AI is automating coding. So why are software developer job postings on the rise?

U.S. software development job postings have risen since February 2025, the launch date for Anthropic's Claude Code, even as overall job postings fell, complicating predictions that AI would rapidly erase demand for developers.

Concerns about the future of the software development career are well-founded, and intensified as companies adopted AI-powered coding tools, especially as those tools keep getting better. As far back as 2023, Microsoft's software development platform GitHub said that on projects where AI was available, it was close to writing half of all code.

Some AI experts claim AI-written code across the entire GitHub platform has now passed the halfway mark. GitHub has not confirmed that, but in October it did report that one in three "pull requests" — the process in which coders that collaborate on development propose code changes for projects — now involve an AI agent. A year ago, GitHub said that number was fewer than one in 10. "If that pace holds, within the next two years, most of the code pushed to GitHub could be written by an agent. Much of it may never be fully read by a human," it stated.

Labor market researchers say that against this backdrop, the profession is evolving rather than disappearing. Data from Indeed Hiring Lab shows that U.S. software-development job postings have risen nearly 15% since February 2025, bucking both the overall job market and the coding data.

Some economic experts are pointing to the rebound in software job postings as confirmation for a glass half-full view of AI and the job market. "It wasn't that long ago that we were reading the headline that there will be no more need for software developers," Eric Kutcher, North America chair at McKinsey, said during a recent interview on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." Instead, he said, as companies are producing more code than ever before, software developers who work with AI remain in high demand. "We're seeing much more growth in the places we thought we were gonna see the biggest displacement," Kutcher said.

Recent research on AI and the future of jobs from McKinsey Global Institute notes that the earlier decline in the software developer field was not solely an AI story. While in recent years AI has been automating software-development tasks, the rebound comes after a steep drop from a 2022 hiring peak, when technology companies pulled back after a pandemic-era surge in hiring.

But even after the recovery, software-development job postings remain about 27.5% below their pre-pandemic level, according to Indeed Hiring Lab data. Importantly, the increase is concentrated in senior-level roles and more experienced AI-oriented positions. Indeed Hiring Lab found that senior roles accounted for 71% of the increase in software-development postings between May 2025 and May 2026. Job titles that mention AI accounted for 37% of the increase.

AI tools may be allowing companies to produce code more quickly than developers could on their own. GitHub leaders have said in the past that as much if not more than 80% of code could eventually be written by AI, especially as developers become more comfortable working with AI tools. But that also could mean the demand for workers is concentrated on those who can evaluate AI-generated code or problems and connect new tools to an organization's broader technology systems.

Sneha Puri, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab, said companies are realizing that even if AI can handle some technical coding tasks, they still need developers to oversee that work, refine products and help clients integrate the technology into their day to day operations. One example, she said, is the growing need for workers who can help businesses apply AI tools beyond simply building them.

Right now, factors like the ones cited by Puri are helping software developers to be among winners in the earliest stage of the AI transformation of the labor market. A recent analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from economist Steve Rattner found that software developer was among the career categories that showed positive growth from May 2023 to May 2025, though it was merely in line with growth across all occupation and well below the pace of growth in traditionally blue-collar jobs associated with building AI data centers.

Anthropic researchers found that even with automation, humans are still needed to oversee that automation and require user input. But the researchers cautioned that it is "by no means certain that this pattern will persist into the future."

GitHub said in its report on pull requests that the as AI pushed more code into the world, and with it, more risks in the code, humans must be in a position to scale with the technology to police the AI's work. But that may not be possible forever. "As the amount of code grows, we must prevent more exposures and reduce the human effort required by those that remain, or else the volume of vulnerabilities introduced will become untenable," it wrote.

For the youngest workers, the software development field outlook remains uncertain. Stanford University's 2026 AI index found that employment in AI-exposed fields for those aged 22 to 25 has fallen 16% since the rise of generative AI, with those identified as early-career software developers seeing a larger decline in employment of 20% as older developer roles expand.

That shift has made the path into software development more difficult for recent graduates, even as demand rises for more experienced workers. Puri said students should build familiarity with AI tools but not neglect the skills that remain central when working with them. "Being able to use AI in your work and improve your efficiency is a great place to start," Puri said. "But communication, interpersonal skills and leadership are also really important," she added.

Puri said employers also have a role to play in preserving routes into the field. "Today's entry-level talent becomes tomorrow's senior experts," she said. "If employers don't build those pipelines now, they're not going to have senior talent they need 10 years down the line."

While forecasting job growth in the AI era is difficult, the long-term outlook for software developers remains positive, according to an August report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It projects employment of software developers will grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, increasing from about 1.72 million to 1.89 million jobs and adding roughly 174,700 positions.