Tech layoffs are rampant but data shows that demand for talent remains strong. Here's what job seekers need to know right now.

• At a shaky moment for the tech industry, the landscape for workers appears a bit more precarious.
• Yet the situation is not dire: tech job postings rose over 3% from September to October, data shows.

Employees across Big Tech are feeling the effects of a spiraling economy.

In the last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the lay-off of 11,000 workers, Twitter unceremoniously dismissed employees and closed its offices, and payment company Stripe cut 14% of its workforce. And earlier this year, workers from some of the other biggest players in the tech industry — including Netflix, Microsoft, TikTok, and Oracle — found themselves out of a job. In total, more than 106,000 tech employees have been laid off in 2022, according to layoff tracking platform layoffs.fyi.

This series of large layoffs stands in stark contrast to the booming success technology companies witnessed over the last decade. Tech giants like Google and Apple saw record-breaking profits and growth throughout the 2010s, and startups saw frothy, eye-popping valuations. In turn, employees enjoyed fat compensation packages, complete with generous bonuses and equity offerings.

Yet, despite the change in tune, tech-recruitment experts remain optimistic about job seekers' prospects — and data backs up this claim. Overall tech job postings increased over 3% to 317,000 openings in October, according to a tech jobs report by CompTIA and a separate analysis by PR Newswire.

Rob Barnett, a recruiter in New York City who sources candidates for media and technology companies, said he's unbothered by the bleak news about layoffs and hiring freezes coming out of Silicon Valley.

"In my headhunting practice, I've hired people at the worst moments of the economy," he said, adding that he advises job hunters to stay focused on their searches, rather than scrolling their social media feeds. "Whether there are fears of a recession, or it's the holidays, or it's August, never take your eyes off the ball and never get discouraged by scary headlines.

"You can still be the right solution for a hiring manager at any given time."

Indeed, experts say that even as some major tech companies pulled back, candidates still have solid options — provided they're realistic about their prospects, know where to look, and are smart about how they position themselves in the job market.

What the landscape looks like now

The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated many people were still leaving their jobs and confident they would find new — and better — ones. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 10.7 million job openings and 4.1 million quits in September.

In other words, it's still largely a job seeker's market. In the tech industry, as of October, the unemployment rate stood at 2.2%, whereas the national unemployment rate was 3.7%.

Yet there's no question that economic red flags — high inflation, a slumping stock market, and continued supply-chain snarls — loom in the background. In fact, the spike in hiring at tech companies in May 2022 was followed by a decline in job postings in June, Dice's tech jobs report found.

"If you have a meteoric rise, it's likely that you'll have an aggressive fall, too," Sheridan Orr, the chief marketing officer at the tech online community Built In, said.

She said workers laid off earlier this summer did not experience sustained unemployment, highlighting how the shift was more a redistribution of workers. "There's a lot of flex in the market, so to speak," she said.

Andrew Flowers, the lead labor economist at Appcast, a software company that helps companies with their recruiting, said his "sense is that these factors hurt tech companies but not tech workers."

After all, software engineers don't just work at Google. Retailers, government agencies, and other nontech companies also require tech talent. "The outlook for tech occupations is much stronger than the outlook for the tech industry," he said.

What it all means for tech workers

If you're a tech worker wondering what all this means for you, experts have two words: Don't panic. AnnElizabeth Konkel, an Indeed Hiring Lab economist, said that it's essential to remember these layoff announcements and hiring freezes won't touch the entire sector.

"I think people, when they heard these announcements, were very concerned: Is there some tidal wave coming?" Konkel said. But in reality, "it looks more like a ripple," she said of the layoff announcements that came earlier this year.

Even if the market is a little more challenging, talented tech workers will almost always have good job options available to them, according to Will Rippetoe, a technology-industry career coach in San Diego. "If you are an attractive candidate, and if you have desirable skills, leverage still exists," he said.

First, Rippetoe recommends making yourself "recession-proof" by learning skills and gaining certifications. Artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and cloud-computing skills are the top in-demand skills in the tech industry, according to a September analysis by Indeed.

"It really is critical to ensure that you're putting yourself in the best possible position to get offers for the opportunities that exist," he said.

Next, think broadly about your target companies. Consider startups, medium-size enterprises, and smaller companies. Look into jobs at other industries, too. There is a world of opportunity beyond Meta, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Alphabet, according to Barnett, the headhunter.

"The great alternative to pursuing a job at a Big Tech company is pursuing a similar role at a smaller-sized business," he said.

Besides, he added, the hiring processes at those companies are notoriously long and arduous.

"Every open job has thousands of résumés. You need to be interviewed by eight or nine people and take all these tests, and then people have to vote on you," he said. "The odds of getting hired are long, but if you're lucky enough to have it happen — congrats, you're one of countless geniuses, and you're going to spend a lot of your time in meetings."

If you do crave the experience of a larger company, Thomas Vick, a regional director at the human-resources consulting firm Robert Half, said plenty of big firms were seeing an influx of hiring and simply continuing with their normal hiring practices. He called companies like Meta and Amazon "not always a direct reflection of the entire market."

Instead, Vick emphasized an outsize need for information-technology professionals because of an increased interest in cybersecurity, cloud migration, digitalization, and more as companies across industries look toward becoming more technologically savvy.

"While the entire organization may or may not be impacted, what we do continue to see is more and more organizations — even those large tech companies — continuing to invest dollars when it comes to their IT-related positions," Vick added.

Finally, it's important to be open-minded when it comes to compensation and equity, said Lauren Maillian, the CEO of Digital Undivided, which elevates financial growth for Black and Latina women entrepreneurs.

Salaries may be less negotiable at smaller organizations, but stock is often flexible. Keep in mind, she added, equity grants and options allotted during a market dip may ultimately turn out to be quite valuable.

"If you change your mindset a little bit on this if you're someone looking for a job at a place that's going to grant stock," she said, "it's like, 'Wow, this is a great time to go get the stock when it's low and then hold on for a year or two or three and trust that everything goes in a cycle.'"

This article was originally published on May 24, 2022.