Comments
hibearmate t1_j0z8jf8 wrote
also, these articles typically define 'tech worker' as anyone who works at a "tech company"
not necessarily workers in a technical field
so if tech companies are laying of HR and marketing people, those are 'tech layoffs'
EasternAssistance185 t1_j0zyj26 wrote
That’s what I hate about all of this. Tech worker !== SWE with experience… you start looking at those numbers and it’s not even news worthy most of the time. Companies are trimming useless positions that aren’t necessarily required like recruiters.
louiegumba t1_j10zilx wrote
I’ve always been in operations and engineering .. even during the dotcom days I never once saw a competent coder or sysadmin stay unemployed for more than two weeks
Saw shitloads of marketing guys and especially recruiters grouped in that category and they got laid off and changed jobs or took unemployment
This is the same. Strong skilled workers are always needed and can innovate.
I agree with you
Edit - you also can’t count dipshit CEO’s laying off people when the ceo doesn’t know what they are doing like musk.
mikasjoman t1_j1165wu wrote
Shit. During dotcom here in Sweden it was ridiculously hard to get a job as a junior SWD. It was so hard I was out of the game for ten years and I have a friend who just got out of uni with a SWD degree and he never got in to the trade. He runs a hot dog stand today.
Leftblankthistime t1_j0yv8th wrote
Omg everybody panick!!! Right? /s
This is an economics outlet, so where are the long and short term labor statistics about how long it took for those +200k workers to find replacement jobs and where’s the comparison year showing when there was a similar layoff rate.
Garbage article
Stiggalicious t1_j0zu0vz wrote
Yep one of my friends got layed off from a biomedical startup and she got 2 new job offers within a week. Tech is still hiring like crazy, just not at the companies who overhired during the pandemic and rely entirely on ad revenue to survive.
Mustard_on_tap t1_j0z44sp wrote
It is scary to the people laid off.
Youvebeeneloned t1_j0z8pfe wrote
Of course it is, layoffs always are. But headlines like this are meant to scare EVERYONE into thinking its going to happen to them and fuck with the economy.
Its economic manipulation of the highest order with no evidence behind it.
blunterlotus t1_j0zp2sp wrote
Economic manipulation???? That's a dangerous statement. The writing has been on the wall for a couple years now.
FerretBusinessQueen t1_j0yuvyi wrote
Same. I’m wondering if it’s related to pay- my company pays well for the area I’m in, but it’s not going to entice anyone needs to pay Cali living expenses to join. Whereas FB sucks but you can make a killing while there.
Pherllerp t1_j10zfsy wrote
There were also far fewer 'tech workers' in 2008 than now.
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thedoommerchant t1_j14n1b9 wrote
B2B tech sector still seems to be going strong. Hell, I just got promoted and we're hiring more people all the time. I don't let these garbage articles get to me. Just part of the perpetual fear cycle to generate clicks.
Youvebeeneloned t1_j15ojzn wrote
Same, in the last year I have had 3 raises and a promotion.
Beermedear t1_j0yz8ji wrote
If your company isn’t relying on investor capital to fund risk-heavy emerging tech, you’re as fine as someone can be in generally poor economic forecasts.
Most of us non-startups are probably seeing some form of hiring freezes or limiting to backfills only until end of Q1.
No guarantees in tech, but this doomsaying is a little annoying.
The_Nauticus t1_j11ad3x wrote
I like your practical take.
There was a 'market correction' a few years ago (2018?) here in the bay area, CA. It was ultimately the result of multiple unicorn IPOs at companies that weren't profitable and still running on VC funds. (At least that's my interpretation)
To people here, they thought it was a sign of bad times to come, but the rest of the country barely noticed it.
Ever since then, they've been predicting another recession, but haven't been right yet.
mikasjoman t1_j116cf3 wrote
I'm more scared of how fast I see AI possibly taking over my role as a coder.
Beermedear t1_j119qq6 wrote
People said the same thing with all the WYSIWYG shit like Wix. I’ve worked in manufacturing where people were afraid that robot tech would take their job. Not true in either case.
mikasjoman t1_j11aw7h wrote
Well 2022 was the year I started using AI to help me write code at work (Gitlab copilot). And its often scary I can tell you how you just start writing something and a second later you have 100 lines of code in front of you that does exactly what your want. At this point we are kind of where it's most often right, but you got to fix some quirks and read through or make some changes since it isn't exactly right. Wysiwyg was crap compared to this.
While robots did take away jobs, trust me I have worked in china where factories went from tens of thousands of employees to just over a hundred - AI is a different child because how fast it's evolving. I know I'm definitely not alone among programmers to share this concern.
The difference is that two years ago it was kind of a thing of the future, now I use AI to help me write code all day long. I'm basically training it to take over my job which is kind of nuts.
FinancialDesign2 t1_j0zaxki wrote
The layoffs that have happened have basically reverted the headcount of many companies to what they were 6 to 12 months prior. This isn't as drastic as what many people are making it out to because headcounts saw meteoric rises the last couple of years. Many companies felt emboldened to make risky business bets during the roaring times of 2020 and 2021. They sucked away talent from smaller companies who couldn't pay as well, so now we'll likely revert to where we were a year ago.
