Software developers job market in Florida

Industry trends, wages and hiring signals.

Data availability

Published industry context is limited

The report below shows the available evidence. Missing figures are not estimated.

Limited published dataCitation

Occupation pay

What Software developers earn in Florida

BLS OEWS occupation-level pay estimates for this role — separate from the industry wage trends used elsewhere in this report.

BLS OEWS source

Median annual wage

$130,980Florida
Middle 50% of published wages
$101,970 – $164,800
U.S. median annual wage
$135,980
Reference period
May 2025

The middle 50% is the 25th-to-75th percentile wage range, not an experience-level band. Suppressed or unavailable BLS values remain unpublished rather than being estimated.

Pay around Florida

How median pay varies by metro area

Published BLS OEWS metro estimates for Software developers, compared with the Florida median of $130,980.

Florida median$130,980
Punta Gorda, FL$134,510+2.7% vs. state
Middle 50%$107,580 – $155,680Published employment280
Sebastian-Vero Beach-West Vero Corridor, FL$132,720+1.3% vs. state
Middle 50%$98,960 – $163,890Published employment190
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL$132,650+1.3% vs. state
Middle 50%$102,710 – $165,710Published employment18,900
North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL$131,890+0.7% vs. state
Middle 50%$105,300 – $166,280Published employment1,680
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL$131,760+0.6% vs. state
Middle 50%$101,910 – $163,040Published employment5,030
Naples-Marco Island, FL$130,730−0.2% vs. state
Middle 50%$114,400 – $163,990Published employment720
View 12 more published metro areas
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL$130,640−0.3% vs. state
Middle 50%$100,510 – $162,540Published employment1,380
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL$130,450−0.4% vs. state
Middle 50%$100,450 – $165,430Published employment14,230
Jacksonville, FL$130,330−0.5% vs. state
Middle 50%$101,540 – $159,250Published employment7,200
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL$129,620−1.0% vs. state
Middle 50%$103,360 – $162,860Published employment13,440
Wildwood-The Villages, FL$128,560−1.8% vs. state
Middle 50%$99,900 – $160,300Published employment130
Port St. Lucie, FL$128,510−1.9% vs. state
Middle 50%$97,420 – $163,280Published employment420
Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL$126,940−3.1% vs. state
Middle 50%$91,020 – $149,250Published employment1,330
Homosassa Springs, FL$124,540−4.9% vs. state
Middle 50%$93,740 – $164,280Published employment90
Gainesville, FL$122,950−6.1% vs. state
Middle 50%$98,210 – $152,080Published employment580
Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL$122,200−6.7% vs. state
Middle 50%$97,290 – $136,730Published employment990
Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL$122,000−6.9% vs. state
Middle 50%$97,580 – $159,360Published employment860
Tallahassee, FL$121,800−7.0% vs. state
Middle 50%$94,670 – $153,950Published employment1,320

Areas are ordered by published median wage for readability, not as an overall job-market ranking. The vertical marker is the Florida median. Some BLS metropolitan areas cross state lines, so a metro estimate can cover workers in more than one state.

Local research

What the data shows for software developers in Florida

Findings describe the published observation periods shown below. Research published Oct 11, 2026.

Pay differs widely between metro areas

The median wage at the upper end of Florida's metro comparison is 24.1% above the lower end in OEWS May 2025. The 22 published estimates on a shared wage basis extend from Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL at $108,430 to Punta Gorda, FL at $134,510. The wage difference alone does not account for living costs or job availability.

OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWS

Metro estimates may include areas in neighboring states. The comparison covers published metro estimates, not every part of the state.

Findings describe published data and do not establish causes. Methodology

Current market signals

Recent statewide layoff-notice context alongside the published BLS figures below. This signal does not feed the Job Market Health score.

Statewide layoff-notice filings

Florida statewide

22 notices in this source

Notice dates from Aug 2, 2026 to Oct 30, 2026 (UTC), a rolling 90-calendar-day period.

