The Great Disconnect: Why Tech Feels Jobless While the Economy Booms with Openings

It's December 2025, and the U.S. job market presents a puzzling paradox. Headlines scream about record layoffs in tech—over 180,000 jobs cut this year alone, according to trackers like TrueUp and Layoffs.fyi—while the broader economy hums with millions of unfilled positions. Help-wanted signs abound in healthcare, trades, and government roles, yet software engineers scroll endlessly through rejection emails. What's going on?

The answer lies in two massive, overlapping forces reshaping work: the peak retirement wave of Baby Boomers and the rollercoaster ride of artificial intelligence adoption.

Featured Book

Loading Book...

Loading description...

Get the Kindle Edition

The Silver Tsunami Hits Shore

2025 marks "Peak 65," the height of Baby Boomer retirements. Over 11,000 Americans turn 65 every day, creating roughly 240,000 monthly job openings in sectors where Boomers dominated—heavy in healthcare (nurses, therapists), manufacturing, construction, and public service. This generational exodus isn't subtle; it's a slow-motion labor shift that's been building for years.

The result? A flood of opportunities in "real-world" industries. Wages are rising in these fields as employers scramble to fill gaps, and knowledge transfer becomes a frantic priority. Younger workers stepping in aren't always perfect matches, leading to training booms and upward mobility for those willing to pivot.

But here's the catch: tech barely feels this wave. Software engineering exploded in the 1990s and 2000s, long after most Boomers had settled into other careers. Few are retiring from coding roles, so no retirement-driven vacuum pulls in new hires.

AI's Hype Hangover Crushes Tech Hiring

Meanwhile, tech is trapped in its own storm. After pandemic over-hiring and zero-interest-rate-fueled growth, companies slammed the brakes. Layoffs surged—Amazon trimming 14,000 corporate roles, Meta cutting thousands, Intel slashing 20%—all in the name of "efficiency." And the buzzword fueling much of it? AI.

Gartner's 2025 Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence nails it: Generative AI has slid into the "Trough of Disillusionment." The early euphoria—ChatGPT coding entire apps overnight—has given way to reality. AI excels at boilerplate tasks, debugging routines, and even junior-level work, allowing one seasoned engineer to do the output of three. Entry-level coding jobs? Vanishing fast. Bootcamps that promised six-figure salaries now leave graduates stranded.

Big Tech isn't replacing people wholesale with robots yet, but they're certainly not hiring juniors when AI tools handle the grunt work. Hiring freezes persist, and when roles open, they're hyper-specific: AI specialists, cybersecurity pros, or architects who can wrangle legacy systems without hallucinating bugs.

Stable Havens in the Storm: Financial Services and Regulated Fintech

Not all tech-adjacent fields are suffering. Financial services—especially credit unions, traditional brokerages, and regulated fintech—offer quieter stability. These sectors blend deep domain knowledge (compliance, risk, audits) with tech skills, creating roles AI can't easily touch.

Think integrations that survive ACH batches, automations trusted during regulatory scrutiny, or systems handling massive transaction volumes without downtime. Experience from the pre-cloud era? Gold. Here, seasoned developers aren't "overqualified"—they're the firewall against chaos. Fintech engineering is even projected as one of the fastest-growing jobs through the decade, with strong demand in payments, open banking, and embedded finance.

The Road Ahead: From Disillusionment to Productivity

This disconnect won't last forever. As AI matures—moving up Gartner's "Slope of Enlightenment"—real value emerges in narrow, reliable applications. Companies will realize they still need humans for edge cases, architecture, and innovation. The efficiency panic cools, and hiring rebounds for those who adapt.

In the meantime, the job market rewards resilience. Younger workers chase viral TikTok tales of struggle, while openings pile up elsewhere. Experienced pros in stable niches hold steady, stacking skills for the next wave.

The economy isn't broken—it's bifurcated. One side drowns in hype fallout; the other rides a demographic tide. Smart navigation means spotting where pain points persist (SEO that survives Google updates, compliant financial automations) and positioning yourself as the reliable fix.

In 2025, the winners aren't chasing trends—they're solving enduring problems while the dust settles.

Published on grizzlypeaksoftware.com