"doing ok" or "barely keeping head above water". Is not a good look, when you have people doing demanding engineering jobs that require skill and years of education, that they have to keep themselves up to date learning past 9-5. I know married senior developer with two kids, 20 years of experience, still saving for deposit for a flat (as house is now out of reach). Rents are going up and so the property prices so they can't catch up. His wife can't work full time, because of children and nursery etc is unaffordable. They have not been on holidays since Covid and employer is talking about downsizing. Man is 40 and looks like 50 due to stress. I know a couple of developers who are single, yes they do "okay", but they are nowhere near in a position to start a family. It's grim. Then you have wage compression where really doing warehouse job doesn't get you much worse living standard than typical developer. You will have shittier flat, maybe extra housemate and you will shop in Aldi instead of Waitrose. That's very much the difference right now.