The tech industry is seemingly approaching the end of its hiring boom. Just recently, budget cuts had resulted in several layoffs and recruitment pauses in most household tech names.
Tech giants Meta, Snap, Instacart, and Lyft said that they are slowing down their search for new talents. Meanwhile, companies who benefited from a pandemic-related demand rise — such as Robinhood, Peloton, Netflix, and Cameo — have also started sacking some of their employees.
But this pull-back on headcount expansion should not alarm jobseekers, said analysts and recruiters.
According to recruitment site Indeed.com, job postings for software developers in the United Stated soared by 120% compared to pre-pandemic levels. ZipRecruiter, another job listings site, said that about 1.6 jobs for every unemployed person are opening in the tech world.
ZipRecruiter’s Lead Economist Sinem Buber said that there are “way more jobs” than the applicants, leading companies to do whatever they can to fill these vacancies. Some of them.
The extent of the hiring freeze is still uncertain
Kyle Stanford, an analyst at capital market company Pitchbook, said that the extent of the hiring freeze is still uncertain.
Layoffs.fyi, a website that tallies job cuts, said the losses across the tech sector are not yet at par with the early days of the pandemic. However, the 17,000 laid-off workers in May is enough to stir worry throughout company leaders.
The solution? Startup accelerator company Y Combinator said that employers should “plan for the worst.”
This means that instead of fast-tracking growth in terms of revenue and recruitment, tech leaders should start hiring sustainably and realistically.
As Pitchbook’s Stanford said, the tech sector’s mantra of “growth at all costs” should shift into a sensible cause to prevent collapse in the near future.