[23david]

I think it's more likely to cause a lost Decade of people not going into CS or tech due to lack of entry-level jobs. Maybe next time there's a boom and the pendulum of the power dynamic between management and labor swings more towards the workers, tech workers will unionize or organize better. I think overall it will benefit the industry because these boom and bust cycles for employment are just not healthy.

[Traubenfuchs]

There is no guarantee that there will be a boom again. Some jobs disappear. Maybe we'll really only need a handful of elite engineers who continue advancing the foundational tools we use (kernels, databases, hyperscale low level cloud products, drivers, etc.) and the rest of "programmers" and "software engineers" will be replaced by "prompt engineers". With a new generation mostly unable to read and reason about source code.

[alex_suzuki]

But how will the current crop of “elite engineers” be replaced, when they inevitably age out?

[Traubenfuchs]

There will always be some nerds left with brains so big they only scratch their itch if they are advancing performance critical v8 code in pure assembler. But the bar will rise for that to be something you get money for…

[jazz9k]

Unionized workers are also losing their jobs in this economy.

Unions are, by nature, anti-progressive. They would rather use 15 year old technology, then replace workers and allow efficiency.

This will never work in the tech industry.

[reaperducer]

I think it's more likely to cause a lost Decade of people not going into CS or tech due to lack of entry-level jobs.

That could be a good thing, or a bad thing.

Maybe it will push more people into medicine, science, art, or other worthwhile careers.

Or maybe they'll end up lawyers, SEO experts, or venture capitalists.

It could go either way.