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Business Insider
a day ago
- Business
- Business Insider
3 charts show just how tough it is to get hired or promoted in tech right now
Too bad there isn't a way to debug the tech job market. With Big Tech layoffs, the increase in computer science graduates, and quicker ways to learn through AI and vibe coding, there's a lot more tech talent, but not a lot of opportunities. The labor market has been frozen for months, marked by low layoffs, low hiring, and few openings for job seekers and switchers. It's looking like a better time to continue writing lines of code at your current role than to try to switch jobs or ask for a promotion. Here are three charts that show how hard the tech job market is right now. Are you an unemployed tech job seeker or staying put in your job because of the current job market? Reach out to these reporters to share your story at mhoff@ and jkaplan@ Tech job postings crashed after a post-pandemic boom Indeed Hiring Lab economist Brendon Bernard said in a recent report that tech opportunities have been weak since mid-2023 after climbing to an early 2022 peak. The cooldown has been worse than the slowdown in overall US job postings. The report said artificial intelligence"could be stalling a rebound" in tech openings on the job-search platform. However, it's not the only possible factor. Bernard said that "the sector is experiencing an overhang from its earlier hiring boom, aggravated by less supportive economic conditions — including the end of the 'zero interest rate period' — with some resemblance to trends in the broader economy." The Fed began raising interest rates in March 2022 to fight rising inflation, making financing big speculative investments in new tech riskier. Unemployment for young tech workers is above pre-pandemic rates A Burning Glass Institute analysis found the unemployment rate for Gen Z and younger millennials who were in computer and math occupations over the last couple of years has increased from their pre-pandemic rates in 2018 and 2019. The recent report said that knowledge economy sectors, which are primarily white-collar industries that usually absorb college graduates, have scaled back their hiring pace from before the pandemic, "suggesting that they have found a new lower-employment equilibrium." It's another sign of a quiet white-collar apocalypse afflicting Gen Z. Younger workers are also already on the tougher side of the career divide that's cleaving Gen Z white-collar workers. The oldest Gen Zers, who are turning 28 this year, experienced a labor market in 2021 and 2022 that was eager to staff up on white-collar workers, and may have benefited from firms willing to pay a premium to attract new employees amid the Great Resignation. Even if you have a tech job, it's hard to move up As economists have said many times over the past year to Business Insider, it's a tougher time to be a job seeker than a job stayer. That can still be the case if you're looking to move up the ladder or switch roles within your current company. Gusto, a payroll and benefits platform for small and midsize businesses, found that the promotion rate in technology has slowed down the most among major sectors since the Great Resignation. Gusto economist Aaron Terrazas said a normalization from "aggressive talent retention strategies" that companies tried in 2021 and 2022 could be a factor. "We'll only know with time whether or not this is the new normal," Terrazas said about the slowdown in promotions across industries. "Right now, there are clearly a lot of structural forces, high interest rates, economic uncertainty, that would make it seem at least for the moment cyclical."
Qatar Tribune
03-08-2025
- Business
- Qatar Tribune
The double-edged sword of AI: How tech's new era is shaping the job market
Agencies If you read the typical 2025 mass layoff notice from a tech industry CEO, you might think that artificial intelligence cost workers their jobs. The reality is more complicated, with companies trying to signal to Wall Street that they're making themselves more efficient as they prepare for broader changes wrought by AI. A new report Wednesday from career website Indeed says tech job postings in July were down 36% from their early 2020 levels, with AI one but not the most obvious factor in stalling a rebound. ChatGPT's debut in late 2022 also corresponded with the end of a pandemic-era hiring binge, making it hard to isolate AI's role in the hiring doldrums that followed. 'We're kind of in this period where the tech job market is weak, but other areas of the job market have also cooled at a similar pace,' said Brendon Bernard, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. 'Tech job postings have actually evolved pretty similarly to the rest of the economy, including relative to job postings where there really isn't that much exposure to AI. 'That nuance is not always clear from the last six months of tech layoff emails, which often include a nod to AI in addition to expressions of sympathy. When he announced mass layoffs earlier this year, Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach invited employees to consider the bigger picture: 'Companies everywhere are reimagining how work gets done, and the increasing demand for AI has the potential to drive a new era of growth for Workday.' Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost explained that a need to shift resources to 'accelerate investments' in AI was one of the reasons the company had to cut 1,350, or about 9%, of workers. The 'Why We're Doing This' section of CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz's announcement of 5% job cuts said the cybersecurity company needed to double down on AI investments to 'accelerate execution and efficiency.''AI flattens our hiring curve, and helps us innovate from idea to product faster,' Kurtz wrote. It's not just U.S. companies. In India, tech giant Tata Consultancy Services recently characterized its 12,000 layoffs, or 2% of its workforce, as part of a shift to a 'Future-Ready organization' that would be realigning its workforce and 'deploying AI at scale for our clients and ourselves.' Even the Japanese parent company of Indeed and Glassdoor has cited an AI shift in its notice of 1,300 layoffs at the job search and workplace review which is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday, has announced layoffs of about 15,000 workers this year even as its profits have soared. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees last week the layoffs were 'weighing heavily' on him but also positioned them as an opportunity to reimagine the company's mission for an AI era. Promises of a leaner approach have been welcomed on Wall Street, especially from tech giants that are trying to justify huge amounts of capital spending to pay for the data centers, chips and other components required to power AI technology. 'It's this sort of double-edged sword restructuring that I think a lot of tech giants are encountering in this age of AI, where they have to find the right balance between maintaining an appropriate headcount, but also allowing artificial intelligence to come to the forefront,' said Bryan Hayes, a strategist at Zacks Investment Research. Google said last week it would raise its budget for capital expenditures by an additional $10 billion to $85 billion. Microsoft is expected to outline similar guidance thing is clear to Hayes: Microsoft's job cuts improve its profit margin outlook for the 2026 fiscal year that started in July. But what these broader tech industry layoffs mean for the employment prospects of tech workers can be harder to gauge.
