At a certain level, sure, but C++ at least has definitely lost out. In the 90s it seemed like it might really take over all sorts of application domains, it was incredibly popular. Now and for probably the last couple decades it and C have only kept around 10% of the global job market.
My gut feeling is there are still the same number of jobs for C++ today as there were in the 90s. It's just that they're hard to find because the total number of programming jobs has exploded. The reason you can't see the C++ jobs is because the newer, non-C++ jobs are crowding them out on job boards. [This is a hypothesis, one I haven't (dis)proven.]
For fun a few weeks ago I went looking for COBOL on VMS jobs. They're definitely still out there, but you do have to look for them. No one's going to send you an email asking if you're interested and if you don't hang out with COBOL/VMS people, you may not know they exist.
I think my point is the total number of C/C++ jobs today are probably the same or slightly higher than 1994. But the total number of Java and C# jobs (or Ruby or Elixr or JavaScript jobs) is dramatically higher than in 1994, if for no other reason than the fact these languages didn't exist in 1994.
[As an aside... if you're looking for a COBOL / VMS programmer/analyst... I spent much of the 80s as a VMS System Manager, coding custom dev tools in Bliss and some of the 90s working on the MicroFocus COBOL compiler for AIX. And while you would be crazy to ignore my 30+ years of POSIX/Unix(tm) experience, I think it would be fun to sling COBOL on VMS.]
> My gut feeling is there are still the same number of jobs for C++ today as there were in the 90s. It's just that they're hard to find because the total number of programming jobs has exploded. The reason you can't see the C++ jobs is because the newer, non-C++ jobs are crowding them out on job boards. [This is a hypothesis, one I haven't (dis)proven.]
I don't know anything about the total number of C++ jobs, but there's a huge filter bubble effect for job searching. If you don't mention a language on your resume or list it under your skills then you're very unlikely to see any jobs for it or have anybody contact you for a job using it, whether we're talking about C++, Python, Typescript, or even technologies like Docker.
