[nickjj]

I know a few people who have been unemployed since July and October due to being laid off. Some of them found jobs but not others. That's 6+ months of searching.

Given you're not in financial distress I would suggest spending a few weeks or a month learning without a bootcamp to see how you like it. For example https://cs50.harvard.edu/x/2024/ is often referenced as a good intro to programming and web development course and it's free.

If you still like it after that then either continue self learning or try to find a bootcamp that has a good deal around employment like you only have to pay them after you land a job or they have a really strong system around helping you find employment.

I'm pretty sure the market for hiring junior / beginner developers right now is going to be brutal, bootcamp or not. Jobs are weird though, there's so much luck involved around being in the right place at the right time. If programming is something you really want to do, being prepared for that type of scenario is of course worth it.