A lot of jobs in Java are not for Java Applets running on peoples machines, a lot of the Java work is for client side apps, and for server side apps (think app development like RoR).

Java applets are not necessary.

The reason why the US government said to uninstall Java is because it is the quickest and easiest way for the layman to remove the ability for Java applets to run. If Sun^H^H^HOracle provided a way to just install Java so it can be used for client side apps without turning on Java applets in the browser, then it is not any less unsafe than C++/C#/Obj-C apps running on the same system.