Forbes
01-08-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why 5.3% Of Workers Now Hold Multiple Jobs: The Full Story
The president brags about how many jobs he has created, goes an old joke. Someone in the audience says, 'I have three of them.' The implication, obviously, is that the economy is so poor that people have to find multiple part-time jobs to support themselves. The actual data show good news: a declining trend in multiple job holding over decades, with a recent upturn. And that upturn may reflect opportunity rather than need. The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics begin in 1994. The chart shows a general downward trend from 1995 through 2014, with a slight increase in the years leading up to the pandemic. After the worst of the pandemic, the percentage of employed people with multiple jobs rose from 4.4% to 5.3%, the steepest increase in 30 years. (The data are not adjusted for seasonal fluctuations, so the chart begins in 1995 to show 12-month moving averages.) Multiple job holding is usually associated—as the old joke reflects—with difficult times. But we see no increase at the time of the 2001 recession and only a small uptick in the 2008-2009 recession. (Recessions are shaded in gray on the chart.) Perhaps the hard-times story must be combined with a good-opportunity story. Economist Daniel Culbertson of the Indeed Hiring Lab observed that the rise of the gig economy (as embodied by Uber, DoorDash and other contract work) may have provided opportunities that people found appealing. Years ago, a job almost always involved a schedule and a location where the worker would report. The gig economy provides opportunities for people to work their preferred hours—even if that means different hours one week than the next. And the employee may not have to go into a fixed location but rather can start working from wherever he or she happens to be at the moment. (The conversation occurred during Talivity's Talent Market Index briefing.) There is probably truth in both the need story and opportunity story (which is my interpretation of Culbertson's remarks). And there may be middle ground where a person in need looks at different options, such as work full time in one job or part-time at two jobs with different characteristics. A variety of ride-share (Uber and Lyft) conversations I have had point to both ends of the spectrum. Two former taxi drivers shifted to ride-share driver because their preferred job—taxi driver—was no longer paying good money. They both shared bad feelings about the change. (A propensity to tell customers about their bad feelings may have led to disappointment with a system in which riders rate their drivers.) Several ride-share drivers, however, enjoyed the opportunity. One worked remotely as a tech writer, but wanted or needed some extra income. He kept his ride-share app open while he worked at home. One day it started raining and surge pricing kicked in. His app alerted him, so he shut his laptop and got in his car. He only drove customers when he would be well-rewarded. Similarly, another work-at-home person would only accept long drives on the ride-share apps. He would take someone from the distant suburb where he lived to the airport, then take someone else from the airport to the driver's suburb, and then he resumed work from home. He didn't care to do short trips, and he didn't have to. Several female drivers told me they didn't feel comfortable picking up late-night bar hoppers. Their ride-share contract did not require them to work hours or locations they disliked. And some drivers don't speak English, but can do the job thanks to the rideshare app and map app working in their native language. Thinking over economic questions often leads to stereotypes. 'A typical job seeker is looking for ….' Or, 'A typical employer is looking for ….' A deeper insight, though, is that the world is populated with widely varying people and businesses. Yes, a majority may prefer regular hours, but some want to vary their hours, and others are willing to be on call as the need arises. Many organizations need their workers to show up on time every scheduled workday (think stores and fire departments) but others just need the work done in some reasonable time range. We also have some companies that experience wide fluctuations in demand while others have very predictable needs. With great diversity of employers and businesses, no single work model will be good in all instances. Business leaders may be able to take advantage of some opportunities to get better employees at lower cost. Most people would prefer to have some flexibility in their work hours to accommodate commuting delays or family obligations. A company that does not really need employees to show up on a fixed schedule can get some good workers by offering flexibility. Another example: Companies that have varying needs might be better off paying high wages for people who agree to show up on short notice, working only as needed. That could be cheaper than paying people a moderate wage to stand around just in case they are needed. There are many retirees who would like to do something outside the home but don't want to commit to a daily job. Their flexible schedules might fit well with on-call work. The business analysis begins by looking at specific jobs and determining what the company really needs, plus what would be nice to have but not absolutely necessary, and what is not needed at all. Then look for employees whose particular interests aligns with the company's need. And as companies such as Uber, DoorDash and Upwork have learned, there might even be a business in serving that narrow need. People interested in public policy should consider that some multiple job holders are happy with their situation.
