jeez this article and the washington post article on hiring being in a 6 yr low is really freaking me out. I'm currently in a coding boot camp while working as a waiter parttime. should I be worried?
You'll be fine. There's still a good bit of demand for junior programmers, and there are no signs of that going away anytime soon. If you're in a top-tier bootcamp and you do well in it, you will come out ready to take junior positions, roughly comparable to a new CS grad minus their internships (which do give them an advantage). Just don't expect a $105K base salary at your first job - some bootcamps set unrealistic expectations to sell you on the program.
Keep working on the bootcamp, write some open-source code on the side, focus as hard as you can at getting better. It'll work out.