A flurry of high-profile tech layoffs Incites Fear Of Recessions and stagnant careers-Past

Woman carrying box of personal items while leaving office after dismissal- GETTY

If you've looked on LinkedIn in recent times, you've probably read about people being dismissed or having a dream job offered canceled usually by a well-known company that was once a hot start-up. As per the website Layoffs.fyi, so in the year 349 companies have cut the employees of more than 53,000.

Startups who are preparing for the possibility of declining venture capital valuations are trying to preserve the money they have. Yesterday, OpenSea, the first to lead in the once-bubbly NFT (NFT) marketplace, eliminated 20percent of its employees. In the last month the virtual office company Gather laid off three-quarters of its 90 employees quit. The month before, the top-performing security firm Socure was laid off by 13 percent from itsemployees.

This isn't just a problem for startups. Coinbase the largest crypto exchange eliminated 1,100 workers and ended some job opportunities. Elon Musk's Tesla has cut 3.5 percent from its staff. Meta is planning to cut the its engineering staff next year. at minimum 30%.

Although most news of layoffs has been from tech firms but the mortgage industry is also slashing away as increasing interest rates slash mortgage volume. LoanDepot announced plans this week to eliminate thousands of positions. Real estate firms RedFin along with Compass have eliminated 350 jobs, while PIMCO's First Guaranty Mortgage Corporation let go of more than 75% of its employees in June. It filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy just a week after.

Despite these high-profile layoffs unemployment was still at 3.6 percent in June, as the economy created 372,000 new jobs. Additionally, interviews with recent loss of job or job offer recipients as well as hiring managers, indicate that, at the very least the majority of those laid off have landed with new opportunities.

The fear is clear, as the majority of consumers more pessimistic than positive about the near-term employment marketplace, according to the Conference Board. The layoffs might be just beginning to take shape: Oracle recently considered the possibility of letting go of thousands of workers beginning in the month of August.

"In the technology industry this is like deja vu every time," observes economist Anthony Carnevale with a long-standing involvement in the policy of education and employment for more than four decades. He is currently director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. "This is exactly what happened in the 1970s and 80s when technology was not able to penetrate American industry sufficiently quickly and former Fed ChairFormer Fed Chair Paul Volcker put on the brakes. We have high interest rates, and high levels of unemployment and in the end it stops technology investment and then chokes the business."

With the current low unemployment rate, Carnevale adds, it's an open question whether the economic slowdown will "create disruption of a significant kind in the tech industry or any other field." His response? "Yes and no" Carnevale states. "The answer is yes certain industries that are based on technology could be affected, with interest rates being the main culprit. However, what we're seeing with this churning is those looking for jobs have jobs. We're not at the point at which it's a typical recession...in which people aren't getting work." He also noted that generally the wages are risingbut they tend to be neutralized by inflation.

"So what does this mean in the future? It could mean that there is a slowdown in startup growth as well as the growth of specific technology companies or even in the overall sector if it's strong enough however, so far it's not meant that people aren't finding jobs," Carnevale said. "And it's not reflected on the prospects for college students in the least. So far we're not really seeing this as a problem."

Indeed an recently conducted survey of nearly 200 employers conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers discovered that nearly 90 percent of respondents will be recruiting new graduates for full-time and internship/co-op jobs -an increase from last spring's figure of 83%..

However, while recruitment for early-career workers remains robust, it isn't able to erase the memories of what transpired following the Great Recession, with its massive job loss and a slow recovery. New graduates who were caught in the undertow suffered what economists refer to as "permanent scarring"--meaning bad economic conditions at the time they left college resulted in a decrease in their chances of employment.

This is the terrifying scenario, but it's not at the moment it's the reality.

Aidan Deery, associate director of the global talent agency X4 Technology, reports that in the tech industry, "largely, everyone is looking for employees" and "the need for skilled professionals remains at an all time record." The associate director says that people who are being laid off by crypto firms such as Coinbase are usually "very competent" and "highly desired within the finance and tech world."

