LinkedIn layoff posting is fear porn
Lots of data today...
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Layoffs hit a record *low* 1.2 million in April.
You read that correctly. Data goes back to 2000. A record low.
Hanging out on LinkedIn for the past few months? That doesn’t match the vibe at all. The sky’s been falling. High profile layoffs. Offer withdrawal horror stories.
And judging by some 1:1 convos I’ve been having, people are panicking.
To be clear: by no means am I downplaying anyone’s personal situation if they’ve been laid off. It sucks. 20 years ago I was laid off. I found out about it when my severance paystub was emailed to me before I even got to work.
(Yes, that happened. In retrospect…if you’re gonna totally botch a layoff, leading with a cash deposit is probably the best way to f*ck it up.)
It’s easy to lose perspective of the big picture. LinkedIn is a tech-centric platform. It makes money selling LinkedIn Recruiter and Sales Navigator licenses.
Power users skew toward those who work in, sell to, or service tech orgs.
You know, companies with lots of money that hire & buy a ton.
So when things change just a little…everyone loses their minds.
Some perspective:
👉People are leaving far more than they’re being let go.
Early 2020: ~40% of all separations were initiated by the employer.
2022: ~20% of all separations were initiated by the employer.
We’re still in a Quitter’s Market.
👉There’s an unfillable amount of tech jobs still open.
3.9 million. That’s how many tech jobs are open. Just in the US.
And we’re already filled a net +106,700 tech positions so far in 2022. 69% more than the same period in 2021.
Again: I’m not making light of anyone’s personal situation if they were let go. But this market still has more openings than people.
👉The type of work you do matters.
Software engineers and recruiters are the two skill sets we track the closest. Pulling data off layoffs.fyi and overlaying with LinkedIn, recruiters are twice as likely to be let go than software engineers.
(Of the 24 companies that allowed easy downloadable data, 216 engineers and 215 recruiters were laid off. But devs make up ~11% of the total US profiles on LinkedIn, whereas recruiters make up ~5%).
👉Late stage startups are making the most cuts.
It’s no shock that layoff talk gets so much hype when the most high-profile places are making the most cuts. 56% of tech sector layoffs are from companies stage C and beyond.
You know, the “unicorns” everyone can’t stop talking about when everything is going great..
👉Tech unemployment might be up a smidge. But it’s still ridiculously low.
Tech unemployment was 1.4% in March. 1.7% in April. 2.1% in May.
Total unemployment? Hovering at 3.6%, near 40 year all time lows. Tech is still leading the way for employment.
And this is without digging into how other industries (supply chain, manufacturing, food, etc.) are absolutely firing on all cylinders.
Tldr: Getting laid off sucks. But the layoff posting on LinkedIn is fear porn.
We’ve got some obvious economic challenges. But there’s no reason to work each other into a layoff panic.
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