Globalization
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The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page.

Market changes in the USA
Computer programming, offshore outsourcing, and Foreign Worker Visas became a controversial topic after the crash of the dot com bubble left many programmers without work or with lower wages. Programming was even mentioned in the 2004 U.S. Presidential debate on the topic of offshore outsourcing.

Large companies claim there is a skills shortage with regard to programming talent. However, U.S. programmers and unions counter that large companies are exaggerating their case in order to obtain cheaper programmers from developing countries and to avoid paying for training in very specific technologies. Objective studies on this debate that both sides accept have been hard to come by and a distrust has formed between large companies and programming trade groups.

Enrollment in computer-related degrees in U.S. has dropped recently due to lack of general interests in science and mathematics and also out of an apparent fear that programming will be subject to the same pressures as manufacturing and agriculture careers. This situation has resulted in confusion about whether the U.S. economy is entering a "post-information age" and the nature of U.S. comparative advantages. Technology and software jobs were supposed to be the replacement for factory and agriculture jobs lost to cheaper foreign labor, but if those are subject to free trade losses, then the nature of the next generation of replacement careers is not clear at this point.

A parallel trend that has made it harder for some programmers to find work in the United States is the ongoing professionalization of computer programming. As software quality has steadily increased in successive years, the knowledge and experience required to produce such software has also increased, particularly as new programming languages, software project management techniques, and application frameworks have been introduced. Programmers who lack an understanding of these new technologies will naturally encounter decreasing demand for their services.

Professionalization is a particularly relevant force in the United States, as startup companies in particular often outsource the development of an initial application draft to an outside contractor (including overseas companies), and then hire a skilled in-house programmer in the United States to refine the initial product.[citation needed] However, many startup software companies design everything in house.