The growing role of AI in the field of software development is showing up in employment data. Gropp is contending with a weak job market for recent college graduates in general and the tech sector in particular. Even though employment for 22-to-27-year-olds in other fields has seen a slight increase over the past three years, jobs for computer-science and math jobs in that age group has fallen by 8 percent, the report reveals.
Executives at Microsoft and Google’s parent company Alphabet have already confirmed the impact of AI on their code output. Recently, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy issued a stark message to employees: Artificial intelligence will reduce the company’s corporate workforce in the coming years. “We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today,” Jassy wrote, citing expected efficiency gains. He noted that AI will also create new kinds of roles, but the net effect is likely to be a leaner corporate staff. Jassy wrote that employees should learn how to use AI tools, experiment, and figure out “how to get more done with scrappier teams.”A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that 48% of Americans believe software engineers will be among the professions most affected by AI in the coming years. That’s a higher percentage than for teachers, journalists, or accountants.
“We know AI is affecting jobs,” Rusinkiewicz, from Princeton, told the Atlantic. “It’s making people more efficient at some or many aspects of their jobs, and therefore, perhaps companies feel they can get away with doing a bit less hiring.”
The shift towards AI has not just left the tech market rattled but it has also worried tech students. Enrollment in the computer-science major has historically fluctuated with the job market. Eventually, there aren’t enough computer-science graduates, salaries go up, and more people are drawn in, the report mentioned.
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Prior declines have always rebounded to enrollment levels higher than where they started. (And some universities, such as the University of Chicago, still haven’t seen any enrollment drops.) Sam Madden, a computer-science professor at MIT, told the outlet that even if companies are employing generative AI, that will likely create more demand for software engineers, not less.
With mass layoffs in big tech, changing visa norms, and rising uncertainty around the long-term role of junior programmers, CS is no longer the default “safe bet” it once seemed.
