SOC 15-1252 · 15-0000 · Reference month July 2026
Research, design, and develop computer and network software or specialized utility programs. Analyze user needs and develop software solutions, applying principles and techniques of computer science, engineering, and mathematical analysis. Update software or enhance existing software capabilities. May work with computer hardware engineers to integrate hardware and software systems, and develop specifications and performance requirements. May maintain databases within an application area, working individually or coordinating database development as part of a team.
As of July 2026, Software Developers have a Job Market Health score of 46/100, classified as Balanced. This score is our derived indicator, not a government statistic.
The published median annual wage is $135,980.
BLS projects about 95,300 average annual openings and +10.2% employment growth over the 2025-2035 projection period. Projected openings are a modeled yearly average, not jobs open today.
Job Market Health score
Stable · -2
Job Market Health scores are derived indicators based on published data, informational only, not a forecast or guarantee.
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.
Published composite score by reference month
The three published inputs behind the composite
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 | 121,000 | 12.75 | $166,830 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 92,770 | 44.47 | $167,280 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 87,350 | 76.96 | $213,110 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 69,060 | 22.02 | $154,930 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | 69,030 | 29.08 | $186,640 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 67,030 | 16.55 | $133,290 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 55,540 | 8.86 | $160,920 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 42,310 | 15.65 | $166,090 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | 40,370 | 8.94 | $134,380 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 36,300 | 12.56 | $132,960 |
Typical entry requirements · BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035
Occupation profile · O*NET 31.0 Database
Also known as: Application Developer, Application Integration Engineer, Developer, DevOps Engineer (Development Operations Engineer), Infrastructure Engineer, Software Architect
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.
O*NET® lists these occupations as related. Each link opens the same published view of score, wages and outlook.
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.