Once booming, the tech sector has done a complete U-Turn since the heydays of the pandemic, when everyone needed to get online and fast.
Thus far this year, nearly 137,000 employees have been laid off by more than 420 companies, according to layoffs.fyi.
Tech companies have been regularly laying off employees since 2022, with 240,000 tech jobs disappearing in 2023 alone.
The economic downturn is just one cause, as the rise of artificial intelligence has made it possible to do more with fewer employees. ChatGPT, for example, has forever changed programming.
“I never thought I would be replaced in my job, ever, until ChatGPT,” said Adam Hughes, a software developer. “I had an existential crisis right then and there. A lot of the knowledge that I thought was special to me that I had put seven years into, just became obsolete.”
Some 96% of tech companies have implemented some form of downsizing this year, and 92% of these companies expect further layoffs to come.
The Wall Street Journal reports on disappearing jobs in the tech sector. Here’s the start of the story:
Finding a job in tech by applying online was fruitless, so Glenn Kugelman resorted to another tactic: It involved paper and duct tape.
Kugelman, let go from an online-marketing role at eBay, blanketed Manhattan streetlight poles with 150 fliers over nearly three months this spring. “RECENTLY LAID OFF,” they blared. “LOOKING FOR A NEW JOB.” The 30-year-old posted them outside the offices of Google, Facebook and other tech companies, hoping hiring managers would spot them among the “lost cat” signs. A QR code on the flier sent people to his LinkedIn profile.
“I thought that would make me stand out,” he says. “The job market now is definitely harder than it was a few years ago.”
Once heavily wooed and fought over by companies, tech talent is now wrestling for scarcer positions. The stark reversal of fortunes for a group long in the driver’s seat signals more than temporary discomfort. It’s a reset in an industry that is fundamentally readjusting its labor needs and pushing some workers out.
Postings for software development jobs are down more than 30% since February 2020, according to Indeed.com. Industry layoffs have continued this year with tech companies shedding around 137,000 jobs since January, according to Layoffs.fyi. Many tech workers, too young to have endured the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s, now face for the first time what it’s like to hustle to find work.