Hiring is shifting fast

Software hiring did not vanish in the age of AI. It changed shape. New data from TrueUp, which tracks openings across about 9,000 tech companies, shows more than 67,000 software-engineering jobs open in early April, the highest level in more than three years. That is roughly double the mid-2023 low, and about 30% higher than at the start of 2026 (gizmodo.com; trueup.io; africa.businessinsider.com). That rebound matters because it cuts against the easy story that AI is simply erasing coder jobs. Companies are still hiring engineers in large numbers. They are hiring because AI systems need people to build products around them, wire them into old software, manage the mess they create, and ship faster than before. Even Dice, which tracks employer posting activity more broadly, reported a 12% month-over-month jump in tech job postings in January 2026, though its market snapshot still sat 3% below January 2025 levels. Hiring is back, but it is not evenly back (dice.com; africa.businessinsider.com). The uneven part is the real story. The old filter was the résumé. The new filter is proof. Business Insider reported on April 7 that some employers are replacing credential screens with work trials, live simulations, and multi-day auditions built to show how a person actually works. Foxglove, a robotics software company, uses work trials for every role. One candidate for head of design was asked to come into the San Francisco office for several days and solve a real product problem inside the company’s app (businessinsider.com; africa.businessinsider.com). That shift is not just about testing skill. It is also about testing reality in a market flooded with AI-assisted applications. Greenhouse said in its 2025 AI in Hiring Report that 54% of U.S. job seekers had encountered an AI-led interview, 41% admitted using prompt injections or hidden text to get past filters, and 91% of recruiters had spotted some form of candidate deception. Recruiters are trying to verify that the person in front of them can do the work they claim to do, and do it without hiding behind a polished document or a chatbot-generated script (greenhouse.com). So the interview itself is becoming more like the job. Canva now lets candidates for technical roles use AI during parts of the process because the company wants to see how they think with the tools they will actually use. Meta and McKinsey have also been revamping some hiring exercises to include AI. Arcade, an IT infrastructure startup, expects candidates to use AI on take-home assignments for the same reason: banning it no longer reflects the work (businessinsider.com; africa.businessinsider.com). This is happening as recruiting teams are under more pressure, not less. Greenhouse’s 2026 benchmarking report, based on data from more than 6,000 companies and 640 million applications, found that annual applications per recruiter rose 412% from 2022 to 2025, while recruiters per organization fell 56%. More people are applying. Fewer humans are sorting them. Time to fill a role rose 37% over the same period. If companies seem less interested in reading your résumé and more interested in watching you work, that is because the résumé has become too cheap to produce and too easy to fake. At Foxglove, candidates now ask a different question before the trial starts: can they use AI? The answer is yes, and the company will even provide the tools (greenhouse.com; africa.businessinsider.com).