[gruez]

>According to FRED/Indeed[1], software job openings have been roughly flat for 2-3 years, and they've actually been slightly increasing again.

None of this contradicts OP's claim, because at least anecdotally, juniors/interns are getting disproportionately squeezed by AI. Why hire an intern to write random scripts/tests for you, when claude code does the same thing? Therefore overall job posting could be flat or slightly rising, but that's only because everyone is rushing to hire senior/principals staff to wrangle all the AI agents, offsetting the junior losses.

[MidnightRider39]

I thought the main value of juniors was that you grow them into seniors, not really the random scripts they write?

[Paradigma11]

That is the value of other companies doing that and you going to poach those new seniors. With the money you saved not training those juniors you can offer better salaries and still have higher profits.

[pydry]

Their main value is in being cheap before they realize that they're underpaid and hop jobs.

They tend to catch on quicker these days, making companies more reluctant to hire them. It has little to do with AI.

[adithyassekhar]

I want to agree with you but when was this ever true?

[MidnightRider39]

It was true when I started to work in this industry ~8 years ago. But of course YMMV especially depending on country and company

[munksbeer]

We haven't hired for about 6 months, but the value of a junior is that they eventually become not junior, and if you value them, you pay them what they're worth and they stay.

My guess is that AI can now assist juniors just as it can assist seniors, and they'll become competent in the correct skillset needed for the future, just as everyone before them has.