It’s an especially ruthless time to be a tech pro looking for a job. The industry, once considered a beacon of the future and a certainty for high pay, has been hamstrung by hundreds of thousands of layoffs over the past year—over 215,000 in 2023 alone. The picture hasn’t been so grim since the dotcom era.
But there’s one way tech workers can get a leg up on their competition when landing their next gig: By focusing on what Roger Lee, veteran startup founder who tracks tech layoffs on Layoffs.fyi., calls the “A.I. premium.” While some people have pointed fingers at the increased impact of artificial intelligence—which many skeptics have said will replace human jobs entirely—as one of the many factors behind tech layoffs, the rise of A.I. is also minting new tech jobs and opportunities. Workers with A.I. know-how might just be the ones replacing old jobs rather than A.I. itself—and they’ll be pretty well paid for it.
