Businesses have plenty of money, they aren't laying off to save money. The wave of layoffs happened mainly to satisfy investors, and in reaction to higher inter

Businesses have plenty of money, they aren't laying off to save money. The wave of layoffs happened mainly to satisfy investors, and in reaction to higher interest rates. The fact no one wants to say: many companies overhired (and overpaid) marginally skilled people when money was cheap (low interest rates) and they wanted to show constant growth to Wall Street. Then conditions changed and now those companies need to show profits. Freelancing and consulting are better than ever for experienced freelancers with a track record and professional contacts. The companies that laid people off still need to get things done, and I'm seeing more companies looking for freelancers than two years ago. But they want people with business domain experience who can add value from day one, not people racing to the bottom on Upwork. Piecework through online "freelancing" marketplaces is the shallow end of the freelancing pool, and you're right that newly unemployed programmers are trying to freelance and pushing prices down. Competition is always most fierce at the low end. React, Typescript, Node.js, Next.js, Javascript describe a very narrow range of skills, and very common resume checkboxes among the mass of recently laid-off programmers. You might want to focus on more fundamental and long-term skills like relational databases and SQL, system administration, security, and learning some more programming languages. Cultivate business domain expertise. Consider focusing your presentation more on business value and less on a "tech stack." No employer needs 1,000 lines of Javascript this month. All employers need people with business domain knowledge who can solve problems and add value. React and Node are tools, not business value. The best way to find a job is through real contacts -- friends, former colleagues, classmates. A LinkedIn network doesn't count -- everyone has that and everyone understands LinkedIn connections and GitHub stars mean very little. Expand out of the narrow world of startups, which struggle to get funding right now, and look at companies that make money where you can get business experience, expand your skills, and work with people who will count as real professional contacts.