A developer is also called a “programmer” or “coder”. In the building analogy, a developer is somewhat like a combination of a civil engineer and a contractor.
In the end, a developer is a team member who actually puts things together. A developer reads the blueprint of a system (called a system specification), and construct it piece by piece according to the specification. A developer writes programs in one or more programming language.
As a coder, it is important to be detail oriented and logical. Although coding does not involve a lot of creativity, it does involve a great deal of attention to detail, organization, and logical deduction.
Of all the computer related occupations, developers (programmers) is the only category that is expected to have a drop of 4% from 2006 to 2016 http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos110.htm. This is a combination of software product maturing as well as globalization.
Nonetheless, it should be noted that although the overall employement is declining slowly, specific fields like robotics, security and embedded systems may be an increase of employment opportunities due to technological advances and other reasons.