I know at least 2 who were unemployed for some time. But then again, I only know them because my employer is the one who fired them. I think there's something

I know at least 2 who were unemployed for some time. But then again, I only know them because my employer is the one who fired them. I think there's something like 5% unemployment amongst computer programmers in the US. Based on experience with (ex-)coworkers, that number can easily be attributed to people who are looking for programming jobs who aren't competent enough to hold a job. In fact, that unemployment number should probably be higher, and I shudder to think what kind of crappy unmaintainable code is being written by those programmers who really should probably be unemployed (or at least in another field.) In short, our need for programmers doesn't come from some lack of people willing to work for a certain salary; it comes from a lack of people capable of doing the job.