This chart is nuts. Software developer jobs down 70% from peak.
People will blame the end of free money. But something way more interesting is happening.
The middle class engineer is dying. And it's dying because they're not needed anymore.
One good dev with Github Copilot ships what entire teams did five years ago. Microsoft just reported the highest revenue per employee in history.
The "entry-level engineer" doesn't exist anymore.
Instead, we have product builders who happen to code. Armed with AI, they ship entire products in days.
Meanwhile, the truly elite engineers are making more money than ever.
And they've shifted to working mostly on frontier tech. I mean the stuff that's really hard.
AGI at OpenAI.
Designing rockets at SpaceX.
Self-driving car tech at Tesla.
Product builders are becoming solopreneurs and creators Frontier engineers are making hedge fund money
In 2025, "software engineer" doesn't mean what it meant in 2020.
And that's what this chart really shows.
The middle is gone. The top is elite status. And everyone else is becoming a builder.