AI Is Putting Tech Companies in the Hiring Mood Again
After a year of mass layoffs, fear of missing out on the artificial intelligence wave is boosting jobs in Silicon Valley, which is good for the whole economy.
There is much work to be done.
Photographer: Jeff Haynes/AFP
Ever since tech stocks began slumping last year, the industry — with Meta Platforms Inc., Alphabet Inc., and Amazon.com Inc. being the most prominent companies — has been conducting mass layoffs to right-size headcounts after a hiring binge during the pandemic. Companies were also under pressure to appease investors who became newly focused on profits rather than growth and sizzle. The layoffs cast a pall over the entire labor market, with workers worried about whether the contraction would spill over from the tech sector to other parts of the economy the way they did during the dot-com bust in the early 2000s.
But an unexpected savior has come riding to the rescue of tech workers, at least for now. Companies and investors are hyped up about what artificial intelligence could mean for future profits, and worried about what it could mean if they’re left behind. And while AI may eventually destroy millions of jobs, the products and services that will be responsible for that don’t yet exist. Companies have to build them, and they’ll need tech workers for that.