Computer Programmers

AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
52%
risk level
POLLING
47%
Based on 8,871 votes
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
-10.2 %
by year 2032
WAGES
$97,800
or $47.02 per hour
Volume
132,740
as of 2022
SUMMARY
JOB SCORE
4.7/10

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Automation risk

52% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): Occupations with a moderate risk of automation usually involve routine tasks but still require some human judgment and interaction.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Social Perceptiveness

  • Originality

User poll

47% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 52% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Computer Programmers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?






Sentiment

The following graph(s) are included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (quarterly)

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Very slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Computer Programmers' job openings is expected to decline 10.2% by 2032

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2021 and 2031
Updated projections are due 09-2023.

Wages

Very high paid relative to other professions

In 2022, the median annual wage for 'Computer Programmers' was $97,800, or $47 per hour

'Computer Programmers' were paid 111.2% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $46,310

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2022 there were 132,740 people employed as 'Computer Programmers' within the United States.

This represents around 0.09% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 1 thousand people are employed as 'Computer Programmers'.

Job description

Create, modify, and test the code and scripts that allow computer applications to run. Work from specifications drawn up by software and web developers or other individuals. May develop and write computer programs to store, locate, and retrieve specific documents, data, and information.

SOC Code: 15-1251.00

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Comments

Leave a comment

ezkha (Uncertain) says
So I've heard about this AI "Devin", which is apparently capable of programming and distributing an entire application from scratch to release; but it is absolutely terrible at managing issues and fixing bugs. If my source is credible, it's 20% efficient compared to 80% with a human.

I think it'll probably improve and replace programming. Though maybe issues and solving bugs, in particular, will take a while to replace.
Mar 14, 2024 at 04:38 PM
user (Highly likely) says
AI has been on the rise in the past several years, and is likely to continue growing rapidly. Within the past years what has been possible has greatly increased many magnitudes, and several AI tools that can accomplish coding means have been created, and are being greatly invested on and improved. With the release of "Dave" and companies like "Magic.dev" I can foresee this being a greatly human reduced job in the next 2-6 years.
Mar 14, 2024 at 11:47 AM
S (Highly likely) says
ChatGPT is already proficient. It will at the very least heavily reduce the amount of software engineers required
Mar 04, 2024 at 05:05 PM
Johnifer (No chance) says
Those who say that AI will completely take over CS don't know CS.
Feb 28, 2024 at 12:55 PM
Jon (Uncertain) says
I see that most people voting with certainty on this topic don't understand how this job works, or they are just average or bellow average professionals.

GPT really gives you solutions for complex tasks but on minor details it's going to invent some buggy solution ultimately creating more bugs than helping you.

That's why you really need to understand the tool/system that you're working with.

Feb 26, 2024 at 06:40 AM
kir (Low) says
AI has a difficult time with complex use cases, architecture, and requirements from clients.
Feb 12, 2024 at 02:35 AM
Rin (Highly likely) says
For being beings based on technology, programs, and algorithms, computer programming will be able to replicate itself and take over its own recreation processes.
Feb 06, 2024 at 04:25 PM
Ryan (Moderate) says
Basic functionality in software is easily automated. Building entirely new systems might be more difficult. If we develop AGI, then any job done at a keyboard is gone, but if that proves more difficult than expected then high level system design and development jobs might last a bit longer.
Jan 22, 2024 at 07:29 PM
Bryan Schmidt (Moderate) says
So much of what we do as computer programmers can be automated.

My job is to interpret what the product owners want, and convert that into code. Currently, I have transitioned into using AI to help me with most of the code, while I'm still guiding the architecture, code style, and overall codebase.

It won't be long until AI could handle most of if not all of that as well.
Jan 20, 2024 at 10:06 PM
John (Highly likely) says
Because chatgpt can already make script, sure its a wrong sometimes. but just imagine but it will be like in 20 years.
Dec 23, 2023 at 12:17 AM
Auditormadness9 (Highly likely) says
It already wrote like 20 scripts for me that completely worked as expected.
Dec 11, 2023 at 10:23 PM
Sequenze5517 (Low) says
Because Computer Programmers made and update AI. Logically, the AI will not update himself.
Nov 29, 2023 at 01:20 PM
me (No chance) says
coding requires a lot of skill and thinking which cannot be replaced by ai
Nov 28, 2023 at 03:08 PM
matin (Low) says
robots make robots?
Nov 13, 2023 at 10:04 AM
Leo (Highly likely) says
so clearly they already have stuff like Chat GPT that tells you code,
Nov 06, 2023 at 02:45 PM
Anonymous (Uncertain) says
As it stands, an AI gets its information from the internet. That means that much of the code it acquires at this point when you ask for sample code or something similar will likely be from GitHub or some similar website. It doesn't have to understand the workings of the code, it just needs to know what to look for and dispense it to you. Sometimes the code may not even work. AI could eventually understand programming and then it'll be a different story, but AI doesn't really KNOW much of what it says, it just give a definition from the huge databases it has access to.
Nov 01, 2023 at 08:57 PM
Ninjamokama_3 (Uncertain) says
A lot of the actual coding process will be automated. However, AI will still need to learn about the other aspects of the job, so I'm feeling uncertain about this one.
Oct 27, 2023 at 08:35 AM
Ira Allen says
I find it interesting that developers/computer scientists say that there is no chance automation will take their jobs. This is self-delusional for several reasons, first, development is taking requirements and finding a solution then creating stepwise instructions for automation. Between Google Bart able to generate python code from a request to Scalene (UMASS project) that optimizes python code, how does this group believe that in less than 5 years, that wages and demand will be significant for humans.
Sep 22, 2023 at 06:59 PM
Julia (Highly likely) says
because AI can write Computer programs pretty well and I have used it to fix bugs in code I have written.
Aug 10, 2023 at 01:07 AM
ash (Moderate) says
i mean what do these developers do?

read docs...follow the described best practices and develop applications...all this stuff can be done by AI.

I think only core programmers will survive, those who can understand complex architectures, do some math and AI also the barrier for entry will be so high, you will be needed to know a lot of stuff to apply at some junior position.
Jun 25, 2023 at 01:51 AM

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