COOKED
This BLS title is the implementation tier: writing code from specifications someone else wrote, debugging, updating and maintaining existing programs, and converting designs into working logic — the exact work LLMs now do at usable quality and speed. Unlike software developers (15-1252), programmers are defined by translating requirements rather than owning architecture, requirements negotiation, or production accountability, so the surviving judgment tier is thin and mostly sits in the next job title up. BLS already projects this occupation shrinking, and employment has been sliding for a decade before AI arrived.
Core tasks are already automatable. Writing code to a spec, tracing a null-pointer exception through a stack trace, porting a COBOL batch job or updating a maintenance ticket are precisely the tasks a model completes in one prompt cycle, which is why this sits at 6 rather than mid-band — the residual 6 points cover legacy systems with no documentation and undocumented in-house build chains a model cannot see.
Fully desk- and screen-based. The job is a keyboard, a monitor and a repo; the 2 points reflect occasional deployment to on-prem hardware or hooking a debugger to physical test equipment in embedded work, not any routine requirement to leave the desk.
No licence, no signature requirement. There is no state licence, no PE stamp, no bar admission and no statutory sign-off for shipping code; when a defect causes loss it lands on the employer's contract and E&O policy, and 1 point is only for the narrow safety-critical niches where DO-178C or IEC 62304 name a qualified person.
Some relationship component. Clients and product owners route work through a ticket queue or a team lead rather than asking for you by name; the 6 reflects genuine value in knowing which module breaks when you touch the billing table, but that is institutional memory, not a relationship a buyer would follow to another firm.
Meaningful discretion. Choosing a data structure, deciding whether a bug is a real defect or an unclear requirement, and judging a fix's blast radius are real calls, but they are made inside boundaries someone else drew — architecture, schema and release approval sit with developers, architects and change boards, which is what keeps this at 9 instead of the mid-teens.
Software Developers EXPOSED
Has AI actually changed your work?