Headlines about “tech” layoffs abound, but the reports can be misleading, says ComputerWorld. While Big Tech companies may be letting workers go, the layoffs aren’t dominated by I.T. talent firings. In fact, there are fewer I.T. workers than job openings — a lot fewer.
The unemployment rate in the technology job market in the U.S. is about half that of other fields — just 1.5% — so the onslaught of recent reports about major “tech worker” layoffs can be confounding.
For example, current data from online tracker company Layoff.fyi shows that 465 tech companies have fired a total of 126,057 employees in 2023 alone. And, according to layoff tracker TrueUp, so far this year, 608 tech companies have announced layoffs, affecting 162,541 people (or 2,426 people per day). In 2022, there were 1,535 layoffs at tech companies with 241,176 people let go.
While tech companies have laid off hundreds of thousands of workers over the past six months or so, the majority of those employees did not hold I.T. positions. And even when companies did reduce their headcount through layoffs, the number let go was typically no more than 5% to 6% of the total workforce, according to Gartner Research.
In fact, Gartner found that the companies behind the 10 largest layoffs in tech talent now employ over 150,000 more people than at the beginning of 2020. When it comes to tech jobs, hiring continues to far outpace firing.
Overall, 2022 saw an increase of about 264,500 new jobs to the I.T. job market, according to industry consultancy Janco Associates. Those new jobs came atop the 213,000 I.T. jobs created in 2021.