Danny 23 with a last name that is not being disclosed and whose his former employer's name aren't disclosed due to a non-disclosure agreement which he had signed, was fired in June of his job as an engineer in a company that specializes in sales productivity. "I am confident that I will find the right job," he said, estimating that out of the 30 positions he's applied to following his dismissal 8-10 were returned to him. "Three of them said, 'Yeah, it's just a joke We don't hire for this position.'" Some of the other companies he began interviews with stopped due to hiring freezes. Yet, Danny has already turned off one job offer due to reasons that include the pay and said he's still selective in his job hunt.

Curio Health, a startup that is working to improve healthcare via remote access, ranks one of the companies who are still seeking employees. CEO Yuchen Wang is concerned that the slashing of jobs at startups could encourage applicants to seek out larger companies with more experience for opportunities in the future, but the company insists that startups will continue to have appeal due to the fact that "you are more accountable and can also increase your productivity and become more knowledgeable."

Wang has witnessed both aspects of this drama. Wang himself was fired in 2001 shortly after completing the Masters in computing from Georgia State, and in another position, he was forced to dismiss employees as a result of a contract that didn't work out as he had hoped. "These situations can happen, even if complete everything perfectly",'' he states. "Treat the situation as a fresh beginning. There are more opportunities than the ones you lost."

However, for some jobless that are starting fresh, it's an unique set of challenges, one that is imposed by the U.S."disruptive system" to retain foreign tech talent. Twenty-seven-year-old software developer Amitesh Singh Baghel was laid off in late June while on STEM OPT, a visa program allowing graduate international students to gain work experience in the U.S. in their field. The problem was that he lost his position working as an engineer for software for an enterprise that deals with data security before the visa extension was completed around two weeks before the date his employment authorization documents were scheduled to expire.

He was offered different positions while at the company, but he declined them out from "goodwill" and due to the fact that his manager, who was dismissed, was a an excellent guidance. "I was offered other jobs however, I chose to ignore dangers," such as a manager being dismissed and not replaced, he claimed.

"I tried to bargain. I said"Instead of giving me severance and keeping me in the payroll so I can finish the extension process and be able to continue working for you,'" he said. "I provided them with an solution...but they were not willing to work for an extra hour and that's normal. It's not their issue."

There's also the case that Jenna Radwan, 22 who has recently completed her BS in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the University of San Francisco. She initially accepted a position at the San Francisco-based startup Hirect which aids other tech startups find and recruit. When she was told that Hirect offered an initial salary of $80,000, plus an uncapped commissions that could increase her total compensation up to an additional amount and she snubbed other interviews in order to take the job offer "My ears were a little swollen and my eyes grew and I didn't think of any other companies as having any competitors," she said. However, two weeks prior to her scheduled start date, Radwan got thrown a surprise. The contract was cancelled "due only to sudden and unexpected shift on the marketplace."

"Due to the highly uncertain market conditions, our leadership and business teams have taken the decision to stop/freeze any form of hiring outside in the present time and have also entered an immediate hiring freeze as well as layoffs are scheduled," reads an email from a recruiter Radwan posted through LinkedIn. (A spokesperson from Hirect has confirmed with the Wall Street Journal that it has canceled two jobs due to the sluggish hiring of tech professionals.)

Radwan found herself "in stunned," but quickly tapped into her network and contacted the recruiters she had previously had the privilege of interviewing , and eventually was offered a position as a recruiter for Insight Global. "It was an incredible experience however I am confident the exact place was meant to become," Radwan said, noting that she had never looked at her priorities regarding a future job prior to then. "I was thinking about money, and then I realized that you could be a millionaire and still have other things, such as a positive company culture, for example, high job security, great benefits, such as an excellent PTO program," she said.

What advice would she give to recent graduates seeking employment in the face of the ever-present fear of offer being cancelled? Do your homework and ask questions about what the company's reaction was on COVID's threat in the year 2020 (i.e. did it take a short time to cut workers off? ) Speak with current employees and be sure to consider all of your options.

If you're seeking an indication of the present style, it might be from the new employer of Radwan. Insight Global is still hiring. However, in June, the company conducted a survey of 1,000 employees and found that 23% of them were "extremely anxious" over losing their jobs in the coming recession. In other words, as Insight said that the "Great resignation" is becoming "the "Great Apprehension."