Absolutely anecdotal. This article nor myself never stated that "the entire out-of-work blue collar worker population" can or even would want to make the jump. Many of these blue collar workers can move into other industries it just so happens that programming is becoming more of a trade skill than an engineering one. There is currently a demand for highly skilled CS engineers. However, the jobs that do not require CS skill sets per se, but rather require "coding" skills are becoming more abundant.

Really my "coding" skills have helped me in other areas opening my eyes in new ways to automating my skill set. One of the best testaments to this was talked about by Zed Shaw http://learncodethehardway.org/blog/MAY_15_2012.html Basically stating that programming is a supplement to other skill sets. The majority of these programming bootcamps/workshops are geared towards onramping rapidly to jobs that would not typically qualify as engineering positions. These jobs typically require whiteboard interviews, but once you actually get on the job your programming skill set is not nearly as utilized as it was during the interview. While I cannot quantify this supposition it would be really difficult to get a company to admit or supply data stating that they interview for rock stars, but have you do "janitorial" code work in reality.

Where the Bloomberg article most failed is stating that they "cannot" learn to code. Pretending that becoming a developer/engineer/coder requires some minimal level of IQ, even the IQ standard is hotly debated, is ridiculous. Just as any other skill set it just requires dedication and commitment.