Job Market Health score
26/ 100
Weak
Stable · -2
- At least 90% of required inputs and occupation-industry mapping are covered.
Job Market Health scores are derived indicators based on published data, informational only, not a forecast or guarantee.
Computer programmers
SOC 15-1251 · 15-0000 · Reference month July 2026
Create, modify, and test the code and scripts that allow computer applications to run. Work from specifications drawn up by software and web developers or other individuals. May develop and write computer programs to store, locate, and retrieve specific documents, data, and information.
In short
As of July 2026, Computer programmers have a Job Market Health score of 26/100, classified as Weak. This score is our derived indicator, not a government statistic.
The published median annual wage is $100,390.
BLS projects about 4,400 average annual openings and -7.3% employment growth over the 2025-2035 projection period. Projected openings are a modeled yearly average, not jobs open today.
$100,390Median annual wageOEWS May 2025
4,400Projected annual openingsBLS Employment Projections 2025-2035
-7.3%Projected growth2025–2035
92,230Total employmentOEWS May 2025
How to read this page
The score is a national composite from 0 to 100 that weights near term hiring demand at 50 percent, the occupation's own employment fundamentals at 30 percent, and long-term outlook at 20 percent. Wages and occupation profile details are context shown alongside it, not score inputs. See the full methodology.
Median annual wage and metro employment come from BLS OEWS, which is annual. Projected annual openings and projected growth come from BLS Employment Projections and describe the published projection horizon, so they are not a count of jobs open today. Values shown as not published are suppressed by the source rather than filled in here.
Job Market Health trend
Published composite score by reference month
Score components
The three published inputs behind the composite
Largest metro markets by employment
OEWS metro employment, where the jobs are, not a quality ranking
| Metro area | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 6,670 | 0.70 | $126,750 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 3,400 | 0.54 | $107,090 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 3,260 | 0.81 | $102,240 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 2,680 | 0.85 | $130,390 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | 2,440 | 1.03 | $130,730 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 1,990 | 0.95 | Not published |
| Raleigh-Cary, NC | 1,770 | 2.38 | Not published |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 1,770 | 0.61 | $101,420 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 1,600 | 0.59 | $128,900 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | 1,600 | 1.04 | $134,130 |
Education & training
Typical entry requirements · BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035
Top skills
Occupation profile · O*NET 31.0 Database
- Programming
- Active Listening
- Complex Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Quality Control Analysis
- Reading Comprehension
- Systems Analysis
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Writing
- Active Learning
Also known as: Analyst Programmer, Application Programmer Analyst, Computer Programmer, Computer Programmer Analyst, Internet Programmer, Java Developer
Sources & releases
Every figure above traces to a published release
Values marked “Not published” are suppressed or not published by the source. We leave them blank rather than estimating them.
Related occupations
O*NET® lists these occupations as related. Each link opens the same published view of score, wages and outlook.
Keep going
Learn how to judge a market from these numbers in how to tell if a job market is healthy, or why projected growth and annual openings often disagree in projected growth vs projected annual openings. Coverage, revisions and limits are explained on about the data.
The datasets behind these figures, and what each one can and cannot show, are set out on data sources.