I believe the IT market is very tough now. I was looking for last 3 months or so, until I contacted an old employer and he told me I could work with them.

Another ex-colleague of mine contacted me as well who's been freelancing for many years now and he asked me how I did find work, since emigrated to another country and he's also about to emigrate. Told him the market seems tough right now and he agreed. He will also be contacting some old companies / employers in hope of finding something new.

I am not sure AI is the cause - perhaps it's just cyclical. However, also reading Microsoft / Google laying of thousands of people, it just means many more people competing for the same jobs (and I'm sure ex-Microsoft / ex-Google devs will have an easier time finding new jobs than devs working for small companies).

I also find it funny, I got many messages from companies (through LinkedIn) that look for developers to train their AI models - it seems like a decent way to make some money on the side while looking for jobs. However, it seems all these companies end up at the same website and this website, for whatever reason, doesn't allow me to go through the registration process - the process seems bugged. But the support department doesn't seem to respond to email either. Makes me wonder who does the development and support there ...