The next 12 months will be critical for tech employers to attract and hire the skills and talent they need to navigate the market challenges ahead, the report said. “We are seeing pure technology companies initiate layoffs, hiring freezes and slow their tech hiring more than the corporate support tech jobs, such as retail and healthcare,” Neil Costa, founder and CEO of HireClix told Spiceworks. “The more traditional industries are still trying to keep up with the rapid pace of technology change and still need tech talent,” he added.
According to Hirect, a free, chat-based hiring app, more than 50 rounds of layoffs have impacted over 14,000 highly skilled employees from the U.S.-based tech startups. With more layoffs undoubtedly on the horizon, do tech workers need a reality check? To understand this aspect, we asked experts three mission-critical questions: Which industries are clamping down tech hiring? Which factors are causing companies to cut back on tech hirings? What steps companies need to take to future-proof the tech job market? Here’s what techies need to understand.
Are Industries Clamping Down on Tech Hirings?
According to a survey by Blind, an anonymous professional networking site, only 9% of techies feel confident in their job security. However, tech hiring experts believe that despite the economic uncertainty and companies trying to save costs, tech workers are still high in demand. 64% of tech leaders say they’re struggling to hire skilled workers for open roles, the survey found.
So, the question is, which industries are proving to be recession-proof?
“From cloud providers to cryptocurrency, we’ve seen a slowdown in tech hirings across a number of industries. However, two industries that are proving to be ‘recession-proof’ are cybersecurity and data protection,” explained Danny Allan, chief technology officer at Veeam, a data protection company.
In February 2022, Adzuna – a job search engine saw 3,339 ‘metaverse’ job ads in the U.S., up +379% from just 697 four months ago.
According to Adzuna’s report, two more areas have also seen rapid growth in job postings. The number of job vacancies mentioning the keyword ‘crypto’ has risen sharply, accounting for 5,302 advertised vacancies in February 2022, up from 2,662 in October, and +409% higher compared to 1,042 a year ago. Similarly, there were 64,659 ‘cybersecurity’ jobs in February 2022, up from 48,183 in October, more than doubling (+137%) from 27,267 a year ago, the report said.
“Metaverse experts are the new hot ticket with related roles ranging from developers to data scientists, writers, and creatives. This follows booming interest in crypto and cybersecurity roles throughout 2021 and we continue to see the tech sector growing and strengthening during this time,” Neave stated.
Monthly US Advertised Vacancies for Metaverse, Crypto, and Cybersecurity Roles
Most tech recruiters believe that despite the reset the tech industry is going through, tech workers should be bullish about the future. Another contributing factor for this belief are ransomware attacks. As ransomware attacks continue to grow in both size and scope, companies are prioritizing their ability to respond.
In conclusion, it’s critical to note that hiring isn’t always industry-specific, Susan Hanson, chief people officer at RainFocus told Spiceworks. “Two seemingly comparable companies in the same industry might have vastly different financials — one that demands layoffs and one that requires hiring. It’s best to vet companies individually to the best of your ability, checking in about hiring and the company’s needs.”
Factors Responsible for Curtailing Tech Hirings
As per the iCIMS August Insights Report, tech workers may be hesitant to make moves now given media headlines of layoffs in the space and the age-old notion of last one in, first one out. Tech application activity has also returned to pre-pandemic levels, down more than 20% from the height of the pandemic, the report said.
With fewer applicants applying, tech roles are taking longer to fill. This makes for a challenging hiring landscape for employers who are continuing to accelerate digital transformation efforts and in need of tech talent. “Strong organizations can differentiate themselves during an economic downturn by optimizing their platforms, engaging existing employees, and picking up strong tech talent. Now is the time for tech companies to separate themselves,” Allan pointed.
Tech companies found themselves short-staffed during the hyper-growth of the tech industry. When hiring came back after the initial shock of COVID, technology companies saw this as a green light to get aggressive and boosted salaries to encourage workers to make a move, experts said. “It’s a little bit of buyer’s remorse and a little bit of talent management since they may not be getting the talent they thought they were paying for and they need to manage them outside of the organization,” Costa explained.
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