Generative AI vacancies working with trending bots like ChatGPT are propping up jobs in the UK tech sector, according to smarter job search engine Adzuna.
The research analysed the tens of millions of jobs available on Adzuna between January 2022 and March 2023, revealing advertised vacancy and salary trends for UK job postings featuring AI keywords and job titles.
Despite a wider slowdown in the tech sector and swathes of layoffs, openings calling for generative AI expertise are beginning to build. Specifically, March 2023 saw 52 job openings asking for expertise in ChatGPT, four jobs citing video making tool Lumen5, as well as openings referencing DALL-E, Midjourney, and content writing tool Jasper.ai
Generative AI and OpenAI jobs are booming
Right after OpenAI’s ChatGPT launch in late November 2022, there was a sharp increase (+81%) in demand for talent with “OpenAI” knowledge or experience. In March ‘23, “OpenAI” job openings (52 openings) doubled that of the same period last year (26 openings), while their advertised salaries surged +30% year-on-year, from £45,865 in March ‘22 to £59,613 in March ‘23.
Similarly, driven by the GPT buzz, job postings for “Generative AI” roles have skyrocketed. Fewer than 10 jobs were advertised in both January and February 2022, but by March 2023, that number had jumped to 63 (+500%).
Andrew Hunter, co-founder of job search engine Adzuna, comments: “AI jobs are definitely buzzing, thanks to OpenAI’s novel chatbots DALL-E2 and ChatGPT. Tech companies are competing against time and each other to recruit the top talent to develop the best and most advanced AI tools. While the economic climate in the tech sector did weigh on AI openings, there is still a high number of job vacancies for AI experts, and organisations are willing to pay handsomely to attract the best candidates.”
Despite the hype surrounding AI technology, AI-specific jobs are not exempted from the economic gloom of the overall tech sector.
There was a gradual year-on-year decline in the number of job ads mentioning AI, down -55% from 24,333 openings in March ‘22 to 10,977 in March ‘23. The wider tech industry experienced a -37% decline in jobs over the same period.
Nevertheless, while advertised salaries within the tech sector have slipped -4% year-on-year (from £57,627 to £55,095), the pay rates on offer for AI jobs continue to rise. Since December 2022, advertised salaries for AI jobs have been rising as much as +5% every month. Year-on-year, AI jobs’ advertised salaries climbed +0.4% from £64,687 in March ‘22 to £64,968 in March ‘23.
The best paid AI job titles
AI job titles with the biggest openings in March are Data Scientist (415 openings, £70,191), Robotics Engineer (28 openings, £45,192), and Machine Learning Engineer (16 openings, £106,250). Data Scientists could earn £70,191 on average, up +11% from £63,102 in March 2022.
