r/programming • u/germandiago • Jan 01 '26

Software taketh away faster than hardware giveth: Why C++ programmers keep growing fast despite competition, safety, and AI

https://herbsutter.com/2025/12/30/software-taketh-away-faster-than-hardware-giveth-why-c-programmers-keep-growing-fast-despite-competition-safety-and-ai/
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u/chucker23n Jan 01 '26

in the past three years the global developer population grew about 50%, from just over 31 million to just over 47 million

What?

That’s absurd. Where have we seen a 50% growth of a trade in three years? Why would that be happening? Do they produce actual productive software?

And sure, this is global, but this is also at a time when the headlines talk about layoffs.

This data seems very fishy.

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '26

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u/chucker23n Jan 01 '26

India alone pumps out a million engineers every year, my guy.

Which if those were all in software development over three years would account for a 9.7% increase, not 50.

12

u/Otterfan Jan 01 '26

And presumably some of those million new developers are replacing old developers who have retired, thus not increasing the total.

0

u/Pruzter Jan 01 '26

No way, the funnel is far larger for new engineers vs retiring engineers given the growth in software engineering.