Tech Companies in the United States Maintain Their Freeze on Hiring

In the dynamic world of technology, the job market has seen its fair share of fluctuations over the past few years. Here's a snapshot of the trends that have shaped the tech industry, particularly in the realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

Machine Learning Engineers, despite a 47% drop from their early 2022 peak, remain up 59% from early 2020. This resilience is a testament to the growing importance of AI in various sectors. Interestingly, AI/ML engineer job postings have done even better than their machine learning engineer counterparts.

Tech job postings peaked in early 2022, more than double their February 2020 level. However, as of early July 2025, US tech job postings on Indeed are down 36% from their early-2020 levels. The decline began before the public release of Chat GPT-3 in late 2022, suggesting that the economic situation and the Fed's decision to hike interest rates played a significant role.

Jobs directly related to AI, such as machine learning engineers, are among the few tech jobs with postings still above early-2020 levels. This trend is reflected in the salaries of these roles, with posted annual salaries for jobs like machine learning engineer (2024 median of $260,000) often ranking among the highest of common tech jobs.

The pull-back in demand for tech workers was especially sharp among jobs in the middle of the tech wage-spectrum, including several types of specialized developers. On the other hand, roles like data center technicians have soared in demand amid the rise of GenAI.

SAP consultants and leads are standout roles that support the adoption of technology across a wide range of businesses. In regions like San Jose, Austin, and Seattle, these roles, along with AI-related jobs, have helped tech postings hold up better than expected. San Jose, Austin, and Seattle showed the lowest reduction in tech jobs on Indeed in the USA from 2020 to 2025.

Despite some high-profile layoffs, pay remains solid in the tech industry. The number of people working in tech and mathematics occupations ticked down in 2024, but remained quite elevated. As of early 2025, only 19% of the 149 tech titles with at least 1000 postings exceeded their pre-pandemic levels.

In conclusion, while the tech job market has seen a decline from its peak, the demand for AI and ML professionals remains strong. The ratio of tech postings relative to postings for low-AI exposure jobs has held fairly steady since late 2023, indicating a continued focus on technology integration across industries. Tech and mathematics employment remains quite elevated according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey, up 19% from their 2019 level despite a 2% decrease in 2024.