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Software engineer unemployment stayed at 3.9% through September 2025

The official Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment rate for Computer and Mathematical Occupations—the closest available proxy for software engineers—was 3.9% in September 2025, well below the 6% threshold. This figure comes from the BLS Current Population Survey (CPS), the authoritative source for occupation-specific unemployment data. While tech sector unemployment has risen notably from its 2024 lows, it remains below both the national average and the 6% benchmark in question.

BLS does not track software developers separately in monthly data

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes monthly unemployment rates by major occupation group, not by detailed occupation codes like SOC 15-1252 (Software Developers). The most granular available category is Computer and Mathematical Occupations (SOC 15-0000), which encompasses software developers, software QA analysts, computer programmers, data scientists, network administrators, information security analysts, and related roles.

For September 2025, this category showed:

Metric Value Unemployment rate 3.9% Unemployed workers 276,000 September 2024 rate 2.5% Year-over-year change +1.4 percentage points

This data was published November 20, 2025, and represents the most recent figures covering September 30, 2025. Notably, October 2025 data was not collected due to a federal government shutdown from October 1 through November 12, 2025.

The 3.9% rate still outperforms the broader labor market

Despite rising from its historic lows, tech occupation unemployment remained below the national rate of 4.3% in September 2025. CompTIA's monthly analysis of BLS data corroborates this finding, tracking tech occupation unemployment between 2.0% and 4.0% throughout 2025, with the highest monthly reading at 3.5% in April and 4.0% in November.

The year-over-year increase of 56% (from 2.5% to 3.9%) does signal meaningful labor market softening for tech workers. However, this rate remains close to the long-term historical average of approximately 3.16% for the occupation group, suggesting a normalization from unusually tight pandemic-era conditions rather than a crisis.

Alternative methodologies show higher rates for specific subgroups

While official BLS data stayed below 6%, some alternative analyses reported higher figures for specific segments:

• Janco Associates reported IT worker unemployment at 5.7% in January-February 2025, using proprietary analysis of Department of Labor data—the highest tech unemployment figure from any 2025 source

• Federal Reserve Bank of New York found recent computer science graduates (ages 22-27) faced 6.1% unemployment, exceeding the 6% threshold, though this reflects entry-level conditions rather than the overall occupation

• Computer engineering graduates showed even higher unemployment at 7.5% in the same NY Fed analysis

These methodological differences explain why news coverage of tech unemployment varies significantly. CompTIA's BLS-based analysis tracked consistently lower rates than Janco Associates during the same periods.

Data limitations and caveats

Several factors affect interpretation of this data. The BLS occupation data from CPS is not seasonally adjusted, introducing some monthly volatility. The broad occupation category includes mathematicians, actuaries, and operations research analysts alongside software developers, slightly diluting the software-specific signal. Additionally, the federal government shutdown disrupted October 2025 data collection, and benchmark revisions expected in early 2026 may revise these figures.

Conclusion

The unemployment rate for software engineers did not exceed 6% by September 30, 2025, based on official BLS data. The Computer and Mathematical Occupations category showed a 3.9% unemployment rate, representing a notable increase from the previous year but remaining well under both the 6% threshold and the national unemployment rate. Only recent computer science graduates (a subset not captured in the standard occupation data) exceeded 6% unemployment according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York research. The official BLS occupation-level data provides the most appropriate measure for this question, and that figure conclusively remained below 6%.

This is not a well posed question surely? What is a software engineer? It's not defined in the statistics from BLS. Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics