyzed U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and found that software developers recorded positive employment growth from May 2023 to May 2025. Their growth matched the pace across all occupations and lagged traditionally blue-collar jobs tied to building AI data centers.
Demand hasn’t risen evenly across the workforce. Stanford University's 2026 AI index found that employment in AI-exposed fields among people ages 22 to 25 had fallen 16% since generative AI rose. Early-career software-developer employment fell 20%, even as older developer roles expanded.
More Code, Different Work
Companies have adopted increasingly capable AI coding tools as demand for developers shifts. In 2023, Microsoft’s software development platform GitHub said AI was close to writing half of all code on projects where it was available. Some AI experts now claim AI-written code across GitHub has passed the halfway mark, but GitHub hasn’t confirmed that.
In October, GitHub reported that one in three “pull requests”—proposals by collaborating coders to change project code—involved an AI agent, up from fewer than one in 10 a year earlier. “If that pace holds, within the next two years, most of the code pushed to GitHub could be written by an agent. Much of it may never be fully read by a human,” the company said.
GitHub leaders have previously said that 80% or more of code could eventually be written by AI as developers become more comfortable with the tools. The report says demand may center on workers who can assess AI-generated code and problems, then connect tools with an organization's wider technology systems.
Sneha Puri, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab, said companies still need developers to oversee AI work, refine products and help clients integrate technology into day-to-day operations, even when AI handles some coding tasks. Businesses increasingly need workers who can apply AI tools, not just build them, she said.
GitHub said humans must keep pace with AI-generated code to monitor risks. “As the amount of code grows, we must prevent more exposures and reduce the human effort required by those that remain, or else the volume of vulnerabilities introduced will become untenable,” it wrote.
The Entry-Level Pipeline
Puri said students should learn AI tools while maintaining other skills. “Being able to use AI in your work and improve your efficiency is a great place to start,” she said. “But communication, interpersonal skills and leadership are also really important.”
She also said employers need to preserve routes into the profession: “Today's entry-level talent becomes tomorrow's senior experts. If employers don't build those pipelines now, they're not going to have senior talent they need 10 years down the line.”
An August report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projected software-developer employment would grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, from about 1.72 million to 1.89 million jobs, adding roughly 174,700 positions. The projection covers growth across the occupation; the report's figures show recent gains have clustered in experienced roles while early-career employment has declined.
Eric Kutcher, North America chair at McKinsey, said in an interview on CNBC's “Squawk on the Street”: “It wasn't that long ago that we were reading the headline that there will be no more need for software developers.” Developers who work with AI remain in high demand as companies produce more code, he said. “We're seeing much more growth in the places we thought we were gonna see the biggest displacement,” Kutcher said.
McKinsey Global Institute research says the earlier decline in software-development jobs wasn't solely an AI story. Researchers at Anthropic found that people remain necessary to oversee automation and provide user input, but cautioned that “it is by no means certain that this pattern will persist into the future.”