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Comment by Fraterkes | Hacker News Reader

I’m not from the us, so can someone give me some real perspective? If you have a couple years experience and you want to make at least ~50k a year, is it actually really hard to find a job in tech right now?

Or is this more about senior people not being able to find ~100k a year jobs as easily?

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$50k jobs (in your field) are probably harder to find than $100k jobs. Nobody wants to hire a $50k dev in the US - they'd think there's something wrong with you. In the past you could maybe get something in web dev but that's not exactly a thriving industry these days.

In any case, my impression is that juniors are being hit the hardest. They're the easiest to offshore and the easiest to justify as being replaceable by AI (regardless of how true that actually is).

Junior jobs are very hard to find right now. They are much rarer than they used to be. However, if you are even somewhat capable you could probably find a role if you're willing to accept $50k total comp (which is very low in most areas) just by being willing to work for less than others.

Certainly, anecdotally, that seems to be the case. There are exceptions like interns who have some in. But whether it's AI or some combination of other reasons, it does seem to be more difficult for juniors than at least mid-career professionals.

The current tech job situation in the US is hitting junior developers a lot harder than senior developers, which is why there's a general assumption a lot of it is being driven by the combination of AI and outsourcing.

Whether this is sustainable remains to be seen, there was a big outsourcing trend back in ~2004 in the tech industry here that ended up being somewhat short-lived as many companies realized those efforts were costing them more than they were saving them beyond the short term. Whether or not this time is different with the added AI component, I have no idea. I wouldn't bet on it in either direction.

Its not great out there for senior developers either, but on the senior side its more of a freeze (try not to lose your job because the next one may be very hard to find) whereas on the junior side its more of a clear contraction (keeping your job will be much harder, finding a new one harder still).

Without delving into all the stats, $50K/year is a pretty mediocre salary--certainly in anything resembling a medium to high cost of living area. Your rent will consume a lot of that after taxes without roommates and even a "paid-off" house will probably not be a whole lot less with taxes, insurance, utilities, etc.

Certainly a trailer home in a lot of places but then not clear how easily you'll get that $50K/yr job.

I don't know a lot of people who could stay in their current house on 50k/year.

$100k a year in 2025 is like earning $55k a year in 2007, accounting for inflation and costs.

The value of money and especially the dollar is getting printed away to worthlessness.

According to usinflationcalculator.com $100K today is more like $64K in 2007.

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