"There are more than half a million open computing jobs in America today"<p>What does this even mean? Doesn't basic economics tell us about supply and demand. At a low salary, demand for developers will be high, and supply will be low. At a high salary, demand will be lower, and supply will be higher.<p>What does this "half a million openings" say other than that the supply and demand curves are out of whack because employers aren't paying enough?<p>There's another little problem here - being a software developer, even one of those "CRUD" developers, is actually very difficult. Just try getting a basic web app with a database back end and a new fangled javascript framework running. Now get specs from a client. Host it on a server. Keep the server up and running. Fix bugs. Make estimates. Deal with business requirements that don't fit easily into the technical framework. Negotiate, explain, do demos. Upgrade as your javascript framework goes out of date every 6 months. Realize that the upgrade requires massive refactoring. Add developers and bring them up to speed, use git properly. Do code reviews, explain difficult sections to a group at the whiteboard. Articulate complex logic and how it relates to business requirements. Track down and fix obscure server log errors. Migrate data. Migrate it back when the new data structure doesn't work...<p>This takes substantial reading comprehension, presentation skills, business acumen, writing, negotiating. People who can do this well and are free to choose their procession without fear of deportation really do have a lot of options. They don't have to be software developers.<p>Now, ask them to work in a big open office with limited autonomy and middling salaries (really - out here in SF, the median salary for an application developer is a little more than for a dental hygienist, and less than a registered nurse[1]). Don't be surprised if people with choice choose other fields. It really isn't a head scratcher.<p>All in all? Being a dev is an OK job, it can be a rational choice to become a developer, but I don't see anything close to the kind of gap that would have me scratching my head about a "shortage" of developers or worrying about "a half a million unfilled jobs." Honestly, every observation I have suggests that people with the ability to become devs may be rationally choosing to do other things, as you'd expect in a free labor market (note - many of the people who work as devs in the bay area are not free members of the labor market, they are required to work as devs as a condition of living in the US - this may be partly why the market hasn't adjusted).<p>[1] I've learned that I should always add this bit - I have no objection to nurses being paid well, more than devs. And I'm aware the salaries are higher for nurses in the Bay Area, devs often earn more in other regions - however, the Bay Area is ground zero for this supposed "shortage", so I think it's reasonable to consider regional salaries here.