You have to start somewhere, right? You're assuming that all those people are going into straight-up developer roles. I'm guessing many of them are starting in

You have to start somewhere, right? You're assuming that all those people are going into straight-up developer roles. I'm guessing many of them are starting in junior roles in a best-case scenario, othewise doing testing or an internship until they get some solid commits under their belt or have their code reviewed consistently. I also think you are applying some federal, governmental definition of "unskilled labour" to the market for developers. I doubt any of the companies you see in, say, the typical "Who's Hiring?" thread here on HN (or in the rest of the market) care much about that. They just want to get the work done. Also, equating new developers, no matter how n00b-like or inexperienced, to burger-flippers is an attitude that is pretty unfortunate and insulting, and if I ever sniffed that out in a company I'd avoid them even if interviewing for a senior role. Company culture is important, and you can tell a lot about a business by how they treat their least experienced people.