123 ms·
Ask HN: Is the job market dead or something?
Struggling
- doublerabbit 3y agoIt's January. You've just had layoffs and its coming up to the end of Q4. Expect around June/July.
- shams93 3y agoI haven't been able to work for make money for 2 years now this situation would be deadly for me if my mom wasn't helping me out.
- uptownfunk 3y agoWow, I’ve heard a lot of people are only getting by thanks to their parents and family.
- jurassicfoxy 3y agoWe had an intern (who was great) who has struggled to find work for almost a year now, going by LinkedIn. Awful. And if he can't get a job, I can't imagine how most young devs feel these days.
- gaws 3y agoWhere are you located?
- skymast 3y ago[dead]
- takkatakka 3y agoBeen seeing a lot of lay offs still
- uptownfunk 3y agoYes and much more to come I suspect
- fallinditch 3y agoIt feels like there's a kind of tectonic shift happening due to various economic and technical factors ... maybe driven somewhat by the advent of practical AI. For me I think it's going to be better to build stuff as a solo entrepreneur than try to swim against the current.
- uptownfunk 3y agoAgree. I also think enterprises suspect a prolonged environment of elevated interest rates.
- roland35 3y agoI think interest rates are a much bigger factor than AI at this point!
- yunwal 3y agoI think there’s one more factor which is that, by and large, hyperscaling has been proven ineffective for most companies. Sure, Uber got away with it, but nearly every company who goes public and triples their headcount in a year finds themselves less productive than they were before.
- pcthrowaway 3y agoAnd I think section 174 is a much bigger factor than interest rates (though I think AI could take the lead in the next few years, depending on how fast the tech keeps evolving)
- kypro 3y agoDepends how you look at it I think. AI isn't directly replacing jobs, but it did suck most of the available investment capital from workers in 2023. AI companies were really the only tech startups getting funded in 2023, but unlike traditional startups where most of that funding would go to building out a team of engineers to build the product, AI startups tend to have smaller teams and most of the funding goes to compute.
- sircastor 3y ago
- meiraleal 3y agoYes we are in the middle of a big change, the death of an era and the start of another one. The tech bubble burst and something much bigger will come from it just like the dotcom bubble.
- uptownfunk 3y agoWhat do you mean? What era is dying? What do you think is starting?
- Adiqq 3y agoHe probably means AI.
- rhelz 3y agoYeah, same kind of vibe as I had around 1992. The old world of 16-bit computers had died, and the new world of the internet had yet to come. I had lots of friends despair. I myself was waiting it out while getting a MS degree.
- uptownfunk 3y agoI was a kid, internet and computers were becoming a thing. I can totally see that happening.. AI is like the new internet.
- gtirloni 3y agoI thought so to but, apparently, it was just bad timing: layoffs happening in the slowest period of the year. I'm noticing things are picking up again (at least for senior positions).
- citrin_ru 3y agoWhat I see around me is that because of macroeconomics (no cheap credits) companies trying to outsource to India (to a greater extent than a few years ago).
- dartharva 3y agoWell, ironically enough the job scene is the same (or rather even worse) in India. College placements, even in the mass "IT sweatshops" have crashed catastrophically and overall recruitment is at its lowest.
- clbrmbr 3y agoCan you elaborate? What kind of jobs are you looking for? I’d like to think that there’s still tremendous demand for software engineers, and I’m curious how the market is shifting in terms of skills and experience being sought.
- thr0way120 3y agoIt was dead as a doornail the last six months. It had a little bit of life in August, then it fell off a cliff. Zero. Only fake job postings, ghost posts, fake interviews, interviews at weird companies and interview loops for information espionage only pretending to be real interviews with no intent to hire. In the last couple weeks a couple decent, actually real, roles showed up versus the fake / ever posted roles or spam posted roles to "pretend to be hiring" by companies trying to pump their IPO or whatever. It has been brutual. I dont think its "because of AI," Its because the economy is dying.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dangus 3y agoYou have to get your head out of the tech industry to see the forest for the trees. Other industries have high demand, such as healthcare and hospitality. Unemployment is at 4% for the most consecutive months since the 1950s. “The economy is dying” is hyperbole.
- atonse 3y agoI don’t dispute the 4% figure but isn’t that based on the % that claim unemployment? Like if you stop claiming it cuz you gave up you’re no longer counted right? I remember reading something like that which made me question what that metric really means.
- greenhexagon 3y ago"People are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work" from https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm#unemployed https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm#unemployed So if someone is retired, a student, a full-time parent, etc then they don't count as "unemployed" despite not working a paid job. If someone lost their job and wants a new one, and at least once every 4 weeks they check a job website or whatever, they'd still be counted.
- bilsbie 3y agoAs someone not in the market this sounds awful. Is this really true?
- uptownfunk 3y agoIt’s totally true. Tech market is abysmal right now. Good luck trying to raise money. AI plus macro picture is crushing a lot of companies and VCs. It’s like the silent death.
- gaws 3y agoTime to learn a trade.
- hnthrowaway0328 3y agoIn Canada and can see most traditional firms (banking/insurance/etc.) are almost exclusively hiting from recruiting firms that have shitty benefits. The contracting rate is only about 25% higher than the permanent role and all need to be incorporated.
- thats_delicious 3y agoHonestly, here in the energy/ utilities industry at least we can’t hire enough. The big problem is we just can’t pay what tech does for similar work, here a tech/ data lead might make 120-140 base.
- itsoktocry 3y agoYes, I wonder how much this is the issue? During the craziness of 2020-2022 people's salary expectations went through the roof.
- taurath 3y agoYes. Any yellow flags are instant rejections even with referrals right now in my experience. Had to take time off for health and getting nearly no hits with 10yoe and a good resume.
- Fantasy_ 3y agoNo hit with 10y+ of experience . Then i'm doomed as a junior
- phendrenad2 3y agoYes. Recommend finding a job outside of tech ASAP before everyone else tries to do the same.
- StreetChief 3y agoThe real reason hiring is hard: https://www.theonion.com/company-struggling-to-find-diverse-leadership-candidate-1847291293 https://www.theonion.com/company-struggling-to-find-diverse-...
- mailtosameed 3y agohttps://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2023/11/18/heres-why-the-job-market-will-improve-in-2024/?sh=528fb30539ea https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2023/11/18/heres-why-...
- uptownfunk 3y agoHa ha, what they fail to report is that it is an election year.
- mailtosameed 3y agohope you guys watch latest news from leading media "Top-tier investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley forecasted that the United States economy will improve into 2024. In a Wednesday note to clients, Goldman Sachs said, “We forecast the S&P 500 index will end 2024 at 4700, representing a 12-month price gain of 5% and a total return of 6% including dividends.” The bank added, “Our baseline assumption during the next year is the U.S. economy continues to expand at a modest pace and avoids a recession, earnings rise by 5%, and the valuation of the equity market equals 18x, close to the current [price-to-earnings] level.”"