Enough with "learn to code."  As this article points out, that's terrible advice.  Coding isn't beanbag, and if you don't have a problem-solving mindset, you won't be good at it.  It's like telling people to buy power tools and become home-renovators.  Having a tool doesn't inform you about when and how to apply it.

What's the problem we are trying to solve here?  Is it to meet a need for more coders or to provide a way for unemployed people to earn a good wage?  I expect that it is the latter, so let's ask: do we need more software developers and software engineers?  We already have many of them who are unemployed for whatever reason.

Forecasting the expected needs for additional software developers arrives at a figure of roughly 300K between 2016 and 2026.  That's an average of 30K new jobs per year.  The BLS site offers a similar prediction for that time period.  This site indicates that 35K computer science degrees are awarded each year.  Sounds as though we have plenty of domestic candidates for those new jobs, right?  It should be noted that some percentage of the degrees awarded is for foreign students.

This article in Inc. also claims we need to train more software people.  This news release compares the total number of allegedly unfilled jobs, with the supposed annual rate of 43K degrees being awarded.  It adds that the Computer Science Education Coalition wants the federal government to pony up $250M to train K-12 students in coding to fill the Big Tech jobs need.  Nothing in the Constitution justifies spending tax dollars to train anyone for any job at all, whatsoever, but that's obviously no deterrent.  So how will that affect the interest in getting the actual degrees?  I'm thinking it will decrease, making the apparent crisis worse.  Another thing about training everyone to do a particular job is that the wages for that job are driven down by competition.

Meanwhile, foreign applicants are getting hired for software jobs (instead of our domestic unemployed degreed software-computer-IT engineers), and supposedly this is justified by the alleged lack of domestic candidates.  I understand that some unemployed engineers just aren't good at engineering, or lack specialized skills alleged to be essential for a given position.

Full disclosure: I'm an unemployed software engineer who has been mostly out of work for over two years.  I need to know why so I can change whatever adverse circumstances are blocking my goal of full employment.

So as someone who already knows how to code and has been doing it for over thirty years, I assert that coding is not a panacea in finding a job.  Also, we have plenty of domestic candidates, especially for new grad hires, where training is customary in the skills for the job.

So learn to code if you enjoy it.  Don't expect that to solve all your problems, or even the one about jobs.