Let's Talk Tech Layoffs

Let's talk tech layoffs. Before you panic from the recent news about mega layoffs at tech companies, it ain't what you think. Hear me out.

Fact is, there is still a dearth of qualified tech workers to fill positions. That means the US economy cannot grow as fast as it can because the talent isn't there. Period.

Lucas Mearlan's article "How Many Jobs are Available in Technology in the US?" in the April 10, 2023 edition of Computerworld, provided some eye opening facts about the real state of the tech world:

1. Tech sector employment in March declined by a grand total of...839 jobs.
2. Employer job postings for tech positions for March increased 76,546 month over month, for a total of 316,000 openings. These numbers are conservative because they don't include openings that aren't currently posted- businesses just live with the gaping hole in their productivity.
3. Tech unemployment rate was unchanged in February at 2.2%.
4. More than 168,000 workers have been laid off at tech firms. It would seem that most of the layoffs are occurring on the business side, and not so much on the tech side. Layoffs for the most part, did not hit developers. They were focused on data center ops, admin, HR roles and DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion).

Of course, you can parse data just about any way you want to get the results you are looking for. But the fact is this: there are still way too many tech openings and not enough available talent in the US. I remember a stat that there were seven Java developer openings for every available Java developer. Seven openings: one developer. How can we close this gap? My Magic Eight ball shows me four ways:

1. Continue to build educational resources to train, upskill, cross train existing talent,
2. Automate processes like AI, low code / no code, to simplify what use to require teams of developers to do (we called it a paradigm shift in my younger days),
3. Simplify the job visa process for immigrant workers,
4. The pandemic's effect on the business world stressed the importance of remote work teams. New productivity and communication tools became available so that many companies could work from just about anywhere around the world.

Did I miss any? I would love to know how you tackle the growing tech gap.

Source: For more information on the state of tech, visit Lucas Mearian's article on Computerworld at https://www.computerworld.com/article/3542681/how-many-jobs-are-available-in-technology.html