Despite the spate of layoffs and hiring freezes, it’s still a good time to be a programmer, thanks to continued high demand.

Tech companies, large and small, have engaged in mass layoffs and hiring freezes, leading many to worry about their job security. Although no one is truly safe, one major tech investor believes programmers as a group are in a good position.

“I like to say the most scarce commodity on the planet isn’t oil or lithium or cobalt, it’s actually software programmers,” said Robert Smith, founder, chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, according to Yahoo Finance. The private equity firm manages some $94 billion in assets, primarily in enterprise software.

“There are seven and a half billion people on the planet,” Smith added, “and only 29 million of us who write code for a living.”

Smith credits the ongoing demand for programmers and software developers to the role they play in helping to transform entire industries and economies.

“These are the people who are actually providing and building these productivity tools that have to continue to enable and digitize not only companies, but entire economies in countries, in education, in cybersecurity,” Smith said. “Those are the areas where we’re actually seeing that increased demand.”