Life and Work
The human side of development. How opportunity, pay, focus, and well-being are shaping life at work.
Choosing a career
A vote of confidence. How developers feel about their careers and computer science.
Career confidence
1.01Share of professionals who would choose their career again
Despite a rapidly changing industry, most professionals would choose the same path again. Three in four say they’d return to the profession if they could start their careers over.
Career confidence is highest among architects, team leads, and DevOps and infrastructure engineers.
The value of computer science education
1.02Computer science still makes the grade. Seven in ten developers say it is still worth studying in 2026, though enthusiasm varies widely by region.
Japanese and South Korean developers are among the most confident in the value of studying computer science, unlike those in the US, UK, Canada, and Germany.
Share of coders who say computer science is worth studying, by region
Finding opportunity
From where developers work to specialized skills, what’s building opportunity, and earning potential in 2026.
Navigating the job market
2.01More years on the job may help, but they’re no guarantee in this market. Even the most experienced developers are feeling the squeeze.
Who sees the local job market as favorable, by years of experience
Where opportunities are
2.02Who sees the local job market as favorable, by region
The job market may be competitive, but opportunities are emerging in some parts of the world. Developers’ outlook varies considerably depending on where they live.
It’s a tough job market out there. Just 18% of developers say conditions in their area are favorable. Japan stands out, with 43% of developers reporting a favorable job market, followed by Spain and Brazil.
More ways to work
2.03Home, office, or somewhere in between? Developers are spread evenly across the workplace spectrum.
Where developers primarily work
Working remotely accounts for 42% of developers, but office life isn’t going anywhere: 38% work mainly or entirely from the office.
Bigger companies, bigger paychecks
2.04Developers at larger companies are more likely to be among the highest paid.
Nearly a third of developers at large organizations are in the top pay group, compared with 19% at small organizations.
Salary levels, by organization size
Skills that stand out
2.05Share of top-paid employees, by language
Note: Top-paid employees are those whose salaries are in the top quartile in their country or region.
Some programming skills are more closely associated with higher pay than others. Specialized languages such as Rust and Go stand out among top-paid developers.
Developers’ work environment
Navigating workload, focus, and well-being.
The cost of context switching
3.01Juggling tasks comes with the job, but it can take a toll. More than a quarter of developers rank context switching among their biggest challenges.
Top 5 challenges overall
Who views context switching as the most challenging part of the job, by years of experience
The challenge of context switching grows with experience, rising from 10% among developers with less than a year on the job to 31% among those with over 16 years.
Finding focus
3.02Too many tasks can make it hard to stay in the zone, no matter your experience.
What affects developers’ ability to focus
Respondents could select up to three factors.
Making space for mental health
Do you take care of your mental health?
How familiar are you with the concept of mental health?
Only 6% of developers said they’ve never heard of mental health.
Supporting developers’ well-being
3.04The bigger the organization, the more likely mental health benefits are part of the package.
Company mental health support, by organization size
Use of company mental health benefits, by organization size
45% of large organizations subsidize mental health benefits, compared with just 11% of small ones. But access is only part of the story. When benefits are available, developers at smaller organizations are more likely to put them to use.
Fun facts
say they program for fun as a hobby.
Which activities or hobbies do you pursue in your free time?