I'll start by saying that overall I agree. For engineers, specifically, things are still pretty good and companies are actively hiring. That being said, be car

I'll start by saying that overall I agree. For engineers, specifically, things are still pretty good and companies are actively hiring. That being said, be careful with this assumption. Recruiters aren't going to stop recruiting; that's their job. At many companies, they have a certain amount of outreach they're required to do. If they stop emailing, then all of a sudden they stop doing their job, and that means they're personally going into layoffs with bad numbers. The jobs still exist, but behind the scenes it's likely things are changing. Companies are hiring 2 engineers instead of 10, or increasing their hiring bar significantly. The difference between "we're desperate to hire" and "we're open if someone great comes along..." is huge, but you won't see a difference in how recruiters treat you. tl;dr = if a company cuts their hiring plan from 10 engs to 1, they still send the same number of recruiting emails.