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Exactly.

Much of the "AI job crisis" rhetoric was PR comms to manage conversations around corporate restructuring (even ZIRP is a lazy PR comms excuse).

Most decisionmakers by 2025 already agreed they didn't expect AI to have a significant impact on hiring [0].

I've pointed out the reasons ad nauseum on here but no one listens [1].

[0] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-10/wall-stre...

[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47174561

For US SWE labor, off-shoring was and still is a big contributor. I do think AI is a factor too though. You almost get laughed at asking for headcount now. For junior positions in particular, there are close to zero openings.

AI has grown dramatically in capability since last year as well so I'm not sure 2025 data holds today.

It was difficult getting junior headcount in 2023 as well.

That said, I agree with you that AI capabilities have grown massively, but the only way you aren't burning tokens with marginal RoI is having someone with credible domain experience using Claude Code or Codex hand-in-hand.

Basically, no one wants to spend $200K TC on training a junior who will most likely be using an AI tool already. The math works out more positively at a significantly lower TC.