[deleted] t1_j0z2jzx wrote
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Reasonable_Ticket_84 t1_j0z7g4p wrote
>Isnt this because there are astronomically more tech roles now compared to then? Of course you’ll see more laid off.
Kinda, it's because these are all post-COVID normalization layoffs. Tech companies hired BIG TIME during COVID due to online demand. However that basically dropped like a rock this year and with the economy cooling, there was a bubble that unfortunately needed correcting.
For example, Facebook/Meta went from ~45k employees in 2019 to just over 70k at the beginning of 2022.
Youvebeeneloned t1_j0z97nk wrote
Its also because the layoffs during the recession hit the banking, auto, and housing industry the hardest and NOT the tech industry.
Hell I actually got a job during the recession and a 45% raise to boot, and we were still hiring for positions well after I joined for the next year or two before hiring slowed a bit.
Not to mention currently we STILL have not seen actual recession style layoffs in the tech industry... Meta, Google and others shed some extra weight... some of which was NOT tech related but tech adjacent being lumped in. Twitter legitimately doesn't count in this scenario because Twitters clusterfuck is not industry related but Musk related.
DatalessUniverse t1_j0zz1bn wrote
What percentage of layoffs were non-engineers? From what I’ve seen majority were recruiters, product managers, and similar roles.
I am still getting recruiter emails for SWE roles and those engineers I know who were laid off have already found new jobs.
Like others stated - layoffs are real but articles like this are nothing but clickbait headlines.
Fenix42 t1_j10hyyp wrote
I agree. My company did a 7% headcount reduction. Only 2 where from the eng side. Both people with performance issues. The rest where sales, marketing, and recruiting.
[deleted] t1_j0yza2l wrote
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Elliott2 t1_j10ke9d wrote
overemployed and overvalued tech companies crashing lol
[deleted] t1_j10ork2 wrote
Is this a legitimate source, because this does not look like a legitimate article.
vanhalenbr t1_j11filg wrote
Lol... Does someone believe that BS??
I am getting offers every week still ...
drmariopepper t1_j126i50 wrote
My more cynical side thinks these articles and the mediocre layoffs are a coordinated effort to tamp down on the skyrocketing salaries in the tech sector. Gotta put the proles back in their place. The market is as hot as it ever was, I'm getting hit up by recruiters every week, and all of the companies that laid off are still hiring
scarfinati t1_j127o3o wrote
Twitter lays off thousands app still works fine. Hmmm
snakebite75 t1_j12vo7n wrote
Unless you had 2FA turned on and signed out of the app when Elon decided to turn off all the microservices...
kaze919 t1_j12hsf9 wrote
Tech sector is such a TINY amount of overall jobs and they’re generally more cushy white collar jobs with severance packages. It’s a lot different than truly sector decimating layoffs for blue collar workers who are living paycheck to paycheck.
Not to minimize the suffering of those tech workers, but the headline is sensationalist bullshit.
gh0stnw0wr1te t1_j1re8ri wrote
Tech layoffs will triple in 2023, primarily corporate, executive, middle management, redundant positions, administration.
The areas that will not be taken over by AI are skilled trades and healthcare.
If you are young and just entering the workforce, consider this. If you are older, start planning for the worst.
blunterlotus t1_j0zr7sr wrote
Your absolutely right about Biden it's his handlers who are to blame and everyone in the administration is just doing what they're told.
blunterlotus t1_j0zw991 wrote
Your repeating what you were told as well. Gas has gone up since Biden got into office there was more of a uptick due to the invasion yes but it's not entirely due to the war. I'm not even going to entertain everything else you wrote because money was spent on supply issues as well putting us deeper into a whole.
Far-Ad-353 t1_j10gagg wrote
So weird how it’s dropped to half the price in my area which is as far from refineries as possible. Biden is still in office. Also amazing he has such an effect on global prices.
blunterlotus t1_j0zwvrz wrote
I don't care if you down voted me but God damn to deny the facts and past to fit your ideology is dangerous.
Far-Ad-353 t1_j10gc5q wrote
“I don’t care, so I’m going to tell you I don’t care!”
drmariopepper t1_j1274ml wrote
> I don't care if you down voted me
Well, don't mind if I do!
blunterlotus t1_j0znqd3 wrote
Yup been calling it for years as soon as we started paying people to stay at home and then Biden firing up the printing presses and spending trillions inflation was inevitable. Recession wise so far looks like a soft landing but I would not be surprised if it was a hard one.
kaji823 t1_j0zuh50 wrote
Most of our inflation during this recession were due to supply side issues and corporate price gouging, not supply side excessive spending. Covid choked supply chains and the war in Ukraine hurt oil prices and world food exports.
garnett8 t1_j0zp24j wrote
You know Biden isn’t Jerome Powell right?
blunterlotus t1_j0zpktv wrote
Jeromes cleaning up grandpa's mess that's all.
garnett8 t1_j0zq5be wrote
Well I think it’s a little unfair to blame Biden for JPOWs money printer. I do like QT though, we really need that and to continue it.
Youvebeeneloned t1_j0y4i80 wrote
Scary headline is scary. The Great Recession barely touched the tech sector. A wet fart would result in more layoffs which is what it’s trying to portray.
Yeah there have been some at big companies, but companies like mine STILL can’t get people into positions in development, security, and sys admin spots.