Developers don’t think AI threatens their jobs. Nor should they be overly concerned about being laid off. Instead, constraints on take-home pay have become very real, according to data from Stack Overflow’s 2024 Developer Survey.
Unsurprisingly, only 12% of surveyed developers believe AI is a threat to their current job. In fact, 70% are favorably inclined to use AI tools as part of their development workflow.
The latest edition of the global annual survey found full-time employment is holding steady, with over 80% reporting that they have full-time jobs. The percentage of unemployed developers has more than doubled since 2019 but is still at a modest 4.4% worldwide.
Below are a few more takeaways from the complete article:
- Anticipation of future productivity growth due to AI may be creating uncertainty about how much to pay developers. Among those who use AI tools in their development workflow, 81% said productivity is one of its top benefits, followed by an ability to learn new skills quickly (62%). Much fewer (30%) said improved accuracy is a benefit.
- Codium and Perplexity are the only two tools asked about in last year’s survey that actually saw increased use in 2024.
- Writing code is the most Common use of AI tools by developers.
