With tech companies cutting hiring and some cutting jobs, the mood of a number of tech workers has gone from confident to anxious.
A June survey by professional social network Blind of 6,911 professionals working at tech companies found that virtually everyone is worried about their job security.
Only 9% say they are more confident in their job security than a year ago, while 66% say they are not actively looking for another job, Blind’s Rick Chen notes in a blog post.
More cautious companies
As fears about the economic outlook have increased, companies have become more cautious in their spending. This situation could be the signal that the “Great Resignation” is coming to an end. The big resignation began at the beginning of 2021: during this period, employees could leave a job with the certainty of landing a better paying job in a tight labor market.
90% of professionals who feared an impending recession also say they are less confident about their job security. However, for the 60% who didn’t care, their confidence in their job security hasn’t changed in the past year, according to Blind.
In the technology sector, the respective hiring freezes of Facebook and Google speak volumes about trust. In June, Spotify also announced that it would cut hiring by 25% this year. Bloomberg reports that Oracle this week began laying off American workers from its “customer experience” division.
More than 80,000 people made redundant in 2022
Blind’s layoff tracker estimates that 500 start-ups and tech companies laid off more than 80,000 people in 2022, with the number of companies increasing in both quarters. The fall in valuations of private companies is due to venture capitalists reducing their investments, perhaps in response to public markets such as the US S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indices which have been caught in falling markets in June.
UK recruiter CW Jobs recently reported that 85% of IT decision makers plan to adapt to changing costs, including freezing hiring (21%) and freezing salaries (20%).
Despite rising layoffs and cutting costs, a June survey by CNBC found that 64% of tech executives believe it’s getting harder and harder to place jobs that need skilled workers.
A July survey by Interviewing.io examines how Facebook and Google are approaching these hiring freezes. Since May, Facebook has stopped hiring engineers below a certain level, but continues to hire machine learning engineers and enterprise engineers. Google’s freeze lasted for two weeks, starting July 20. Although the company is conducting interviews, applicants are unlikely to receive formal offers until the freeze lifts.
2.2 million job offers in 2022
These recent concerns need to be placed in the broader context of the tech industry in particular.
Analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by CompTIA finds job openings for tech positions topped more than 600,000 in May, and nearly 2.2 million for the year 2022 through ‘now.
Combined with the current shortage of tech skills and high demand for developers and other industry workers, the longer-term outlook remains strong, even if times are tough.
Source: ZDNet.com