Engineering hiring resilient amid AI adoption, SignalFire data shows

Despite widespread layoff announcements citing AI as a primary driver, hiring data indicates engineering roles have proven more resilient than other functions in tech. According to a report by venture firm SignalFire, engineering roles declined by 11% in 2025 compared to a 25% drop in overall tech hiring across large companies. The analysis tracked millions of employees across more than 80 million companies, using hiring data as a proxy for real-time workforce trends rather than layoff figures, which can lag as workers delay updating their employment status.

Engineers made up 55% of all new hires in 2025 at 12 companies SignalFire classifies as “Tech Majors”—including Alphabet, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, Nvidia, Tesla, Uber, Airbnb, Block, and Stripe—up from 46% in 2019. The report highlights that early-stage startups collectively hired 7% more engineers in 2025 than they did in 2019, further underscoring the sector’s sustained demand for technical talent.

The divergence between layoff rhetoric and hiring reality may reflect how AI tools are reshaping engineering work rather than replacing it outright. Asher Bantock, SignalFire’s head of research, noted that companies often cite AI as a reason for layoffs, including claims that “one engineer could do the job of however many engineers in the past.” However, he said the data does not support a broad substitution effect. Instead, the pattern suggests a Jevons paradox: as engineers become more productive with AI assistance, the volume of work expands to absorb the increased capacity.

Executives at major tech firms have publicly pushed back on the idea that AI will eliminate engineering jobs. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang argued in April that AI tools have made software engineers “busier than ever,” with agentic AI accelerating code generation and prompting engineers to pursue “the next idea.” Anthropic’s head of economics similarly reported in March that the company had not observed significant AI-driven workforce effects, including among software engineers using AI for core tasks.