How to Land a Job in the Booming Software Sector Despite AI Fears
Check out this chart, which shows open software engineering roles globally. The chart starts in late 2022, when ChatGPT emerged and started the generative AI revolution. The line goes the opposite way you would expect, given all the hand-wringing over AI lately. The recovery follows a steep correction in 2022 and early 2023, when tech companies slashed hiring after over-expanding during the pandemic boom. Rising interest rates and a shift toward profitability forced companies to freeze hiring and cut staff. Now, hiring is rebounding as firms invest heavily in AI, which, ironically, requires large numbers of engineers. [...] Data from TrueUp, a tech hiring analytics firm, shows more than 67,000 software engineering job openings, the highest level in over three years. Listings have roughly doubled since a trough in mid-2023. The most striking number for me: So far this year, the number of open roles has jumped about 30%. TrueUp tracks jobs at tech companies (rather than all types of businesses that may need tech workers), so the impact of AI should be felt even more strongly in this data. "A lot of the 'AI is replacing engineers' narrative isn't grounded in job posting data — at least not so far," Amit Taylor, founder of TrueUp, told me this week. [...] A version of this story originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter. Sign up for the weekly BI Tech Memo newsletter here. AI-generated summary Summaries are generated by an AI model trained on Business Insider's articles. AI may make mistakes or provide inaccurate/incomplete information. We're unable to load that answer right now. Please try again. The US jobs report on Friday was surprisingly strong. That's not the only part of the job market that's doing better than expected. Tech job openings have rebounded sharply in 2026, challenging the popular narrative that AI is wiping out engineering roles.