Dive Brief:
- In the wake of a monthslong wave of tech-sector job cuts, most technologists impacted by layoffs landed new positions, according to a recent Boston Consulting Group report. The firm surveyed 815 tech workers, 12% of whom lost their jobs in the last nine months.
- More than 4 in 5 laid-off tech workers found new jobs, many within the tech industry, and many respondents remained open to new job opportunities.
- Seven in 10 technologists surveyed would consider a new position and 90% of workers who experienced a layoff are passively open to job offers or actively seeking.
Dive Insight:
Punctuated by cuts at Amazon and Microsoft, big tech led all other sectors in job cuts during the first half of the year with nearly 142,000 layoffs through the end of June, according to employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
As economic uncertainty dissipated and tech companies braced for the coming boom in generative AI products, the pace of workforce cuts slowed last month. In June, the tech industry suffered fewer than 5,000 layoffs, down from nearly 23,000 the prior month, the Challenger report found.
Tech companies added 5,348 jobs in June, more than compensating for the 4,725 lost the prior month, according to CompTIA’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly data.
Nevertheless, the recruitment window remains open for organizations outside of the tech industry, according to Boston Consulting Group.
Skills-strapped companies can still lure talent from tech sector ranks, provided they can offer competitive compensation, career development, compelling projects, flexibility and a culture that promotes a healthy work-life balance, the BCG report said.
Recently, the tech talent market showed signs of marginal easing.
The tech unemployment rate inched up slightly to 2.3% last month. Lingering economic unease also depressed job postings, pushing the number below 250,000 for the second month in a row, CompTIA found.
Demand for talent, however, has remained high, regardless of broader economic trends. Nearly 4 in 5 hiring managers said they’d be unable to meet tech recruitment goals for the year, according to a recent survey of 1,000 HR professionals by IT training company General Assembly.
