- July 12, 2022
Economic uncertainty is often short-lived, and what the tech industry is facing right now is no exception. Despite rising layoffs, job offers being rescinded and other bleak outlooks, investments in tech are still on the rise. There are many opportunities that talent acquisition professionals can capitalize on during this time.
This article will show you all the positive insights happening in the tech industry and how companies should capitalize on them while they can.
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Since January of 2021, U.S. tech unemployment has been around 2 percent consistently, dropping to as low as 1.5 percent at times — well below the national average. While it’s true that some employers are and will be forced to eliminate personnel, as the news is reporting, many still aim to recruit more technical workers to address current business challenges.
Ravi Gupta, current Partner at Sequoia, former COO and CFO of Instacart, took to Twitter with this advice: “Invest in Product: Product improvements are your way out of this.”
Of course, it’s not possible to unveil the next iteration of your product without a team of engineers and developers to support it. The same goes for business growth and strategy — a team of solid employees is required.
With the exceptionally low unemployment rate, companies have also faced a shortage of tech talent while filling their open positions. The demand for tech professionals continues to increase and the supply can’t keep up. It seems there are roughly two jobs for every tech professional in the market, which means there are numerous open jobs without enough candidates available to fill them. Now, with so many candidates being laid off and job offers rescinded, it gives companies the chance to engage and attract that talent to fill their open positions.
Venture capitalists and industry experts are advising early-stage startups and smaller businesses to capitalize on the rush of incredible talent from big-name companies now entering the job market. “The war for talent, it never goes away in the tech area,” said Matt Maley of Miller Tabak to Yahoo Finance. Despite the sweeping cost-cutting measures we’re seeing, including hiring freezes and layoffs, the demand for technical talent remains strong.
In fact, 49 percent of CEOs are staying the course or accelerating hiring plans according to Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a VC out of Silicon Valley — which includes notable companies like Plaid, Cedar, Tally, Udacity, ClickUp, Ribbon and more.
“Early stage founders are like kids in candy stores now with the quality of people they can hire,” said Dharmesh Thakker, General Partner at Battery Ventures. “I’m actually encouraging all of our portfolio companies to find fantastic talent at bigger companies,” adds Ullas Naik, Founder of Streamlined Ventures.
“The traditional trends that tell us the talent demand indicators — average number of offers per candidate, how long it takes us to get a candidate placed, percentage of counter-offers a candidate is facing on a regular basis — those three buckets, we’re still seeing it,” said Ryan Sutton, district president for Robert Half.
With the demand indicators still being where they are in the tech world, and a pool of talent entering the arena due to layoffs, companies must continue telling their story to attract talent. This holds true for companies whether they’re actively hiring or not. Going dark in the short term will ultimately affect your long-term hiring goals. For companies that are hiring, it’s an ideal time to identify not only available talent that has recently been let go, but passive candidates at companies where layoffs are happening, as well. It’s common for employees to begin looking elsewhere for job security when their company begins to lay off employees.
Growth is still occurring within the tech industry for many organizations and companies that are currently making economic adjustments will see growth again. Experts predict a hiring resurgence in 3 to 6 months and advise early-stage companies to capitalize on today’s balanced talent market. Where there is a seller, there is a buyer; while large corporations reduce their workforces, startups benefit from an untapped pool of available candidates.
