In November, Apple laid off dozens of sales employees, a rather unexpected move for the tech giant. Apple is the rare tech company that has avoided mass layoffs, especially among its peers in the billion-dollar club. The layoffs “came as a surprise” to those who lost their jobs, a said Bloomberg report– and they affected some employees who had been with the company for decades.
The post-pandemic labor market is defined by layoffs, in the tech sector and beyond: A Glassdoor Analysis notes that there was a peak in 2023, but that layoffs have continued since then at a more frequent pace than in previous years. A variety of industries have been hit hard – and leading employers like Verizon, Starbucks and UPS have experienced multiple rounds of budget cuts this year alone, shedding thousands of jobs.
But the tech industry has been uniquely reliant on layoffs as companies have gone through periods of over-hiring and shifting priorities, with the rapid rise of artificial intelligence now upending the sector.
According to the tracker, tech employers have laid off more than 700,000 employees since 2022 Fired.fyi. With the exception of Apple, which has made a handful of more targeted cuts in recent years, Big Tech companies (namely Amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft) have laid off tens of thousands of workers over the past three years.
“There are so many new college graduates coming up trying to enter the tech industry, and they feel like the promise of a high-paying job in tech is just not really being delivered,” said Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor’s chief economist and director of economic research.
All of this has created a challenging environment for tech workers looking for new jobs and for recent graduates trying to find their footing. Over the past two decades, Big Tech jobs have had a certain cachet for millennial knowledge workers at the start of their careers. The sprawling campuses and free food were of course attractive, but companies like Google also imbued their work with purpose and seemed to guarantee professional success.
But as layoffs have roiled the industry, it appears that the tech jobs once hailed as stable and desirable are no longer a safe choice for workers.
“Unfortunately, layoffs aren’t really a last resort anymore,” says Brett Coakley, principal executive coach at career consulting firm Close Cohen. “They’ve become more of an annual planning tool. These employees who thought they were isolated are realizing that prestige doesn’t really provide the protection they’re used to.”
The dream job has changed
For years, these tech companies have promised generous salaries and job security, along with generous perks. However, between the recurring layoffs and the strict return policy, something seems to have shifted – and that’s not all the benefits have dried up.
Many large tech employers hired aggressively during the pandemic, but not long after they pivoted and laid off employees. Companies like Amazon forced employees to return to the office five days a week, and in some cases had to relocate.
The rise of generative AI is also revolutionizing tech companies, with many of them making billion-dollar investments and attracting top talent. Computer science graduates are finding it harder to land entry-level jobs, in part because those roles are steadily being automated. Some companies, like Salesforce, have already replaced certain employees with AI, while others have have warned that job losses are coming and that workers must respond to the moment and embrace AI technology. Mark Zuckerberg noted earlier this year that AI could replace mid-level engineers at Meta, while Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has said Employees who “become proficient in AI” will “have a big impact” and “help us reinvent the business.”
(Whether AI will actually eliminate jobs at a rapid pace is almost immaterial, though it seems companies are reluctant to mention the other issues causing their business woes – including immigration policies and tariffs.)
The result is that workers have become more reluctant to commit their careers to a Big Tech job, Coakley says.
“We see that people who are early in their careers have the same symptom,” he says. “‘Why would I go into something that’s not stable? I can do a gig role, or I can do something that’s more skills-based.’ Or: ‘Why do I have to study for four years to get this degree if I don’t get a job?’ We get a lot of that sentiment.” Some workers early in their careers are looking to smaller companies or trying to strengthen their AI skills for when the pendulum inevitably swings back and Big Tech starts hiring again, Coakley said.
Zhao argues that the high-paying job in tech still has its appeal, even if it feels increasingly out of reach for some newcomers to the industry. The number of workers who have been unemployed for more than six months has increased as the number of people with college degrees has decreased. make up a larger share of them.
“These Big Tech companies are still very attractive jobs,” says Zhao. “If you ask a recent graduate, ‘Do you want to work at Google?’ I think most of them would still say yes. The question is how you actually get your foot in the door.”
What this means for old and new tech workers
It’s not just people early in their careers who are reevaluating where they want to work. The current climate has shown that tenure and seniority won’t necessarily keep your job, especially when companies are hunting for AI talent. For older workers who built their careers at Big Tech companies, the unease pervading the tech sector has raised questions about how long they are expected to stay in their jobs.
“At the beginning of the year we had a lot of people coming to us after a layoff,” says Coakley. “So they didn’t see it coming or didn’t expect it. [Now] I’m starting to see a lot of that other side of the spectrum, where people are being proactive and saying, “I don’t know if this is going to be there for me in six months.”
Experts often say that layoffs have a clear effect on company culture Glassdoor’s analysis Supports this idea: Glassdoor reviews increase by more than 40% in the week after a layoff, and months later they are still referenced in reviews. Zhao points out that some companies are trying to avoid the negative attention and press coverage that comes with a mass layoff by making smaller, more frequent cuts.
But tech workers can still see what’s happening, and Coakley says some of them are taking preventative steps to chart a new path.
“The mid to senior level [employee] has actually built their identity within one company,” he says. “They have lived in that bubble of Big Tech, but now that bubble is thinning a bit, they wonder: who am I outside this company?” Coakley has found that some senior employees are now interested in part-time roles, or startups that offer more work-life balance.
“People are realizing they have to rely on businesses for stability,” he says, “and that is no longer viable.”
Amid a tough job market, even workers who have lost their jobs at Big Tech may be afraid to take drastic action. But that could change if the market eventually turns around – to the detriment of these employers.
“If we see the balance of power shifting back toward workers and away from employers, a lot can change,” Zhao says. “And to some extent that is a risk that employers should also be aware of.”
The culture of Big Tech may have changed, but employees have also changed accordingly, increasingly emboldened by the turmoil of the past five years — and the realization that their employers are no different than their peers in corporate America.
“I think the fact that workers are feeling so stuck right now,” Zhao says, “means that once the job market opens up again, all those workers will be at the door.”
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