Stanford's AI Index, citing Brynjolfsson et al., finds AI's labour-market effect landing on hiring pipelines rather than on broad job losses. By September 2025, employment for US software developers aged 22 to 25 had fallen close to 20% from its 2022 peak
The Stanford AI Index, citing research by Brynjolfsson et al., reported on AI's impact on the labor market. It found that employment for US software developers aged 22 to 25 decreased by nearly 20% from its 2022 peak by September 2025. This effect is concentrated in hiring pipelines and among the youngest workers in exposed occupations, rather than causing broad job losses.
Verified 2026-08-11
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AI seems to be hitting entry-level hiring first, rather than causing broad job losses.
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- AI hiring intensity doesn't track the size of a country's AI industry. Stanford's 2026 AI Index, drawing on Lightcast's job-postings database across dozens of countries, found the 2025 leader for AI-skill job-posting share by a wide margin was Singapore, at 4.69% of all job postings — nearly double the 2.6% share in the United States
- Stanford's 2026 AI Index, citing Lightcast's job-postings database, found that even as employer demand shifted toward newer agentic-AI skills, mentions of generative AI skills specifically in US AI job postings still grew, from 2024 to 2025, by 111%
- The information sector — telecom, media, tech services — led US corporate AI hiring in 2025. Lightcast data cited in Stanford's 2026 AI Index found AI skills required in 13.2% of the sector's job postings, up from 7.8% in 2024
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