gustavofrazao / Getty As one of the few employment areas to enjoy near constant growth over the past decade, software development faced new challenges during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, both for those working in the field and for those hiring them. But during the pandemic, developers became even more important, as we all came to rely even more on software in our daily lives. As a result, many developers have been working more hours than normal and have had to quickly adapt to working from home and contending with their home broadband connection. But software developers have not seen the broad elimination of jobs or cuts to pay that some other industries have seen. In fact, the number of software developer jobs has increased. The 2020 Worldwide Developer Population and Demographic Study by Evans Data showed the worldwide developer population continued to grow by 500,000 in 2020, reaching a total of 24.5 million. COVID-19 did slow that growth, to 2.4% versus the predicted 4%, the developer-focused research firm said.