Euronews
31-07-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Is AI causing mass layoffs at tech companies? Kind of, experts say
If you read the typical 2025 mass layoff notice from a tech industry CEO, you might think that artificial intelligence (AI) cost workers their jobs. The reality is more complicated, with companies trying to signal that they're making themselves more efficient as they prepare for broader changes wrought by AI. Tech job postings are down 36 per cent from 2020, according to a new report from the job listing site Indeed. But that isn't only because companies want to replace workers with artificial intelligence (AI). A new report from career website Indeed says tech job postings in July were down 36 per cent from their early 2020 levels, with AI representing only one factor in stalling a rebound. ChatGPT's debut in 2022, for example, also corresponded with the end of a pandemic-era hiring binge. 'We're kind of in this period where the tech job market is weak, but other areas of the job market have also cooled at a similar pace,' said Brendon Bernard, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. 'Tech job postings have actually evolved pretty similarly to the rest of the economy, including relative to job postings where there really isn't that much exposure to AI". That nuance is not always clear from the last six months of tech layoff emails, which often include a nod to AI in addition to expressions of sympathy. Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach, for example, said in an email announcing mass layoffs earlier this year that "companies everywehre are reimagining how work gets done," citing the "increasing demand" for AI at his company as the reason behind the layoffs. The same rhetoric is being used internationally, for example by India's tech giant Tata Consultancy, which justified the 12,000 cuts to its organisation by saying that it is getting ready to deploy "AI at scale for our clients and ourselves". AI spending is a more common factor What's more common than AI replacing jobs, though, is the need for more dollars to implement AI throughout the company, experts said. Tech companies are trying to justify huge amounts of spending to pay for data centres, chips, and the energy needed to build AI systems. Bryan Hayes, a strategist at Zacks Investment Research, said there is a "double-edged sword," of restructuring in the AI age. Companies are trying to "find the right balance between maintaining an appropriate headcount but also allowing artificial intelligence to come to the forefront". Hayes said broader tech layoffs have helped improve profit margins, but what it means for the employment prospects of these workers is hard to gauge. 'Will AI replace some of these jobs? Absolutely,' said Hayes. 'But it's also going to create a lot of jobs". Those tech employees that are able to show that they can "leverage artificial intelligence and help the companies innovate and create new products and services, are going to be the ones that are in high demand," he added. Hayes pointed to Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which is on a spree of offering lucrative packages to recruit elite AI scientists from competitors such as OpenAI. The Indeed report shows that AI specialists are faring better than software engineers, but postings for those jobs have also gone down. Bernard said that is because of the "cyclical ups and downs of the sector". Entry-level jobs most affected The Indeed report found that AI is having the deepest impact on entry-level jobs across sectors, including marketing, administrative assistance, and human resources. That's because those jobs have tasks that overlap with generative AI tools. Postings for workers with at least five years of experience fared better, the report found. 'The plunge in tech hiring started before the new AI age, but the shifting experience requirements is something that happened a bit more recently,' Bernard said. On the other end of the spectrum, some types of jobs appeared more immune to AI changes. That included health workers who draw blood, followed by nursing assistants, workers who remove hazardous materials, painters, and embalmers.
