Sep 18, 2025
For years, we heard about the tech talent shortage — that there were a glut of jobs and not enough bodies to fill them.
For students studying computer science, a bright future lay ahead. Upon graduation, they could expect multiple job offers, high starting salaries and lots of perks, from free food and gym memberships to ping-pong tables in the office.
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Fast-forward to now, and the tables have turned. Tech companies are laying off workers in droves. In some cases, they’re using AI to replace the workers that helped develop AI-based solutions.
Zach Taylor told The New York Times that, since graduating in 2023 with a computer science degree from Oregon State University, he’s applied to nearly 6,000 tech jobs — and it’s been one of “the most demoralizing experiences I have ever had to go through.”
He only landed 13 interviews and no job offers, yet couldn’t get a job at McDonald’s because of “lack of experience.”
What’s going on?
Taylor is far from alone. More than 150,000 tech employees were laid off across 551 tech companies in 2024, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. At the time of writing, 88,964 tech employees had been laid off to date in 2025 across 199 tech companies.
Major tech companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, Lenovo, and Intel laid off sizable chunks of their workforce in 2024, with layoffs continuing into 2025. Microsoft, for example, announced in July that it’s cutting another 9,000 employees following a series of layoffs earlier this year.
Many smaller-sized tech firms, as well as companies that rely heavily on tech (like dating app Bumble), have also made cuts.
While the idea behind AI was that it would automate manual tasks and help workers focus on more value-added activities, some workers fear it will outright replace them — and that’s already happening.
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A publicly posted company memo by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy went into great detail about how AI would “make our jobs even more exciting and fun than they are today.” But it also said the company expects “this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”
To top it off, low-code and no-code tools make it easier to complete simple coding jobs, even for non-technical users with little to no experience coding.
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So how are students responding?
Many student coders are saying goodbye to those $165,000 tech jobs, according to The New York Times.
“I just graduated with a computer science degree, and the only company that has called me for an interview is Chipotle,” Manasi Mishra, a graduate of Purdue University, said in a TikTok video earlier this summer.
The New York Times questioned more than 150 college students and recent grads from state schools and private universities about their experiences.
“Some said they had applied to hundreds, and in several cases thousands, of tech jobs at companies, nonprofits and government agencies. But many computing graduates said their monthslong job quests often ended in intense disappointment or worse: companies ghosting them.”
Tech jobs aren’t the only ones being impacted by this employment trend. More than a third of graduates believe their degree was “a waste of money,” according to research from Indeed Hiring Lab, with more than half (51%) of Gen Z respondents expressing remorse.
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That’s because, according to the research, not only has the “college wage premium” plateaued, college has become much more expensive — and students are graduating with a pile of debt. And then can’t get a job at McDonald’s.
What’s next?
Unemployment for college graduates averaged 5.3% in Q2 2025, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Underemployment held steady at a whopping 41%.
Computer science graduates, however, have another problem: bad timing. Many universities are just now starting to train students on AI coding tools, Tracy Camp, executive director of the Computing Research Association, told The New York Times.
Indeed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects growth in computer-related occupations through 2033. What’s different than in previous years, however, is that growth will come from roles that require specialized expertise — like cybersecurity, cloud computing and data engineering — rather than general programming skills.
That’s because these jobs require domain knowledge and human judgment — both of which aren’t easily replicated by AI.
But it doesn’t mean recent grads have to go back to school (at least not for four years) and get further in debt. One option is micro-credentials, which are short, snack-sized, skill-based programs for specific competencies.
“While educational requirements are unlikely to vanish from job postings, growing support of skills-first hiring approaches is a clear sign for workers to invest in skills now, regardless of their education level,” according to the Indeed Hiring Lab report. “In other words, even college-educated workers may have to think about reskilling more going forward.”
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Vawn Himmelsbach is a veteran journalist who has been covering tech, business, finance and travel for the past three decades. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post, Metro News, Canadian Geographic, Zoomer, CAA Magazine, Travelweek, Explore Magazine, Flare and Consumer Reports, to name a few.
