Tag | Employment

On the topic of finding a job in this economy, my pessimistic gut tells me don’t bother. The internet is rife with anecdotal stories of tech pros getting laid off and incapable of finding another job.

Frankly, I’m one of those stories.

Below is just a sampling of recent ballast shedding by leading technology corporations. Next year will be financially disastrous for many individuals in North America trained only in the computer sciences.

1. IBM cutting thousands of jobs in the fourth quarter. "IBM employed 270,000 people at the end of 2024, according to its latest annual report. A 1% cut to headcount would represent the loss of 2,700 jobs."
2. Intel cuts 15% of its staff as it pushes to make a comeback. "Intel said Thursday it has mostly completed plans it announced last quarter to cut 15% of its workforce, as the struggling chipmaker attempts a turnaround."
3. A laid-off Microsoft manager shares why he's ready to say goodbye to Big Tech after 2 decades. "After three stints at Microsoft spanning more than two decades, Joe Friend was laid off in May. He's still figuring out what's next, but there's one thing he's sure of: His time in Big Tech is over. …He had planned to stay at Microsoft until at least his 65th birthday — a milestone that, under company policy, allows most stock grants to continue vesting even after the employee leaves."
4. Meta lays off 600 from ‘bloated’ AI unit as Wang cements leadership. "Meta will lay off roughly 600 employees within its artificial intelligence unit as the company looks to reduce layers and operate more nimbly, a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday."
5. CrowdStrike to lay off 5% of staff, reaffirms forecasts. "CrowdStrike reiterated its fiscal 2026 first quarter and annual forecasts on Wednesday and announced a plan to cut about 500 roles, roughly 5% of its workforce, to streamline operations and reduce costs. The cybersecurity company will incur about $36 million to $53 million in charges related to the layoffs, of which about $7 million will be recognized in the first quarter ended April 30, it said in a regulatory filing."

If you’re a coder, you already know: There just aren’t as many jobs as there used to be.

Tim Paradis at Business Insider takes a less-than-penetrating look into the job market for software developers, but he did include a link to a Federal Reserve Bank chart that plots the change in the number of job postings on Indeed.

Beginning in 2020, the chart shows a meteoric rise of software development job postings into the second quarter of 2022. A rise to over 230% from the February 1, 2020 numbers. Job postings have since fallen to approximately 63% of February, 2020.

According to the article, the primary driving factor is the use of artificial intelligence. It’s making individual coders more efficient and more productive thereby rendering larger teams obsolete.

For those of us in the industry, as the above quote observes, the chart is unnecessary. If we haven’t already been laid off, we’re waiting for that Muskian email asking us to justify our employment. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, we all have a front row seat for a modern reimagining of Death of a Salesman, and we don’t need the Fourth Estate talking us through the play.