The continuing expansion of healthcare IT and mobile networks will continue to create demand for software developers, technical support, and system analysts, even though offshoring will hurt programming careers over the next several years. That’s the finding of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) biennial update of employment projections, which concludes that by 2020, employment in all computer occupations is expected to increase by 22 percent. Do you believe the BLS is accurate in predicting software development jobs over the next eight years? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.  The report outlines which job titles will be in demand in the coming years:

• Software Developers: Up 30 percent, adding 270,900 jobs (the strongest growth rate)
• Network and Computer Systems Admins: Up 28 percent, adding 96,600 jobs
• Systems Analysts: Up 22 percent, adding 120,800 jobs
• Security/Web Dev/Network Architects: Up 22 percent, adding 65,600 jobs
• Database Administrators: Up 31 percent, adding 33,900 this decade
• IT Managers: Up 18 percent, adding 55,800 jobs
• Help Desk and Tech Support: Up 18 percent, adding 110,000 jobs
• Programmers: Up 12 percent, adding 33,700 jobs (the weakest growth rate)

Although the BLS works with the best possible numbers and analyses of current market conditions worldwide, it has many critics who point out that trying to predict what the tech landscape will look like a decade from now is a fool’s errand. As David Foote, of Foote Partners LLC, an IT labor market research and advisory firm, told Computerworld, “Anyone that makes a ten-year projection based on current market volatility and uncertainty which is unprecedented is kidding themselves."