In detail
- SignalFire analyzed career data for millions of employees across 80+ million companies.
- Engineers comprised 55% of all new hires in 2025 at the 12 largest tech companies (2019: 46%).
- Early-stage startups hired 7% more engineers in 2025 than in 2019.
- Despite widespread adoption of AI-powered coding tools, they are not replacing engineers at the expected scale.
Why it matters
This contradicts widespread fears of mass job displacement in software development through AI and suggests that AI tools complement rather than replace engineers — a critical point for workforce planning and talent acquisition.
For you Don't plan your engineering recruitment based on AI displacement scenarios; demand remains high, and AI skills will become a differentiator.