New York City entry-level tech hiring contracts as AI shift reshapes job demand

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NYC entry-level tech hiring contracts

Highlights

Entry-level tech job postings in New York City drop 49% from 2022 to 2025, surpassing new graduate supply for the first time since 2010.
Public administration entry-level tech hiring increases 230% since 2022, while educational services and retail trade postings drop 69% and 67%, respectively.
Postings requiring AI-related skills rise more than 8,000% since 2022, but this demand is insufficient to offset broader declines driven by rising interest rates, high costs, and geopolitical pressures.

Report outlines hiring drop and skills shift

As reported by Business Insider, citing Center for an Urban Future, entry-level tech job postings in New York City fall 49% from 2022 to 2025, the steepest decline among career fields in its September report, "Strengthening NYC's Entry-Level Tech Pathways in the Age of AI." The report says the supply of new college graduates with computer science and related degrees in New York City surpasses entry-level tech postings in 2023 for the first time since data collection begins in 2010.

Entry-level tech hiring declines across nearly every industry in the city, with transportation and warehousing and public administration the only exceptions. Public administration records a 230% increase since 2022, while educational services and retail trade post the sharpest drops, at 69% and 67%, respectively.

Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the think tank, says the weakness is concentrated at the bottom of the hiring ladder rather than in broad-based layoffs. The report also says demand for entry-level AI jobs is growing since 2022, and postings seeking AI-related skills rise by more than 8,000%, although that increase is not yet large enough to offset the wider contraction in junior tech roles.

Costs and economic pressure weigh on talent pipeline

The report says AI is only one factor behind the slowdown. It says rising interest rates beginning in March 2022 cool tech investment, push companies to favor profitability over growth, and redirect spending toward data centers and computing infrastructure rather than head count.

Inflation, tariffs and geopolitical instability add to the pressure, creating what the report describes as a difficult backdrop for early-career tech hiring. In New York City, high employment costs further encourage companies to contain hiring, and the report says entry-level postings in occupations with the highest exposure to generative AI drop 29% since 2022, while roles with minimal exposure grow 21%.

Bowles says New York City's technology sector remains resilient because of its breadth across industries, and he argues that expanding civic tech and nonprofit experience could help younger workers build credentials that employers want. He also says the city's high cost of living raises the risk that early-career talent could leave for other markets if job opportunities do not improve.

In our earlier coverage of rising U.S. manufacturing costs tied to AI infrastructure demand, we examined how higher fuel prices, tariffs, and surging data-center buildouts were pushing up input expenses and tightening supply chains. We also noted that electronics component shortages and elevated freight and diesel costs were squeezing margins and adding to wider inflation pressures, making it harder for firms to plan new capacity.

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