AI impact on tech jobs shows growth in openings despite automation fears

Despite widespread fears of artificial intelligence eliminating employment, technology job openings are rising, with TrueUp tracking over 280,000 open roles in October 2026. Massive infrastructure spending is fueling a surge in demand for hardware engineers, even as early-career hiring slows in office-based fields. While McKinsey projects that automation will displace 36 million U.S. jobs by 2035, it expects the creation of 41 million new roles, shifting the primary economic challenge from job scarcity to career mobility.

Tech industry hiring and layoff trends

• ▪TrueUp data indicates that approximately 190,000 technology workers were laid off in 2026, putting the year on track to finish well below the 430,000 job cuts recorded during the industry's peak in 2023.
• ▪Data from the hiring platform TrueUp shows that open technology jobs across startups and major firms exceeded 280,000 in 2026, representing a strong increase from the start of 2026.

Investment in AI infrastructure and hardware

• ▪Global cumulative spending on data centers alone could exceed $30 trillion by 2050 according to a projection by PwC, a sum that dwarfs inflation-adjusted spending during the historical railroad or dotcom booms.
• ▪Hiring data shows a surge in demand for hardware engineers in 2026, driven by massive capital spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure, including graphics processing units, robotics, manufacturing, and data centers.

McKinsey projections on job transitions

• ▪A McKinsey Global Institute report projects that artificial intelligence and automation will reduce demand for approximately 36 million United States jobs by 2035, while growth in other sectors will create about 41 million jobs.
• ▪The McKinsey Global Institute report projects that about 11 million United States workers, representing roughly 7 percent of the workforce, will need to change occupations entirely by 2035, requiring about 770,000 people to switch fields annually.

Barriers for workers in growing fields

• ▪The McKinsey Global Institute report estimates that approximately 85 percent of growing jobs require a credential, and nearly half of displaced workers face an "unpaved" path to new employment due to large skill gaps or credential requirements.
• ▪The McKinsey Global Institute found that approximately 76 percent of growing jobs cannot be performed remotely, presenting a geographic hurdle for displaced workers as these roles are concentrated in physical locations like hospitals, construction sites, and data centers.
• ▪The McKinsey Global Institute report notes that shrinking jobs are concentrated in lower-paid sectors like office support, retail, and transportation, making lower-wage workers 7.6 times more likely than higher-wage workers to need to switch occupations.

Insights from Messy Jobs

• ▪Economists Luis Garicano, Jin Li, and Yanhui Wu predict in their book that artificial intelligence-generated work will increase the demand for workplace conflict resolution and authority-based decisions.
• ▪In their book "Messy Jobs: The Work That AI Cannot Reach," economists Luis Garicano, Jin Li, and Yanhui Wu describe a "90/10 production function" where artificial intelligence makes it easy to build something 90 percent great but leaves workers stranded when trying to reach 100 percent excellence.

Funding for Florida campuses

• ▪Developer Stephen Ross contributed $50 million to lead the fundraising for Vanderbilt University's new graduate campus in West Palm Beach.
• ▪To build local talent anchors for growing industries, Citadel founder Ken Griffin committed $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University on September 30, 2026, including $2 billion for a new Miami campus, while Vanderbilt University is raising funds for a graduate campus in West Palm Beach.

Debatable claims

• ▪AI will create more jobs than it eliminates
• ▪AI is permanently damaging career pathways for entry-level white-collar workers