Your Next AI Hire Should Be Able to Show What They Built
Sign Up For Daily Job Market News
Upwork’s September hiring report shows employers getting a lot more specific about the AI help they want. “AI video” was the most-searched AI term on the Upwork Marketplace in September, taking the top spot from “AI automation,” which led in July and August.
The fastest-growing AI search compared with a year ago was “AI SaaS developer,” meaning someone who builds AI features into cloud software products. “AI workflow automation” came second. “AI agent developer,” “AI architect,” “AI integration,” and “Python AI developer” also made the top 10 fastest-growing searches.
Video showed up all over the report. 4 of the 10 most-searched AI terms were video terms: AI video, AI video creator, AI video generator, and AI video editor. Among skills clients hired for, “Video Editing Software” grew both year over year and month over month, second only to “WordPress Website Design.”
General AI skills lost ground. “ChatGPT” declined as a hired skill both year over year and month over month, along with “Data Scraping,” “API,” “Social Media Imagery,” and “Education.” Upwork says one month cannot establish a definitive shift, but the pattern may mean clients are moving from general tool skills toward defined needs like AI product development, automation, integration, and video production.
A few skills keep growing. “AI Builder” grew 3 months in a row, the longest streak in the report. “AI Implementation,” “AI Integration Deliverables,” “AI Ad Creation,” and “AI Animation Tools” each grew for a second straight month, and Upwork calls these early signals.
Upwork’s Jennifer Brett, Managing Director of the Upwork Research Institute, summed up the September pattern: “In September, we saw businesses searching for specialists who can build AI-powered products, integrate AI into workflows, and turn AI-generated output into finished creative content.”
The ChatGPT number is the one I’d circle. A year ago, “knows ChatGPT” got a candidate noticed. Now it sits next to “proficient in Microsoft Word” on a resume, and clients are searching for the person who can build the AI product, wire it into a workflow, or turn raw AI output into a finished video.
If you’re hiring, write the job description around the outcome you need. “Automate our invoice intake” tells a candidate far more than “experience with AI tools.” If you’re job hunting, list the process you automated and the hours it saved, because a tool name alone tells a hiring manager little.
The video data pushes back on the idea that better AI tools wipe out creative work. Upwork’s report text says more capable AI tools “are not eliminating all video production work; they are creating demand for people who can shape AI output into finished video content.” The tools improved, and businesses responded by hiring people to edit, polish, and finish what the tools produce.
If you’re building an AI-capable team and want help finding people who can show their work, contact our recruiting team. And if you’re an AI builder, automation specialist, or video pro, see what’s open right now.
Staffing your team doesn’t have to be hard.
Reach out and see how we can help.
Private Hiring Has Tripled Since July, and One Small Dip Changes Little
ADP’s weekly NER Pulse shows U.S. private employers added an average of 24,750 jobs per week over the 4 weeks ending September 26. ADP produces the estimate with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and it is a weekly update to the monthly National Employment Report.
ADP says hiring slowed after 5 straight weeks of strengthening. The drop is small: the average the week before was 25,250, so the pace slipped by 500 jobs per week.
The climb before that is the bigger story. The 4-week average sat at 10,000 in mid-August and reached 25,250 by September 19. The low point in ADP’s 12 weeks of history was 8,250 for the week ending July 25, so the weekly pace has roughly tripled since then. At 24,750 a week, that works out to roughly 107,000 jobs a month by my arithmetic, using 4.33 weeks per month.
ADP notes the numbers are preliminary and could change as new data is added. The figures are seasonally adjusted and lag by 2 weeks. The next update arrives October 20.
Some headlines will lead with “hiring slowed,” which is technically true but misses the point. A 500-job dip after 5 straight weeks of gains looks like a plateau to me. The week-to-week swings were far larger in July, when the average fell from 14,500 to 8,250 in 2 weeks.
I’d still keep expectations modest. ADP and BLS count jobs differently, and BLS reported just 29,000 jobs added in September, as I covered in the September jobs report analysis. Treat ADP’s weekly series as a direction indicator. I covered the first part of this climb on October 6, and the pattern since then fits what hiring managers tell us: they’re filling roles they need and holding back on anything speculative. Layoffs have stayed low too, as the September Challenger data showed.
Next week’s number will show whether the late-summer climb holds or whether September was the high-water mark. Employers who wait for confirmation will be hiring into a market where the best candidates have more options. If you need to move quickly on a role, explore our staffing services for help building a pipeline before the competition does.
Corporate cuts continue in the same stretch, including Kroger’s plan to cut about 3,000 corporate jobs and last week’s Amazon and HubSpot cuts. Put them next to Upwork’s data and the picture is consistent: employers are choosing carefully where to add people.
