Engineering Jobs Outlook

Yes, the tech job market is still expected to have an upward trajectory in 2024. Here’s the data. 📈 2023 was an interesting year. Looking back, it’s easy to focus on the challenges—global economic slowdown, a looming threat of a recession, the Russia-Ukraine war, and mass layoffs at many of the big tech companies dominating the headlines. Yet, as we step into 2024, I think it is time to reflect on some of the good news and share some optimism for the look ahead.  Let’s start with the fact that despite the high-profile layoffs last year, the overall tech industry added 240,000 jobs, a 50% increase from the previous year. The momentum didn’t stop there: in March 2024 alone, we added another 203,000 jobs in the tech sector. The IT unemployment rate held steady at 2.4%, which is considered full employment by any measure. Here are a few more uplifting insights: 🖥️ The $245-billion IT services industry has implemented salary increases ranging from 10%-15% for specified roles, a testament to the positive outlook for compensation (TechFair.com). 🖥️ Net tech employment spanning tech industry and tech occupation employment, now totals over 9.6 million workers (CompTIA).  🖥️ 61% of tech managers planning to hire for new roles in 2024 (TechFair.com).  These statistics are not just numbers. They represent opportunities, growth, and the resilience of our industry. I hope you find these insights and our full IT Labor Trends report (linked in the comments below) helpful in navigating the labor market and informing your hiring and retention efforts.  Let’s keep pushing forward, embracing challenges and opportunities alike.  #Dexian #TechIndustry #Leadership #Innovation #CareerGrowth #TechTrends 

I spoke with Madison H. about how the tech job market is doing nowadays and what it says about the attractiveness of tech moving forward (article linked at bottom of post). It's important to be measured & clear-eyed about the state of the tech job market: Tech jobs are down ~2% from their December 2022 peak through April 2024 on the back of layoffs & sluggish hiring. However, tech employment is still up significantly compared to pre-Covid (+21%) as the run-up in hiring during Covid props up jobs growth over that longer time horizon. Tech has grown explosively in the last decade and that may partially explain the pessimism around tech today as tech workers used to a decade-plus of rapid growth are now grappling with a jobs plateau. Tech has always been extremely volatile, offering high highs and low lows. For example, the current job slowdown is no dotcom crash which took 13 years to recover from! By contrast, the 1990 and 2020 recessions had little negative impact on tech jobs. Additionally, the jobs plateau is particularly tough on new grads whose flow through the talent pipeline is now clogged, blocking opportunities for grads who were drawn to tech by the promise of high-paying entry-level jobs. Overall, the tech industry is still a good long-term bet as the economy becomes increasingly technology driven, but that comes with the risk of high volatility for tech workers. Article: https://lnkd.in/eXMEhwrG

In the coming months, we will see an influx of new and returning workers join the labor force, especially with graduation season upon us. While stabilization in the pace of hiring could not come at a better time for new graduates, it will not negate the cumulative impact of the hiring slowdown over the last two years. Competition for jobs will be tougher this year, especially as professionals start to eye their next move and for new graduates. For example, from November 2023 through March 2024 we’ve seen an 14% increase in the number of job applications being submitted per applicant on LinkedIn. We look at the state of hiring in this month's US Workforce Report. 1. Overall, hiring slowed by 0.2% from March to April and 9.5% compared to April 2023 (the smallest year-over-year decline seen since August 2022), however the pace of hiring has only slowed by 1% since January. The majority of the slowdown still looks to be behind us, and stabilization in the pace of hiring is coming right in time for graduation season. However, there are still no signs of a mass pick up and hiring remains depressed compared to the last few years. Opportunities differ greatly from one industry to the next. 2. April saw a mix of hiring pickups and slowdowns across industries. April’s hiring gains included Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain and Storage which posted strong net employment gains in April’s jobs report. Overall, 7 out of the 20 sectors saw hiring accelerated from March to April. Technology, Information, and Media continues to lead hiring stabilization, changing little from March to April (+0.3%) and only down -2.3% year-over-year (second only to Consumer Services). While the overall hiring rate has slowed 7.3% since July 2023, the hiring rate for Technology, Information, and Media has accelerated 7.2% within that same timeframe. 4. Hiring increased in 6 of the 20 metro areas we track in April. While hiring remains down in all metros we track compared to one year prior, new and old tech hubs Austin (-5.1%) and the San Francisco Bay Area (-6.3%) continued to put in the strongest year-over-year hiring performances. 5. Tapering off of the hiring slowdown has not translated into improved workforce confidence. In fact, we have seen LinkedIn member confidence in finding and holding a job recently dip to some of its lowest levels over the past few years based on LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index. Without any signs of reacceleration on a broader scale, the cumulative effect of the hiring slowdown since Spring 2022 looks to now be meaningfully weighing down workforce confidence. For more insights, check our May Workforce Report coming out this week as well as our monthly newsletter - State of the Labor Market - from LinkedIn's Economic Graph. Many thanks to all the folks who make this possible Danielle K., Weesie Thelen, Shadin Al-Dossari, Anne Trapasso, Amie Wong, and Allie Lewis! #linkedin #hiring #egdata