AI is changing the labor market: the unemployment rate among IT specialists has increased in the United States

The unemployment rate in the US IT sector showed growth in April 2024, reaching the mark of 3.8%. According to the Wall Street Journal, this is 0.2% higher than in March. Experts associate the current dynamics with uncertainty in the technological sphere, where artificial intelligence is beginning to radically change the usual approaches to staff formation.

Situation on the IT labor market in the USA

An analysis by consulting firm Janco Associates based on data from the U.S. Department of Labor shows the heterogeneity of the economic recovery. While the country’s overall economy added 115,000 jobs (mostly through retail, transportation and healthcare), the information sector lost 13,000 jobs. The overall level of unemployment in the country is recorded at 4.3%.

The current state of the market is characterized by a significant decrease in the level of employment compared to the post-pandemic peak. In the IT, telecommunications and data processing segments, employment fell 11% from the record level in November 2022. In absolute terms, this is a loss of about 342,000 jobs.

Influence of large companies

The growth of unemployment in the technological segment has prompted the decisions of a number of large corporations:

• Meta Platforms: announced layoffs of about 10% of employees (approximately 8,000 people).
• Nike: cuts about 1,400 employees (2% of the workforce), the blow fell mainly on technological divisions.
• Snap: eliminates 16% of jobs (about 1,000 positions) to optimize processes and implement effective AI solutions.

 The causes of the hiring crisis

The head of Janco, Viktor Yanulatis, emphasizes that artificial intelligence is not the only culprit of what is happening. In addition to process automation, business decisions are influenced by:

• Sustainably high inflation;
• Economic instability exacerbated by international conflicts;
• General uncertainty of economic development forecasts.

Perspectives for programmers and IT specialists

Despite negative layoff statistics, the global demand for skilled developers has not disappeared. According to Hannah Calhoun, vice president of the Indeed platform, the number of open jobs for software developers increased by 15% year over year. However, there is an important nuance: companies have become more selective and prefer experienced staff who can work with new technologies. This creates serious barriers to entering the industry for university graduates and junior professionals.