Anecdotally, there's an AI job crisis for juniors right now
tbh, it was always kind of difficult to get a job as a Junior engineer, I had to work for free for almost a year to get the job then slowly grind my way up for higher salary
Where is the AI jobs crisis?
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Re: Where is the AI jobs crisis?
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yea, we're basically not hiring anyone that isn't a senior developer already. That's going to be a huge problem eventually but not my problem to deal with. My best advice for folks that want to get into software now is be willing to do it cheap for awhile and then jump once you've developed some skills. If you were getting into this industry for the money you're properly fucked and I hope you didn't load up on debt.…
> If you're passionate about building stuff there's still room but the path forward is a lot murkier. Definitely feel the murkiness. I've been programming as a hobby for over ten years and only recently started wanting to do it professionally. I'm actually wondering if there's a path for me.
What people don’t get that traditional software jobs are gone.
There is no need for developers, testers, PMs, TPMs, devops, leads anymore. Communication burden and structure imposed by these roles is too high when you have AI. It doesn’t make sense to tell somebody to do something and for them to type it into the AI. You can type it into the AI yourself without wasting the time.
There is new job - software creator. Think of it as a single person replacing a team. This job requires different mix of skills, and different level of autonomy. Hiring needs to be adapted to this really, and people need to adapt. Some will shine in this new world, and those who still narrowly think of themselves as specialists in the specific old role are going to be jobless.
Re: Where is the AI jobs crisis?
#113Bold claim to say "no signs" based on non-contextual numbers. I think I recall somewhere that most jobs added were in healthcare. >> The May jobs report reinforced this with nonfarm payrolls jumping by 172,000, confirming that there are no signs of workers being replaced by ChatGPT.
It’s so frustrating that someone with a title of “Chief Economist” puts things like this out there. Job numbers get revised every month, in a negative direction. New grad unemployment is high and trending higher. New jobs exclusively are held up by addition in healthcare industry, almost every other sector is seeing some negative movement. A lot of job openings, a good chunk of them, are just fake jobs where the comp…
There are upward and downward revisions this year at least, it seems like a mixed bag with many policies juicing the economy. [1]
Job opportunities differ by state and de-growth hostility to business policies and crony investments. Where I am, layoffs and offshoring continues. I hear new grads are increasingly opting for the skilled trades, which is interesting given they aren't getting use out of their degrees.
Re: Where is the AI jobs crisis?
#114I'm a consultant, and had my first conversation about an AI clean-up job this week. I'm also just starting another gig analysing LLM output, my sell is that the analysis is hand-coded, as they weren't able to do it themselves with LLM support.
On the other hand, I'm just finishing an agent-heavy piece. After getting it set up, it's been some of the most mindless and soul-destroying work I've had the displeasure of in a while. This stuff will be near minimum wage in a few years, totally unskilled babysitting.
AI really hasn't been all that bad for work, by volume at least. I know where I want to focus my efforts though.
Re: Where is the AI jobs crisis?
#115Exactly. Much of the "AI job crisis" rhetoric was PR comms to manage conversations around corporate restructuring (even ZIRP is a lazy PR comms excuse). Most decisionmakers by 2025 already agreed they didn't expect AI to have a significant impact on hiring [0]. I've pointed out the reasons ad nauseum on here but no one listens [1]. [0] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-10/wall-stre... [1] - https://ne…
For US SWE labor, off-shoring was and still is a big contributor. I do think AI is a factor too though. You almost get laughed at asking for headcount now. For junior positions in particular, there are close to zero openings.
AI has grown dramatically in capability since last year as well so I'm not sure 2025 data holds today.
Re: Where is the AI jobs crisis?
#116It's crazy that so often I see articles, here on HN and elsewhere, where some pundit claims that there is no AI job crisis, AI isn't replacing any jobs, that layoffs are actually due to post-pandemic ZIRP overhiring, etc. But then people who work in actual tech companies come in and explicitly say they are not hiring any juniors anymore specifically because AI is good enough to do most of what juniors do, and that se…
> There seems to be a desire for a narrative that AI really just can't replace productive work, and that it's all a mirage. Yes, and juniors aren't known for their productive work in the beginning. That's not their purpose. Their purpose is to do the mundane work, because it is important for them to become less junior and more senior. That is robbed of them. Which in 5-10 years means the need for senior developers is…
people keep saying that assuming that in 5-10 years AI won’t be as good as senior engineers
Re: Where is the AI jobs crisis?
#117Well, I'm on a small two person team.. for the last few years I would have loved to have 2-3 people under me.. I've been underwater constantly, but we couldn't afford it.
Now I have no need for anyone from a coding perspective.. I can keep up with multiple clients requests with a breeze. I don't have to manage anyone. I type of my phone while I'm on a walk and work gets done for me.
So yeah... it's not good.
Re: Where is the AI jobs crisis?
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There seems to be a desire for a narrative that AI really just can't replace productive work, and that it's all a mirage. Yes, and juniors aren't known for their productive work in the beginning. That's not their purpose. Their purpose is to do the mundane work, because it is important for them to become less junior and more senior. That is robbed of them. Which in 5-10 years means the need for senior developers is…
people keep saying that assuming that in 5-10 years AI won’t be as good as senior engineers
What makes you think that? AI isn't as good as any human in any field. Why would it be capable of replacing anyone at all in 10 years?
Re: Where is the AI jobs crisis?
#119It's crazy that so often I see articles, here on HN and elsewhere, where some pundit claims that there is no AI job crisis, AI isn't replacing any jobs, that layoffs are actually due to post-pandemic ZIRP overhiring, etc. But then people who work in actual tech companies come in and explicitly say they are not hiring any juniors anymore specifically because AI is good enough to do most of what juniors do, and that se…
well said. my wife's company has been having layoffs particularly from the overhiring during COVID. They went from 10 billion down to 1 billion thus far.
Re: Where is the AI jobs crisis?
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
people keep saying that assuming that in 5-10 years AI won’t be as good as senior engineers
What makes you think that? AI isn't as good as any human in any field. Why would it be capable of replacing anyone at all in 10 years?
>What makes you think that? AI isn't as good as any human in any field.
Not even chess-playing? More applicable to jobs though, they're arguably better than some juniors.