On the other hand, if people go into the profession solely because the pay prospects are good then there will be a huge influx of mediocre developers. That's no

On the other hand, if people go into the profession solely because the pay prospects are good then there will be a huge influx of mediocre developers. That's no good for anybody. What's killing me right now is the geographical bias of the whole thing. I'm in St. Louis currently and the job market seems pretty stagnant. What jobs are available tend to be with the megacorporates like A.G. Edwards, CitiGroup, and MasterCard. There are a minority of consulting gigs available. SliceHost is the one major exception I know of for St. Louis.