Is The Software Development Job Market Saturated?

No. The software development job market is not saturated. It eeez faaar from saturation. Don't let all this AI stuff going on to trick you into thinking all is lost, and the robots have finally arrived to take all our jobs.  That's just by the way.

Here is the thing; the software development industry has a pretty low barrier to entry. All you need is a laptop, some decent internet, and Youtube.

This means that anyone can easily attempt an entry and then immediately start adding software developer to their name.  This gives the impression that there is a ton of developers out there who have saturated the market.

Instead, what is happening is "crowding" not "saturation", where there are a lot of people posing as qualified developers.

Fortunately, the point is that there is only a few "true" developers who can actually do the job. Hear me out. There is a big difference between watching a youtube tutorial, doing a personal project, and working on a real-life production system with actual users for an actual company that needs their platform to make actual money.  That is when the fake devs are caught.

Why do you think companies are still paying tens of thousands of dollars to software engineers? If there is that much supply, you should also see a drop in wages as well.

Truth is, the layoffs do not correlate with the demand for developers. Let me give you an analogy:

The fact that I cancel my Netflix subscription doesn't mean that I don't need Netflix or entertainment anymore.

The reason could be that I am down on cash so I need to cut down on my expenses and do with little. So instead of Netflix, I want to try other affordable sources of movies or entertainment.

It could also mean that I subscribed to too many streaming platforms at a time and that is making them redundant so I need to cut a few. That doesn't mean that the ones that got cut are no longer needed by the world. It just means that in my own personal context, I don't need them again.

It could also mean that Netflix has started publishing content that I feel does not resonate with me anymore.

Companies are "figuring" themselves out. Trying to increase profits and stay alive. Don't mistake the mass layoffs across the big and popular companies as a general industry judgment. There are still tons of companies actively recruiting and searching for great developers.

What you need to focus on is to keep leveling up your skills, studying, and improving consistently to not grow stale.

In ending

The demand for highly skilled and experienced engineers is ever on the rise and those that are prepared to take advantage of opportunities will keep enjoying good money.

Just like in any other field, a lack of improvement reduces your value and your leverage in the market.   Even worse is the super-sonic fast-paced tech industry.

Now get back on your horse and keep riding away into the amazing opportunities that lay ahead of you as a software engineer.