Job seekers are bombarded with negative news about companies laying off workers nearly every day now. It can be overwhelming. But here are the facts that speak to today’s labor market:
- 4% – the amount of tech jobs that are part of the U.S. Labor market
- 99.9% – the amount of media noise about recent layoffs in today’s U.S. Labor Market
- 6M – Current LinkedIn job openings today
- 10M – Current job openings in the U.S.
Contrary to the “sky is falling” narrative on social and traditional media, the U.S. Labor Market is still very strong, demonstrating the following gains.
- 500K+ new hires in January 2023 in supply chain, manufacturing, construction, travel/hospitality, healthcare and other sectors leading to a 50 year low in unemployment
- Despite a recent uptick, Inflation rates have dropped significantly
- New mortgage applications are on the rise
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has dialed back recessionary forecasts for 2023
- Literally every single major tech company or bank made or blew away their Q4 and/or Q1 earnings.
- Most supply chain losses caused by the pandemic will be fully recovered this year.
Yes, there are adjustments and restructurings taking place, but much of these are a result of market corrections from top heavy compensation plans. These plans were traditionally issued by the large tech companies long before the pandemic.
In some cases, tech companies have pivoted away from non-core businesses which account for a portion of the tech layoffs. For example, Microsoft laid off employees from their Microsoft Surface division that competed with iPads and other tablets.
Google and Meta have pivoted away from virtual reality business lines. Goldman Sachs has distanced itself from its consumer banking unit.
These companies may have shed 80K jobs in late 2022/early 2023, but they actually hired over 200K employees in 2022 alone.
The good news is that many talented, displaced workers impacted by these actions are quickly finding work in smaller companies or transferring their skills to different industries such as medical devices, healthcare, engineering, manufacturing and other sectors.
Given these positive developments and market trends, now is still a good time to tune your search to growing markets and sharpen your resume.
Make sure your LinkedIn page, elevator pitch, interviewing skills and initiatives are on target.
Barring any globally disruptive events, forecasts for the labor market in the second half of 2023 appear to be very promising. So be ready! Tune out the media noise, sharpen your skills, stay focused, and gear up for the next phase of your career!
If you are just beginning a search, we strongly recommend you read the many articles our thought leadership team has published about job hunting including this one: https://www.execsallied.com/tune-out-the-media-noise-and-focus-on-the-facts/?preview_id=5163&preview_nonce=3ab91733b5&_thumbnail_id=5165&preview=true