Women are missing out on the AI jobs boom
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Women made up just over a quarter of new hires in the U.S. for AI roles last year — compared with half of new hires in non-AI occupations, per new LinkedIn data out Tuesday morning.
Why it matters: These jobs are some of the fastest-growing and highest-paying in the country right now — at a time when the overall labor market is pretty sluggish — and the report shows women are getting left behind.
By the numbers: Men landed 74%, and women 26%, of the new hires for AI roles in 2025.
- The highest-paying roles typically have higher percentages of men.
- To get hiring information, the platform looked at user, or member, profiles. For data on compensation it analyzed job listings.
Zoom in: An increasingly popular job is called "member of technical staff," a technical role common in AI labs that often sits at the intersection of advanced research and full-stack engineering.
- 82% of new hires to these roles went to men in 2025. And this year, median listed pay is $223,000.
- The data annotator job, meanwhile, with a median pay of $51,000, is roughly split 50/50 between men and women.
Between the lines: The data confirms what our eyes have been telling us all along. Most of the public faces of the AI buildout have been men.
Yes, but: The AI sector might make up a huge and growing part of the economy, but the jobs themselves are just a small sliver of the labor market.
The bottom line: Women have long been underrepresented in the tech industry, particularly in leadership and technical roles. The AI boom is widening the divide.
- "Women may be included in the AI economy, but not in the roles most likely to drive long-term economic mobility, leadership, and decision-making power," Sarah Steinberg, head of global public policy partnerships at LinkedIn, said in an email to Axios.
