Laid Off Tech Workers Quickly Find New Jobs

New research shows that most laid-off tech workers find work soon after they begin their search, as employers push workers into the workforce.

According to a ZipRecruiter survey of new hires, nearly 79% of workers were hired after being fired or fired from their new job within three months of starting their job search at a tech company. That was almost 83% of all laid-off employees who were reinstated in the same period.

ZipRecruiter found that nearly four out of four previously fired technicians found a new job within a month of starting the search .

"Despite widespread tech layoffs, hiring freezes and cost cuts, many tech workers are rehiring remarkably quickly," said Julia Pollack, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. "They are always the hottest and most in-demand workforce."

Economy-wide job creation of 10.3 million jobs was below a record high but surpassed the number of jobless Americans, presenting workers with an opportunity to lose their jobs and those who chose to find others.

ZipRecruiter data shows that workers previously employed in other industries, such as leisure and entertainment, transportation, shipping and manufacturing, are also finding new jobs more quickly.

The job market for tech workers is slowing as the broader economy falters under pressure from a US Federal Reserve rate hike and high inflation. There are layoffs and layoffs at startups and big tech companies like Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc, Facebook's parent company, which aggressively hired early in the pandemic. The cuts affect workers in technical jobs such as software developers and recruiters in other corporate functions.

But tech companies are outpacing new hires.

A small percentage of technicians spend a significant amount of time looking for work after being laid off. ZipRecruiter reports that about 5% of laid-off technicians who found work between April and October spent more than six months looking for a job, compared to 26% who were hired between August 2021 and February 2022.

In late July, 23-year-old Wayne Hooper was fired from his job as a videographer at a real estate tech startup. Mr. Hooper, who lives near Seattle, thought it would take a while to find a new job because he hadn't graduated from college in four years and because so many job seekers are flooding the tech job market.

"To be honest, when I applied I wasn't very confident because there was so much competition, so many people were cut," he said.

Mr. Hooper built a savings bank that allowed him to be more selective in his job search while also focusing on social media. He documented his experiences of unemployment in a series of videos on LinkedIn. Hooper said the videos helped him land an interview and eventually an offer for a job as a social media manager at a startup software company. Started in September.

"I was surprised at how quickly I got a job offer," he said.

Searching for short-term tech jobs has become somewhat less popular as the job market has slowed since the beginning of the year. According to ZipRecruiter, 37% of people who recently lost their job and work in the tech industry found a new job within a month of starting their search. This compares to 50% in the February survey.

"We've certainly seen a slowdown in hiring, but that's because job creation has been informal due to the impact of the pandemic," said Ryan Sutton, regional head of global human resources firm Robert Half. “It wasn't hot from August 2020 to May 2022. It was very hot."

When mass layoffs occur, Sutton says there's usually an influx of tech candidates who approach his company for help finding jobs.

"We haven't seen that yet, we haven't seen more candidates coming out," he said. "We have to look for recruits and run as much as they have done for the past two years."

Mr Sutton said the client's tech companies have not indicated any plans to cut jobs.

According to ZipRecruiter, about 74% of new hires stay in the industry after losing or leaving their job at a tech company. Others who previously worked at technology companies joined companies in sectors such as retail, financial services and healthcare in the six months to mid-October.

Pinnacle Assurance, a 650-employee worker's compensation company, saw a 46 percent increase in applicants from big tech companies like Meta, Microsoft and Twitter between September and mid-December, according to Tim Johnson. Institute for Personnel Management.

An influx of applicants over the past few months has helped Pinnacol fill technology-related positions such as data scientists, machine learning engineers, and cloud engineers. Johnson said in mid-December, Pinnacle's recruiting team offered the candidate the Google job.

Ayana Chapman, 42, started working in systems engineering at Pinacole in mid-November, overseeing IT systems after being fired from another position as a systems engineer this spring.

" Our recruits had to hunt and run as much as they have in the last two years." »

- Ryan Sutton of global staffing firm Robert Half

The generous course package allowed him to take a few months off to brush up on his skills and earn certifications in the Python programming language. When Atlanta-area residents start looking for jobs in the second week of October, employers are quick to respond to interview opportunities, he said.

Mrs. Chapman wanted a steady job and thought Pinnacle would be a good fit for her. He said he received an offer from a Denver-based company about two weeks after the interview, much quicker than previous attempts.

"I literally cried with joy, 'Oh my God, I got the job,'" Chapman said. I can not believe that ".

Employers are generally quick to respond to applicants, fearing losing out in a competitive market with a historically low unemployment rate of 3.7%. Nine out of 10 respondents to a ZipRecruiter survey said they heard from a recruiter or hiring manager within a week of applying.

ZipRecruiter's latest survey looked at 2,550 US citizens who started a new job in the six months ended mid-October. The data is consistent with other jobs statistics suggesting a hot job market has cooled.

Pollack said that ZipRecruiter survey respondents who reported having previously worked in technology were more likely to have worked at technology companies regardless of their occupation. In other words, an Amazon recruiter is more likely to be classified as a tech worker. But a data scientist at Home Depot would be hired in the retail industry.

Separate job statistics show that employers in various industries are still looking for technicians, albeit less than during the pandemic. In fact, job opportunities for tech jobs are still above pre-pandemic levels, but have fallen sharply over the past year.

In fact, software engineering jobs are down 34% year over year, and math jobs, which includes data scientists, are down 28%. The total number of publications fell by 7.7% compared to the previous year.

"It's quite a shock for techs," says Nick Banker, economist at Indeed Hiring Lab. "It's still above pre-pandemic levels, but if current trends continue, I can't imagine the conversation won't come true again sometime next year."

An uncertain economic outlook can hurt employers' appetites for white-collar workers, Pinker said, because they base their hiring plans for higher-paid workers on long-term job prospects. In contrast, companies typically hire servers, delivery people and other low-paying jobs to meet immediate business needs, he said.

In fact, many of the companies with the most tech job openings at the end of November were in industries like consulting, financial services, and aerospace.

"It's still a relatively healthy economic climate and job market for tech jobs," said Scott Dubrovsky, careers expert at Indeed. "Currently, there are many bright spots for technology professionals outside of traditional technology companies."

US airlines have shed more than 100,000 jobs during the pandemic, but they're hiring faster and struggling with years of labor shortages that have strained supply chains.

Greg Hayes, CEO of Raytheon Technologies Corp. , said in the summer he hoped the layoffs at the tech company would start to ease staffing woes. occurrence of symptoms.

"We are starting to see an increasing interest in downsizing in technology," said Mike Diebold, CFO of Leonardo DRS Inc., based in Arlington, Virginia.

The defense sensor specialist, like many of its peers, has more vacancies, Mr. Diebold said, but staffing conditions are beginning to improve.

— Doug Cameron contributed to this article.

Email Sarah Chaney Cambon at sarah.chaney@wsj.com and Gwynn Guilford @ wynn.guilford @ wsj.com.

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The tech layoffs left little time for US visa workers to find new jobs # short