# Banks and Health Care Firms Pay Software Engineers Up to 17% More Than Tech

By John Kim

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/43762
Published: 2026-10-29T18:29:20.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-29T18:29:20.000Z
Section: Business

> AI-related job postings grew fivefold over the past year. The analysis covered 11 countries, 20 million job postings and roughly 100 million candidate profiles.

Health care and life sciences employers are offering software engineers up to 17% more than technology firms, while banks pay a 13% premium as companies compete for AI skills.

Health care and life sciences companies carried the largest premium, with software engineer pay reaching as much as 17% above tech employers. Banks offered 13% more. The gaps put non-tech employers in direct competition with technology companies for engineering workers with AI capabilities.

The survey questioned 1,100 business and technology decision-makers across 11 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan. The analysis also covered 20 million job postings and roughly 100 million candidate profiles, pairing employer responses with information on advertised roles and people in the labor market.

Job postings requiring AI capabilities grew fivefold over the past year. Among surveyed non-tech organizations, 55% said they were recruiting workers following layoffs in the technology sector.

Tech employers in the United States announced 165,925 job cuts from January through September 2026, 54% more than in the same months a year earlier. Workforce actions at several large companies included Microsoft offering voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees and Oracle reporting in June that its workforce had fallen by 21,000 over a year. Meta began layoffs in May affecting 10% of its staff, or about 8,000 jobs. Block cut more than 4,000 employees in February, nearly half its workforce.

Randstad CEO Sander van ’t Noordende described businesses’ growing interest in applying AI: “We’ve seen a massive investment wave in the technology sector ... now that wave is shifting towards businesses looking to find the benefits of AI.”

The findings place rising demand for AI skills alongside higher pay offers outside technology and recruitment after tech-sector layoffs. The survey included responses from decision-makers as well as analysis of job postings and candidate profiles.