Employment data shows young developers face increased pressure to overwork due to job market concerns.
Employment data shows a decline in jobs for young developers, creating pressure to overwork and push past boundaries that older developers might maintain. ✦ AI generated
Scott Tolinski · Syntax · 2026-08-14 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 21:55
And check this out. This is the employment for software developers age 22 to 25. According to 2026 AI Index report, it's down close to 20% from its peak in 2022. ... So, this isn't proof that AI took those jobs. But if you're like 23, and you feel like the ladder is possibly being pulled up behind you, you're going to be pushing hard, right? You're probably going to be pushing past your set boundaries and limits that other people who have those abilities might be in more control of.
verbatim transcript · starts at 21:55
21:55will say that this report is careful about this, so I'm going to make it clear, you know, to you as well, [music] that unemployment went up across every kind of job in that window. And it actually went up more for the jobs least exposed to AI instead of [music] the most. So, this isn't proof that AI took those jobs. But if you're like 23, and you feel like the ladder is possibly
22:14being pulled up behind you, you're going to be pushing hard, right? You're probably going to be pushing past your [music] set boundaries and limits that other people who have those abilities might be in more control of. So, healthy prompting it can't be carried by personal discipline alone, right? The worker, the workplace, all of these things matter in which like stopping [music] working on time is even possible. I mean, even pre-AI there's
22:39been jobs where I've had to work major overtime to ship, and I've been pushed well beyond past the limit in which I wanted [music] to continue working, and it did affect me negatively in my mental health. So, this is obviously nothing new with AI, but the data definitely shows that people feel like they need to produce more now than ever. And among the people who answered this survey, AI
23:01was changing more than how fast software gets made. It was changing the pressure, sleep, enjoyment, and how capable people felt. But, at the end of the day, Adam came back, and Aaron built in limits to his workflow, and Mark found a way to stay [music] the one making the decisions and in control of his code. So, individual limits, they only really come into play if the systems around you