Draup has released its annual end-of-year tech talent report, "The Economics of Skills: An Analysis of Global Tech Talent," which examines how AI-driven automation, wage dynamics, and the geographic spread of tech talent are reshaping the global labor market. Drawing on extensive workforce data, the report highlights evolving skill demands, hiring costs, and the interplay between AI and human roles amid ongoing concerns about job security and workforce transformation in 2025.
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Draup, a global leader in enterprise talent intelligence, today released its annual end-of-year tech talent report titled "The Economics of Skills: An Analysis of Global Tech Talent." The report analyzes how wage pressures, automation, and the expanding distribution of technology talent across regions are transforming the global labor market, with particular emphasis on skills economics, hiring costs, and AI's integration into the workforce.
Last year brought intense focus on AI's impact on employment. In 2025, large tech companies cited automation in connection with nearly 50,000 job cuts in the U.S., fueling widespread concerns among workers, policymakers, and leaders about job security, career trajectories, and the rapid evolution of roles at the start of the new year.
Leveraging Draup's comprehensive global workforce dataset, the report reveals that while certain tasks and roles face reduction or redesign, demand surges in other critical areas—particularly cybersecurity, AI engineering, and positions that blend human expertise with automated systems.
Key findings from the report include:
AI is changing how work gets done faster than jobs are being cut—even with near-term layoffs, the report points to net job growth of 78 million by the end of the decade, driven by productivity gains and demand for AI, cybersecurity and hybrid roles.
Tech skills are turning over faster than before because of AI—the half-life of tech skills has fallen below two years, with about 40% of today's tech skills expected to be partially obsolete by 2027, as roles increasingly combine multiple skill sets.
A "silent repricing" is reshaping global labor markets—regional pay gaps have narrowed, with labor arbitrage now below 20% for many niche roles across AI, cybersecurity and data engineering.
Cybersecurity hiring continues to lag demand—open roles still outnumber available talent, and shortages are expected to persist through 2028.
Hiring is shifting away from traditional job titles—companies are recruiting more for Builders, Orchestrators and Synthesizers, reflecting broader, more mixed roles.
Emerging regions are doing more than delivery work—talent growth across APAC, Latin America and parts of EMEA now includes AI, data and engineering roles.
"We're not seeing tech jobs disappear outright, but the way work gets done is certainly changing," said Vishnu Shankar, vice president of data and platform at Draup. "AI is compressing skill cycles, reshaping roles and shifting where productivity comes from faster than most organizations expect. This goes beyond hiring more or fewer people. It's about how work actually gets done as AI becomes part of everyday roles."
As AI reshapes competitive strategies, technology teams are reevaluating hiring practices, skills development, and geographic expansion. With data covering more than 1 million companies, 850 million professionals, 56,000 technologies, and 8,500 labor providers, Draup equips leaders with visibility into emerging skills trends and workforce shifts to enable agile planning.
To read the full "Economics of Skills: An Analysis of Global Tech Talent" report and explore its insights on skills economics, AI, and human augmentation, visit https://draup.com/talent/data-books/economics-o... Learn more about how Draup supports workforce strategy at https://draup.com/.
About Draup:
Draup is a leading Talent Strategy Platform that delivers multi-dimensional global labor and market data to drive enterprises' Talent Intelligence, Work Redesign & Transformative Skills Architecture initiatives. Draup supports HR Leaders in optimizing their workforce strategies by helping them address evolving workforce needs, assess global talent & peer group landscape, and design career paths for long-term success. With real-time access to granular data and personalized insights, Draup empowers customers with actionable intelligence & recommendations to strengthen their talent strategies.
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