Unemployment is spiking for US IT pros - unless you want to babysit bots

Economic uncertainty and the race to AI are pillaging the IT job market

The IT job market in the US is being hit from two sides at once: Companies are grappling with fears of a recession stemming from the Trump administration's erratic tariff policy, while AI is increasingly mopping up entry-level jobs.

The latest look at Bureau of Labor Statistics data by IT management consulting firm Janco found that the unemployment rate for IT professionals spiked by nearly a full percentage point last month, rising from 4.6 percent in April to 5.5 percent in May. It's the fifth month in a row that the IT unemployment rate has exceeded the national average.

Most open IT positions, Janco noted in the report, involve large language models, blockchain technology, and omnichannel commerce. Outside of those areas, it's slim pickings.

"IT opportunities for IT pros will be poor except for AI implementations, which focus on improved productivity and staff reductions," Janco stated.

Most job losses are in the telecommunications sector and in roles related to reporting, monitoring, and support. The hardest hit will be IT pros with "legacy" skills in smaller markets like Nashville and Tulsa, while pros in bigger locations like New York and Dallas will have an easier time.

As has been the case in recent months, Janco believes AI is responsible for the elimination of many entry-level IT positions, particularly in telecoms, as well as in compliance reporting and management.

"Companies do not have the desire to hire new staff to meet mandated compliance requirements," Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis wrote in the report. "Ergo, they are focusing on AI to automate as many of those tasks as possible, especially for reporting and monitoring."

In other words, managers see these jobs as a perfect fit for the AI buzzword of the moment: Agents

They took our jobs: Agentic AI finally knocks the mask off

Agents are narrowly tailored AI applications programmed to make independent decisions toward a particular goal – like a workflow on LLM-infused steroids.

According to Big Four accounting firm EY, agents herald the next step in the evolution of enterprise AI and are rapidly gaining mindshare among business leaders looking for a way to get a return on their AI investments. 

In survey results released last month, EY found that 48 percent of business leaders were adopting, or had already adopted, agentic AI in their organizations. A full 81 percent of respondents expressed optimism about AI's potential to help them meet their goals in the next year, and 92 percent said they expect to increase their AI spending in the next 12 months.

"Our survey shows reaffirmations in ambitious AI spending and a move from pilots to production," EY noted. "That said, despite the optimism they're feeling, there's still tremendous pressure for these technology leaders to demonstrate return on investment now through measurement and tangible top-line and bottom-line results."

EY reports that the workplace impact of agentic AI adoption will be "mixed," with most respondents saying they would need to hire people with AI management skills, while also admitting that "a rebalancing of the workforce is still happening."

Indeed, employer job postings related to AI are up 117 percent year to date, CompTIA noted in its latest jobs report for the month.

Meanwhile, Janco predicts that the slowdown will continue throughout the year due to economic uncertainty, and is predicting the third consecutive year of overall IT job shrinkage. In other words, if you're considering a career in IT, you'd better know how to babysit bots. ®