Hiring at technology companies has climbed this year and layoffs have kept easing, new data shows, undercutting predictions that artificial intelligence would wipe out large numbers of tech jobs.
TrueUp, a hiring platform that tracks more than 9,000 technology companies, counts more than 280,000 open tech jobs at startups and large firms, up strongly from the start of 2026, Business Insider reported.
The cuts have not stopped, but they have slowed well short of the industry’s post-pandemic reset. About 190,000 tech workers have been laid off so far in 2026, putting the year on pace to finish far below the roughly 430,000 jobs eliminated in 2023, the peak of the layoff wave.
The rebound is uneven. Demand for hardware engineers has surged on the back of heavy spending on AI infrastructure, the data show. “It’s not surprising given the interest in GPU innovation, AI robotics, US manufacturing startups, and SpaceX,” Amit Taylor, TrueUp’s founder, told Business Insider.
Software engineering listings have held up as well, despite warnings that AI coding tools would sharply cut the need for programmers.
Read together, the figures suggest AI is changing whom tech companies hire rather than erasing the need to hire. Demand is shifting toward the engineers who build the physical foundation of AI: chips, servers, robotics, manufacturing and data centers. Companies are still cutting in some corners, but they are hiring aggressively where AI investment is booming.