The Job Market is Great
Unless you work in tech. Then it's trash.
If you’re in tech and you spend any time on LinkedIn it sure looks like the sky is falling. Layoffs everywhere, and story after story of job seekers looking for months (or even years) on end without any luck finding something new. And yet the U.S. unemployment rate has hovered right around or under 4% since December 2021 - that’s a historically low number.
So what gives? Something’s off here, right? All the economic news keeps showing robust job growth. Median wages continue to increase, so it’s not like we’re just replacing highly-paid tech jobs with minimum wage fast food jobs. But if you work in tech, oh boy. It’s rough out there right now.
What we’re seeing is a sector-specific recession, and if you think about it, it makes plenty of sense. The tech sector has grown like crazy in recent years, and Covid was a massive boom time for tech - in addition to continuing waves of innovation creating new jobs and driving company growth, the shift to remote work sent a lot of tech companies into hyperspeed. Tech companies grew, and grew. They also had access to cheap capital thanks to rock-bottom interest rates, so they continued to invest to fund even more growth…which means hiring. The workforce has also grown as people, attracted by the high salaries of working in tech, have made career transitions. Lots of job openings and lots of people applying to those job openings resulted in happy times for a couple of years…and then boom, in 2023 it started to shift.
Tech companies started to realize that the anticipated future growth they had hired for wasn’t going to be as fast as they had estimated. Interest rates went up, slowing down the overall economy and increasing the cost of capital, which put pressure on margins, and so all of a sudden all of these tech companies that a few years ago were just thinking about growth have suddenly started having to think about costs. That created layoffs, which I’ve written about exhaustively.
The problem, though, is for those laid off workers, the tech industry has become much more challenging than it was just a couple of years ago. In 2021 if you got laid off, no problem, everyone was hiring. Job searching was easy. But as tech companies slowed down hiring, we still have a massive (and growing!) workforce competing for fewer jobs….thus, the situation we see right now.
The job market in tech sucks. It just does. These companies are still hiring for roles. Most are still growing just fine. But with so many highly-qualified people on the market right now, competition is incredibly fierce.
So this is all great…but what should we do about it?
Well, my advice to you, if you’re struggling to find a new job in tech, is to recognize that the job market is a whole lot bigger than just the tech sector. After years of tech driving the economy, we’re seeing job growth occurring in other areas while tech is in a bit of a lull.
“But I want to work in tech, my whole career has been there!” you say…fair enough. But here’s the thing. You can work a tech-type job at another company. Or, you can work a non-tech job while you wait for tech to rebound. I’m not saying give up on being a software engineer and go be a plumber (though that is indeed a great career if it appeals to you and I recommend all young folks consider trade school as a viable career option - more on that in another post!). I’m saying you have a lot of options:
Look for jobs in your field but at non-tech companies. Plenty of companies outside of tech have jobs for software engineers, product managers, project managers, etc. Even if you want to work in tech long-term, diversifying your employer list isn’t a bad thing - it gives you new and different experience in your discipline but at a business that likely does things differently and gives you new learning experiences.
Consider a short-term role while you search for a permanent position. I see posts on LinkedIn from people whose unemployment insurance has run out and who are worried about losing their homes…start looking elsewhere! Look, I know it’s not glamorous, but you can get a $20+/hour job in a week if you’re willing to look at the lower end of the market (likely only viable for those who have already run through their unemployment).
Look for something flexible/part-time. When we talk about flexible work I people tend to assume gig work, like Uber or Doordash…but those tend to pay incredibly terribly. My personal job situation is a bit different in that I’m no longer looking for full-time corporate work, but I was able to get hired as a substitute teacher (~$30/hr) immediately despite having no formal teaching experience (pay here varies widely between school districts, but definitely a viable option if you live in a good district). If you’re planning to do this on a temporary basis, you want to make sure to leave yourself time to continue the job hunt.
And finally, consider if tech is really where you want/need to be. And if it is, consider if your role is one that you feel good about for the long term. Tech changes rapidly and that means jobs in tech change just as rapidly - jobs like “social media marketing manager” didn’t exist all that long ago, and it may not continue to exist in another 5-10 years. Make sure you’re looking for a role that’s in a growth area, not one that’s shrinking (or at high risk of being outsourced/offshored/replaced by AI in the near future - but that’s a separate conversation). If you just aren’t seeing that many jobs posted in your discipline (and the ones you do see are being flooded with huge numbers of applicants in just a day or two), that may be a sign that it’s time to consider a change.
The point here is: looking for jobs sucks at the best of times, and if you’re looking for a job in a tough market, it can be truly awful. Don’t just bash your head against the wall doing the same thing every day and watching your savings dwindle and then run out. Find something you can do in the meantime to help keep you going, and be thoughtful about if you’re pursuing a new role in a growing field (Lots of prospects! Hurray!) or a shrinking one (Fewer prospects! Boo.).