[menaerus]

I don't disagree with you but a different view that could support the OP hypothesis could be that prior to the AI boom we could see that 90% of the capital went into "normal" software engineering jobs while maybe only 10% of the capital went into the ML market.

Now in the AI boom era, 90% of the capital goes into the AI while 10% goes into SE jobs. That could explain the drop in SE jobs.

[DeathArrow]

That can be a valid point, sure. But the AI bubble will burst just like the dotcom bubble. Maybe some money will return into SE jobs.

[menaerus]

It might burst but it may take years for that and until then it's going to be a struggle for most people in non-ML engineering jobs. But it might not burst at all? The trends in AI developments for the past few years are a bit concerning IMO.