The parent's point is that some jobs are more likely to disappear than others, for example working for a company that seems likely to fail. And when the risk is higher, the skilled programmer might justifiably require that compensation be commensurately higher as well.
Too often in discussions of risk management, someone points out that I could be hit by a bus.
Its a very different statistics, the chance of your job being around vs the chance of the company being around, in a year.
Jobs come and go all the time, even at Dell, even at GM. Rockwell (has a local plant in Cedar Rapids IA) hires and fires hundreds of engineers yearly, as the contracts come and go.
Too often in discussions of risk management, someone points out that I could be hit by a bus.