No hire, no fire: Employers get picky on tech skills amid AI disruption

The current “no-hire-no-fire” environment in the workplace has slowed the pace of tech hiring in the US, but companies have seen one benefit — the selection of job candidates is easier.

Many employers have become clearer about the qualifications they’re seeking in new hires: they’re focused less on people who can service large stacks of code, and more on ability to have a direct impact on corporate revenue and operations.

“Roles are narrower, expectations are clearer, and teams are being built with purpose rather than volume,” said Kye Mitchell, head of Experis, a division of recruiting firm ManpowerGroup.

That’s the backdrop amid a spate of recent hiring data reports released by the US government and various private firms that track hiring. Overall, employment in the US rose by 115,000 jobs in April, with gains in healthcare, transportation and warehousing, and retail trade, according to the latest report by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

But tech hiring has slowed and in the last week, research firms have released April numbers that vary wildly; some point to big tech job cuts, others see increases in hiring. Looking deeper at the data, jobs fell in tech-related sectors such as telecom (down 2.5% decline) and infrastructure providers (with a 3.9%).

Though the BLS reported job growth for the overall economy in April, placement firm Challenger Gray and Christmas actually reported a jobs decline by 83,387 across all sectors. It also argued that tech companies are indeed making large-scale cuts, with 33,361 losses in April, Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement.

AI was cited most often as a reason for job losses, affecting 21,490, or 26% of all  cuts across sectors in April. Other reasons cited were the on-again, off-again tariffs imposed by President Donald J. Trump, the ongoing war in Iran, and slack consumer spending.

“Regardless of whether individual jobs are being replaced by AI, the money for those roles is,” Gray said.

Even with uncertainty about the direction of the job market, recent data indicates a growth in tech job listings, which undercuts the notion that tech firms are drastically reducing payrolls. According to CompTIA, 271,483 tech job listing across were added in April. That brings the total to 575,000 active job postings.

The increase in listings is the result of employers clarifying their tech strategies and AI roles, CompTIA said. Increasingly, roles are being defined around “core tech skills as a foundation for more advanced capabilities,” CompTIA said. 

Challenger, Gray and Christmas has measured 85,411 tech job cuts so far this year, with 33,361 of those cuts coming in April alone. Along the same lines, RationalFX has counted 78,557 tech jobs lost globally so far in 2026.

This year has been especially brutal at some companies: Reports last month indicated that Meta planned to cut 10% of its workforce. In late March, Oracle announced job cuts that financial analysts said could affect 30,000 employees. Amazon, PayPal, Block, and Atlassian are among the other major tech firms cutting jobs.

Many of the job listing numbers could turn out to be transitional, as many CIOs still don’t know what skills they’re looking for in job candidates, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates.

A particular skill that’s useful today might not be needed tomorrow — especially given the pace at which AI is advancing in the workplace.

“I don’t see the mass elimination of jobs, like some ‘pundits’ have predicted,” Gold said. “It [the AI era] will likely result in new jobs we haven’t thought about yet.”No hire, no fire: Employers get picky on tech skills amid AI disruption – ComputerworldRead More