SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO
Information Editor
Adaca has revealed analysis exhibiting a file 216,000 software program and purposes programmers are working in Australia, primarily based on Australian Bureau of Statistics labour pressure knowledge.
The report factors to continued progress in software program improvement employment regardless of lay-off headlines linked to synthetic intelligence and cuts at bigger expertise teams. It says the variety of programmers rose from 189,000 in 2025 and from 68,000 in 2006.
That quantities to 217% progress over 20 years, making software program improvement one of many nation’s fastest-growing occupations. Throughout 702 occupations tracked by the ABS since 2015, the function ranks twenty fourth for progress, in response to the evaluation.
The figures additionally counsel the occupation has continued to develop since generative AI instruments entered the mainstream in 2022. Amongst Australia’s largest professions over that interval, software program improvement ranked tenth for jobs progress and was the fastest-growing IT function within the dataset cited by Adaca.
Jobs image
The findings supply a counterpoint to warnings that AI will sharply scale back demand for coding and software program roles. As a substitute, the report argues the labour market has absorbed staff leaving some components of the expertise sector whereas demand has broadened throughout different industries.
Adaca is an Australian expertise companies firm with places of work in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Manila. It employs 175 individuals and its clients embody ANZ, Qantas and the United Nations.
Founder Lambros Photios mentioned the information confirmed a extra complicated employment image than current fears of an AI-driven jobs collapse.
“For all of the doom and gloom surrounding AI layoffs, there’s unbelievable trigger for optimism,” mentioned Lambros Photios, Founder, Adaca.
“We’re seeing devs displaced, not changed. They’re leaving massive tech and discovering work anyplace and in all places else. When mid-market firms realise what they’ll obtain by hiring their first AI-powered dev workforce, each firm could have one. We’re within the golden age for Australian builders,” Photios mentioned.
Abilities pipeline
Past the headline employment progress, the analysis raises questions on how Australia is coaching and supplying software program staff. It says the sector is more and more depending on individuals born abroad and suggests migration has turn out to be a significant supply of technical expertise.
The report additionally discovered that between 19,000 and 25,000 individuals working in software program improvement haven’t any increased training qualification. Inside that group, 19,000 had solely a Greater Faculty Certificates and no additional formal training, representing 10% of the nation’s software program developer workforce.
These figures level to a occupation that doesn’t rely solely on college pathways. Additionally they counsel employers are already hiring from a broader pool than formal diploma programmes alone would point out.
Photios argued that the native training system just isn’t producing sufficient individuals with the correct technical expertise.
“The excessive ratio of builders born abroad means that the Australian software program improvement sector is prospering by way of migration, not training,” mentioned Photios.
“Tech and software program expertise are usually not nicely taught right here in comparison with different international locations. A whole lot of companies sponsor expert abroad staff, or offshore their software program improvement wants overseas as a result of it is too laborious to seek out the correct expertise. The gender divide is disappointing. Software program improvement in Australia has at all times been a boy’s membership, and never a lot has modified in 20 years. However I am hopeful. It will likely be attention-grabbing to see if AI reduces obstacles to entry and essentially adjustments the workforce demographic,” Photios mentioned.
Gender hole
The info additionally exhibits restricted progress on gender stability. Girls accounted for 17.3% of the software program improvement workforce throughout quarterly figures over the previous 20 years, rising to twenty.1% in 2025.
That enhance of lower than 3 share factors underlines how slowly the occupation has modified at the same time as demand has surged. Whereas software program improvement has turn out to be considered one of Australia’s stronger progress occupations, the workforce stays closely male-dominated.
The report’s broader conclusion is that employment tendencies in software program are being reshaped slightly than erased by AI. For employers, the figures counsel demand for programming work stays resilient. For policymakers, they elevate separate questions on migration, coaching pathways and who’s coming into one of many nation’s fastest-growing professions.
As of February 2026, the ABS class for software program and purposes programmers stood at 216,000 staff.