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Comment by sct202 | Hacker News Reader

I suspect some of is due to how amorphous the term white collar is. The BLS has job projections, https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/occupations-largest-job-decli... , and they forecast large declines in admins and clerk-type office jobs that you would expect.

The fastest growing list on the other hand, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/fastest-growing.htm , has some office jobs, but it's dominated by healthcare jobs that some of which are kind of office-like.

There's also some weirdness, with Computer Programmer listed on the decline list, while Software developers, applications is on the fastest growing list.

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That's probably just a reflection of the job title changing, rather than the number of jobs available. Computer Programmer is an "old-school" title while Software Developer is more up to date.

If you look at the description, I believe part of the problem is that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has always been under the delusion that "Computer Programmers" were little more than typists who understood programming syntax. There's an assumption that some sort of all important _DESIGN_ work was done by analysts or other so-called experts perhaps the almighty "Software Developer". Could it be Computer Programmers just type what they're told, and perhaps Software Developers do the important work;)

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/... https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...

Note to my own comment: Take a look at the "What they do tab" for both titles. You'll think that you've been transported back to 1969 in the punch card room where yes - the lowly Computer Programmers simply write code while the Software Developers talk to the business people and figure out what needs to be done. While hardly writing any code themselves. It's hilarious.

Yeah I’m just gonna need you to figure out how to get our sales guy between all these sales hubs for the lowest cost... if you could get that done by next week that’d be great.

I’ve heard this distinction arose partly because most/many early programmers were women, a relic from the days of the human computer

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