AI may be killing some high-tech jobs, but it's also creating others. See who's winning and losing.

MW AI may be killing some high-tech jobs, but it's also creating others. See who's winning and losing.

By Jeffry Bartash

Revolutionary technology hasn't had a revolutionary effect on jobs - at least not yet

Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang are leading the revolution in artificial intelligence. Is AI coming for your job?

Artificial intelligence might terminate lots of jobs one day, especially in high tech, but there's little evidence AI is already causing widespread layoffs.

What AI appears to be doing for now is slightly reducing the need for companies to fill or keep certain jobs - while encouraging others to hire more people.

The monthly jobs reports from January through May help illustrate these trends.

Let's start with high tech, the industry most directly affected by AI.

The broadest category of high-tech employment, including software development and computer design, totaled 2.37 million jobs in May. These jobs peaked at 2.48 million in 2023 and have declined steadily since then. Some 7,000 of these positions have been eliminated through the first five months of 2026.

A similar pattern has emerged in high-tech jobs involved with the internet, including data centers vital to artificial intelligence. These jobs totaled 466,100 in May, but they have also fallen slightly since the start of the year. They are also down from a record 489,000 three years ago.

Altogether, high-tech employment in these two categories has fallen 4.5% from an all-time high of 2.97 million in 2023.

Clearly, AI is having an effect, even if it's small one.

Here's more evidence: Some tech companies such as Meta Platforms (META) and Coinbase (COIN) have announced layoffs this year, and tied them to what they said are advances in AI.

What's more, the number of announced layoffs in high tech this year is up 33% from the same period a year ago, the investment firm BlackRock estimates.

"There are clearly some jobs that will be augmented and aided by AI more than others, and there will be some categories of employment that are more readily substituted for by AI," wrote Rick Rieder, investment firm BlackRock's chief investment officer of global fixed income, in recent commentary. "And yet while all of this is currently in the early stages, you are starting to see some signs of that today and in many of the recent payroll reports."

That's not the entire story, though. A big part of the slowdown in hiring in tech in the past few years, top executives have said, was a frenzy of overhiring after the pandemic ended.

From 2021 to 2013, Amazon.com (AMZN), Microsoft $(MSFT)$, Google parent Alphabet $(GOOGL)$ $(GOOG)$ and other high-tech giants boosted employment by 14%. Now, companies are reducing some of the bloat.

Yet whether it's AI or a reaction to overhiring, high-tech employment is still much higher now than it was before the pandemic. Some 2.84 million people were employed in the two main categories of high-tech jobs in May, up 9% compared to the last month before the pandemic in February 2020.

What's more, demand for some high-tech workers appears to be increasing. The job-listing site Indeed, for example, said job openings for software developers were up 14% in April compared to a year earlier.

The positive impact of AI is also being felt outside of high tech.

Take construction: Hiring for these blue-collar trades jobs has risen in the past year despite a slumping housing market - something that almost never happens.

While employment in home construction has declined, the opposite is taking place among commercial builders. They are hiring more people for projects such as data centers and energy plants critical to the expansion of AI.

"Like previous technological transformations, AI will reduce opportunities for some jobs and create more opportunities for new ones," said Bill Adams, chief economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank.

-Jeffry Bartash

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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June 05, 2026 14:03 ET (18:03 GMT)

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