we would have to look at raw numbers, like, perhaps web tech is just "flat", not declining.

but my suspicion without evidence is that the gross number of people in the industry is actually dropping, though it should be increasing.

This would be an interesting request to directly ask the data. Which you can do using our "chat with hacker news data" free tool: https://camelai.com/hackernews/

No login required.

i went there on mobile and asked two questions. it went pretty well from a UI and response quality perspective. the data they showed me didn't show any obvious trends, but i suspect it's because i didn't specify a long enough list of technologies, and that some general terms were included like "machine learning" and "llm" which had an effect of hiding the trends i was looking for.

a great start and much more enjoyable than writing the sql or for loops myself :)

thank you very much for suggesting that and for making it available without a login :)