What this means: These are statewide totals from notices dated in this period in Florida’s official tracking system. Reported positions are the counts published in those notices, not a count of people confirmed to have lost their jobs. No employer is identified.

Notices describe planned workforce changes, not confirmed job losses. Notices may be amended or withdrawn. This statewide context is not occupation-specific and does not affect the Job Market Health score. Florida’s state tracking system also records smaller Rapid Response events that fall below federal WARN thresholds, so it is not a list of federal WARN filings only.

FloridaCommerce (Department of Commerce) About WARN data

Source last checked

Indeed job postings · Florida

Recent hiring-demand context · separate from the health score

107.0Postings index · February 1, 2020 = 100Observation: Oct 23, 2026
+7.0%Versus the February 2020 baseline
+1.2%Change over about four weeksSep 25, 2026 to Oct 23, 2026

This is statewide demand across all occupations, not demand for this specific job. Postings are not a count of vacancies or hires, and Indeed does not cover the entire labor market.

Source: Indeed Hiring Lab · CC BY 4.0. Seven-day average, seasonally adjusted; publisher refreshes weekly and may revise history. Retrieved Oct 30, 2026 · saved source copy. JobMarketHealth calculates the displayed changes and samples weekly observations for the chart.

Explore states and career fields · Methodology and limits

-0.6%Industry employmentU.S. -0.3%State data coverage: 98%
+3.4%EstablishmentsU.S. +2.5%State data coverage: 98%
+4.9%Avg. weekly industry wageU.S. +4.3%State data coverage: 98%
347,116Represented establishmentsEstablishments in the industries that employ this occupation, not employers hiring itIndustry mix share 81.9%, separate from the data coverage on the trend cards

Industry employment change over time

Year-over-year change for the industries that employ Software developers in Florida · percentage change

Year-over-year employment change (%) by reference quarter

Latest published values
  • Florida · 2026 Q1-0.6%

The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.

Every published quarter

BLS does not publish a national quarterly series for this occupation’s industry mix, so only the Florida series is shown. The U.S. figure on the cards above is the latest quarter benchmark.

Quarterly year-over-year industry employment change for Software developers in Florida, with the published state data coverage for each quarter
QuarterFloridaState data coverage
2024 Q20.0%98%
2024 Q3+0.3%98%
2024 Q40.0%98%
2025 Q1+0.1%98%
2025 Q2-0.1%98%
2025 Q3-0.7%98%
2025 Q4-0.2%98%
2026 Q1-0.6%98%

Industry mix behind this view

Which industries are weighted into this view. Not a ranking of employers or of job quality.

Industries weighted into the local context for Software developers in Florida
Industry groupShare of occupation employmentLocal employment changeEstablishmentsAvg. weekly wage
Professional and business services50.1%-0.3%230,018$1,859
Information20.5%-2.9%19,251$3,025
Financial activities11.2%+1.0%97,847$3,017
Manufacturing8.0%-0.4%28,099$1,925
Trade, transportation, and utilities5.1%-0.1%150,834$1,343
900000 Suppressed by BLS2.0%SuppressedSuppressedSuppressed
QCEW release
QCEW 2026 Q1
Data period
January to March 2026
BLS publication date
August 28, 2026
Source verification
Not verified
Industry mix vintage
BLS-NEM-2025-35

The publication date above is the official BLS news release date for this reference quarter, linked to the notice. These values have not been matched to the independently verified snapshot. The data period above is the quarter the figures describe.

QCEW describes the industries that employ this occupation, not the occupation itself. It is not a count of job openings and is not part of the 0-100 Job Market Health score.

Evidence record

Derived by JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix. This is occupation-weighted industry context, not direct occupation employment and not a count of current job openings.

Occupation
Software developers
SOC code
15-1252
State
Florida
QCEW release label
QCEW 2026 Q1
Data period
2026 Q1
State industry employment, year over year
-0.6%State data coverage 98%
U.S. benchmark, year over year
-0.3%
Difference from U.S. benchmark
-0.3 percentage pointsPercentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.
Establishments, year over year
+3.4%State data coverage 98%
Average weekly industry wage, year over year
+4.9%State data coverage 98%
Industry mix vintage
BLS-NEM-2025-35
BLS publication date
Aug 28, 2026
Canonical record URL
https://jobmarkethealth.com/occupations/software-developers/florida#evidence-record
Derived by
JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix

AI & this occupation

How AI relates to Software developers work

Across 2 research exposure measures, Software developers is in the higher technical AI exposure band based on the mean of the available source-specific percentile ranks. Exposure describes how much of the work the studied AI capabilities could technically assist with; it is not a forecast of job loss.

Observed use of Claude for this occupation's tasks is in the higher third of occupations in the Anthropic Economic Index, a dated observed task-exposure benchmark, not conversation share or the share of workers using AI. Its observation window is not recorded in this saved release.

JobMarketHealth has not measured an AI effect on this occupation's employment or wages, and these figures do not enter its scores; there is no clear evidence of displacement in the data shown here.

Technical AI exposureHigher exposureMean of 2 available source-specific percentile ranks (4 measures checked); fixed exposure bands, not a national rank of the composite
Dated Claude task exposureHigher thirdObserved task-exposure benchmark 0.288; observation window not recorded
Business AI use (BTOS Core)24.6%U.S. businesses using AI, two weeks ending 2026-10-04; all industries, not this occupation
Historical task mix (2025)Not enough tasksFewer than 3 observed tasks
Measured labor-market effectNot estimatedJobMarketHealth does not attribute employment or wage changes to AI

Exposure measures (kept separate)

  • GPTs are GPTs exposure (β, GPT-4 rated): 0.87 of 1, national percentile 98 (higher third)
  • Microsoft AI applicability: 0.28 of 1, national percentile 85 (higher third)

National context: what businesses used generative AI for

From the Census 2025-26 BTOS AI Supplement (all industries; businesses whose employees used generative AI). Census did not measure Software developers specifically.

  • Writing or editing documents, emails, or communications: 85.4%
  • Searching for information or technical help: 49.9%
  • Interpreting, analyzing, translating, or summarizing documents: 44.6%
  • Information processing, paperwork, or filing: 34.7%

Florida context

In the Census BTOS core AI-use question, an estimated 26.8% of Florida employer businesses reported using AI in the two weeks ending 2026-10-04 (U.S.: 24.6%).

Separately, the one-time 2025-26 BTOS AI Supplement (collected 2025-11-17 to 2026-02-08) found 20.0% of Florida businesses using AI at that time, and 22.8% reporting that employees used generative AI for work tasks in the prior six months. It describes how AI was being used then, not a trend.

Using each occupation's exposure band and Florida employment weights (OEWS May 2025), 32.0% of covered jobs are in occupations in the higher-exposure band. This describes the state's occupation mix, not a measured AI effect.

Exposure and observed usage are separate measures and neither equals job loss. Census BTOS figures are business-level surveys and are not occupation-specific. Sources: GPTs are GPTs occupation exposure; Microsoft Working with AI: AI applicability; Anthropic Economic Index; Census BTOS Core AI Use; Census BTOS AI Supplement 2025-26. These figures do not affect Job Market Health scores. Explore AI & Jobs · How we use AI data.

How to read this page

QCEW measures employment and wages by industry, not by occupation. We weight those industry conditions using the published industry mix for Software developers. These figures describe the industries that employ Software developers; they are not direct counts of people working in the occupation or of jobs currently open. This page is not part of the national 0 to 100 Job Market Health score.

Source: BLS QCEW. See the methodology, the national Software developers report and about the data.

Compare Florida with other statesPublished industry employment, business locations and average weekly industry wages for up to three states, with the national benchmark in percentage points.

Software developers in other states