For those navigating the IT job market, whether as currently employed IT professionals or college students, now may be an ideal time to review how the environment is quickly evolving. According to some experts, the technology job market appears to be moving down two specific paths: The first path focuses on strong demand for high-paying work in specialized AI, cloud architecture and cybersecurity; the other focuses on routine coding, junior roles that tend to be entry level, and basic IT support.
Several factors could dramatically change the trajectory of the job market. For example, the economy could be influenced by global military actions, rising interest rates, inflation and general business uncertainty. AI is also a double-edged sword. On the one hand, AI is considered by many to be an ideal technology for optimizing automation, working efficiently and continuously, personalizing the user experience and potentially reducing human error. On the negative side, it can cause job displacement and high startup costs, and potentially lacks human intelligence. It can run autonomously, and if unchecked, some AI agents can independently evade human attempts to shut their processes down. Top CEOs of leading AI companies have stressed the need to slow down powerful AI systems but still move ahead carefully. What does all this mean for students or recent graduates trying to plot IT-related careers? Let’s dig a bit deeper into the details.
WHERE THE TECH JOBS SEEM TO BE
In today’s tech job market, indications are that employment postings are down from the pre-pandemic level of early 2020, but by 2025, postings for machine-learning engineers were up by 59 percent, according to research from Indeed.com. For 2026, according to the most recent State of Tech Workforce report by the nonprofit trade association CompTIA, the IT job market showed modest growth in the first portion of the year. There appears to be a two-way job split between AI engineers and general software engineers: AI engineers, particularly in senior roles, are paid a premium over non-AI peers, and this trend seems to be growing.
POTENTIAL SAFER EMPLOYMENT AREAS
Beyond certain AI-related fields, there are other employment sectors that appear to be safe bets. These types of jobs tend to focus on more hands-on physical work and fall into the categories of personal services such as clinical and direct healthcare, education and human development, skilled trades and infrastructure services, and creative work. When the online remote school U.S. Career Institute recently listed 65 jobs with the lowest risk of being lost due to AI, at the top of the list were nurse practitioners, physician assistants and nursing instructors. While these jobs may be safe from elimination due to AI, each of these disciplines will likely still use AI tools in their daily responsibilities.
AT-RISK EMPLOYMENT SECTORS
Some jobs considered at risk for elimination by AI are simple data entry, IT and general call centers, and general accounting. Particularly in IT, AI agents can now easily handle a help desk or call center to deal with initial technical support issues and questions, and accomplish this entirely unattended 24/7, all with a human-sounding voice with efficient call and issue tracking. If needed, an AI agent can escalate issue resolution to a human entity as needed, anywhere in the world.