CTV News
30-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Is AI causing tech worker layoffs? That's what CEOs suggest, but the reality is complicated
Help wanted sign is displayed at a live music and blues club in Chicago, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) If you read the typical 2025 mass layoff notice from a tech industry CEO, you might think that artificial intelligence cost workers their jobs. The reality is more complicated, with companies trying to signal to Wall Street that they're making themselves more efficient as they prepare for broader changes wrought by AI. A new report Wednesday from career website Indeed says tech job postings in July were down 36 per cent from their early 2020 levels, with AI one but not the most obvious factor in stalling a rebound. ChatGPT's debut in late 2022 also corresponded with the end of a pandemic-era hiring binge, making it hard to isolate AI's role in the hiring doldrums that followed. 'We're kind of in this period where the tech job market is weak, but other areas of the job market have also cooled at a similar pace,' said Brendon Bernard, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. 'Tech job postings have actually evolved pretty similarly to the rest of the economy, including relative to job postings where there really isn't that much exposure to AI.' The template for tech CEO layoff notices in 2025 includes an AI pivot That nuance is not always clear from the last six months of tech layoff emails, which often include a nod to AI in addition to expressions of sympathy. When he announced mass layoffs earlier this year, Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach invited employees to consider the bigger picture: 'Companies everywhere are reimagining how work gets done, and the increasing demand for AI has the potential to drive a new era of growth for Workday.' Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost explained that a need to shift resources to 'accelerate investments' in AI was one of the reasons the company had to cut 1,350, or about nine per cent, of workers. The 'Why We're Doing This' section of CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz's announcement of five per cent job cuts said the cybersecurity company needed to double down on AI investments to 'accelerate execution and efficiency.' 'AI flattens our hiring curve, and helps us innovate from idea to product faster,' Kurtz wrote. It's not just U.S. companies. In India, tech giant Tata Consultancy Services recently characterized its 12,000 layoffs, or two per cent of its workforce, as part of a shift to a 'Future-Ready organization' that would be realigning its workforce and 'deploying AI at scale for our clients and ourselves.' Even the Japanese parent company of Indeed and Glassdoor has cited an AI shift in its notice of 1,300 layoffs at the job search and workplace review sites. AI spending, not replacement, is a more common factor Microsoft, which is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday, has announced layoffs of about 15,000 workers this year even as its profits have soared. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees last week the layoffs were 'weighing heavily' on him but also positioned them as an opportunity to reimagine the company's mission for an AI era. Promises of a leaner approach have been welcomed on Wall Street, especially from tech giants that are trying to justify huge amounts of capital spending to pay for the data centers, chips and other components required to power AI technology. 'It's this sort of double-edged sword restructuring that I think a lot of tech giants are encountering in this age of AI, where they have to find the right balance between maintaining an appropriate headcount, but also allowing artificial intelligence to come to the forefront,' said Bryan Hayes, a strategist at Zacks Investment Research. Google said last week it would raise its budget for capital expenditures by an additional US$10 billion to US$85 billion. Microsoft is expected to outline similar guidance soon. The role of AI in job replacement is hard to track One thing is clear to Hayes: Microsoft's job cuts improve its profit margin outlook for the 2026 fiscal year that started in July. But what these broader tech industry layoffs mean for the employment prospects of tech workers can be harder to gauge. 'Will AI replace some of these jobs? Absolutely,' said Hayes. 'But it's also going to create a lot of jobs. Employees that are able to leverage artificial intelligence and help the companies innovate, and create new products and services, are going to be the ones that are in high demand.' He pointed to Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which is on a spree of offering lucrative packages to recruit elite AI scientists from competitors such as OpenAI. The reports published by Indeed on Wednesday show that AI specialists are faring better than standard software engineers, but even those jobs are not where they have been. 'Machine-learning engineers — which is kind of the canonical AI job — those job postings are still noticeably above where they were pre-pandemic, though they've actually come down compared to their 2022 peak,' said Bernard, the Indeed economist. 'They've also been impacted by the cyclical ups and downs of the sector.' Economists are watching for AI's effects on entry-level tech jobs Tech hiring has particularly plunged in AI hubs such as the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Boston and Seattle, according to Indeed. But in looking more closely at which tech workers were least likely to get hired, Indeed found the deepest impact on entry-level jobs in the tech industry, with those with at least five years of experience faring better. The hiring declines were sharpest in entry-level tech industry jobs that involve marketing, administrative assistance and human resources, which all involve tasks that overlap with the strength of the latest generative AI tools that can help create documents and images. 'The plunge in tech hiring started before the new AI age, but the shifting experience requirements is something that happened a bit more recently,' Bernard said. --- Matt O'Brien, The Associated Press
