because of the eternal growth principle of capitalism. Objectively there is a point that a company cannot grow anymore. For example there cannot be infinite bands that will constantly enter bandcamp to increase their numbers. At that point the company holders find different paths, like temporarily increasing numbers by reducing the number of employees. In periods of recession and uncertainty this has a domino effect.
Around COVID tech gained a lot of popularity and especially stuff like AI/ML became the new trend, so tech companies starting hiring insane amounts of people. In the past year though companies have started realizing “oh shit, we hired way too many people” and started laying off employees (usually the most expensive/highest paid, or the most “useless” i.e. non-tech positions).
It’s not really all that bad for juniors especially because now they get a big boost in their opportunities for work, especially ones that worked at the big companies that overhired a ton like Meta, because they can say “I worked for Facebook/Google/JP Morgan” or whatever the hell on there resume, which will make you EXTREMELY attractive to employers and have your application stand out almost anywhere.
At least for software development, you’re kind of expected to be hopping jobs a lot because that’s the only way you’re really going to get more benefits and higher pay (unless you get really lucky and find a company that actually cares about retaining current employees! or you become self-employed which is probably even harder). There’s practically an infinite number of jobs, many good ones, in the sphere because of how valuable tech is in the modern world, so you don’t have to worry about not being able to find a position when you get some experience. That’s why many companies will hire people who barely can even program, so long as they can write “hello world” in JS…
Of course there are other reasons, like outsourcing work, or the company just wanting more profit short-term, or feeling like they don’t “need” as many employees since the tools for the job and the number&quality of applicants have gotten better…
this is incredibly inaccurate. we just hired for a single position and got well over 250 applicants. a junior dev friend of mine says he and none of his friends can find work. with all the layoffs tech jobs are just very scarce right now.
Fully agree. I work at a big tech company, and we’ve had experienced software engineers really struggle to find work, even in tech hubs like London, Barcelona, NYC, etc. We’ve also had apprentices leave after 4+ years without a return offer, only to find unemployment awaiting them.
Recruiter: “So did the other 400 applicants, we don’t care. How much humiliation and misery wages are you capable of taking before having a medical crisis? That’s the only metric we care about.”
Jokes aside, why is this happening so much recently?
It’s cyclical and very well understood at this point.
A business will hire a bunch of people to meet demand and then lay them off to make the company’s earnings look better the following quarter.
At this point, I have no sympathy for anyone targeted by these layoffs if they work for a company that has been known to do them. Real ‘leopards ate my face’, vibes.
Man, techworkers are really into getting laid off huh?
Jokes aside, why is this happening so much recently?
because of the eternal growth principle of capitalism. Objectively there is a point that a company cannot grow anymore. For example there cannot be infinite bands that will constantly enter bandcamp to increase their numbers. At that point the company holders find different paths, like temporarily increasing numbers by reducing the number of employees. In periods of recession and uncertainty this has a domino effect.
Around COVID tech gained a lot of popularity and especially stuff like AI/ML became the new trend, so tech companies starting hiring insane amounts of people. In the past year though companies have started realizing “oh shit, we hired way too many people” and started laying off employees (usually the most expensive/highest paid, or the most “useless” i.e. non-tech positions).
It’s not really all that bad for juniors especially because now they get a big boost in their opportunities for work, especially ones that worked at the big companies that overhired a ton like Meta, because they can say “I worked for Facebook/Google/JP Morgan” or whatever the hell on there resume, which will make you EXTREMELY attractive to employers and have your application stand out almost anywhere.
At least for software development, you’re kind of expected to be hopping jobs a lot because that’s the only way you’re really going to get more benefits and higher pay (unless you get really lucky and find a company that actually cares about retaining current employees! or you become self-employed which is probably even harder). There’s practically an infinite number of jobs, many good ones, in the sphere because of how valuable tech is in the modern world, so you don’t have to worry about not being able to find a position when you get some experience. That’s why many companies will hire people who barely can even program, so long as they can write “hello world” in JS…
Of course there are other reasons, like outsourcing work, or the company just wanting more profit short-term, or feeling like they don’t “need” as many employees since the tools for the job and the number&quality of applicants have gotten better…
this is incredibly inaccurate. we just hired for a single position and got well over 250 applicants. a junior dev friend of mine says he and none of his friends can find work. with all the layoffs tech jobs are just very scarce right now.
Fully agree. I work at a big tech company, and we’ve had experienced software engineers really struggle to find work, even in tech hubs like London, Barcelona, NYC, etc. We’ve also had apprentices leave after 4+ years without a return offer, only to find unemployment awaiting them.
Depends on where you are applying, what I said won’t apply in every single municipality of course.
Prospect hire: “I worked for Facebook”
Recruiter: “So did the other 400 applicants, we don’t care. How much humiliation and misery wages are you capable of taking before having a medical crisis? That’s the only metric we care about.”
It’s cyclical and very well understood at this point.
A business will hire a bunch of people to meet demand and then lay them off to make the company’s earnings look better the following quarter.
At this point, I have no sympathy for anyone targeted by these layoffs if they work for a company that has been known to do them. Real ‘leopards ate my face’, vibes.