State of Software Engineering Layoffs (2024)

"this graph is kinda sexy" yep he works in tech

I have to disagree with one thing said, and that is the debate between engineers and medical professionals. I know surgeons who are getting out of med school making 700k meanwhile very few software engineers make it to those levels, and not just surgeons I know nurse anesthesiologists and PAs that make more than 200k and they get free food as well. Lastly, I disagree that health providers have more impact if anything I would say they even out or that software engineers should be making more. Consider this how many things are created by software engineers including tools that doctors need to do their job, let alone how many things in this current world rely on the creativity of engineering.

The trades are booming. Manufacturing always grows.

This is UN-fucking acceptable. Biden's gotta go!

"Omg that's disheartening.
Don't worry. Not all of them are software engineers."
And everyone but the software engineers aren't even people? lol

someone hire me pls

Nice video, but I have to disagree. It is definitely possible for software engineer or any other type of engineer to be permanently unemployed. it's all about number of jobs out there and how many people who are qualified looking for these jobs. What's more, it's definitely possible in next 10 to 20 years we will see end to global economy and rapid contraction of global economy which will mean vast majority of software engineering jobs will be toast. Shrinking economy means drastic simplification and many of the highly specialized software engineering jobs will disappear.

It is time to start retiring old people... I see people over 65 are still "claiming" that they are sitting down and coding!!! The junior engineers are suffering lack of experience due to the existence of old people who don't tend to want to retire...

You said that in 2022 "inflation was at an all-time high." This is simply not true, as anyone who lived from, say, 1946 onward can tell you. In 2022 the inflation rate was 6.5%. However, in 1946 inflation was at 18.10%. 1974 - 12.3%. 1979 -13.3%. 1980 - 12.5%. Source: Investopedia. Inflation currently is around 3.4%. Given this rather obvious error I have to apply the legal principle of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus to your analysis and commentary.

you talk too fast my guy for the detailed info and stats you give

i learned everything i know from this guy

I've been a software engineer for over 50 years and I've learned the economy is cyclic. Right now software in the big tech sector is slow but aerospace and defense are strong and medical is steady. The wheel will turn again in a few years.

Great tech career data in your video!

"you have to specialize" I respectfully disagree. Specialization is what you do when you want a bigger paycheck. If the job market is tough, then generalization works better because you broaden the number of positions you can fit into. I spent a lot of work studying IOT and specifically bluetooth and BLE protocols. It did yield better pay for several years. Now the bloom is off that rose, and it's not really helping.

I got laid off in may last year, I am software engineer L1 with 1year of experience, I was in data science team there, now I want to switch into development side role what advice would you give me.

Bro, I just wanted to say I love you

Very grounded take, great stuff 👍

Thank you so much for this!

that TECH life baby

He lied, things are not getting any better.

1. When you spoiled American SWEs were busy refusing to come to the office and quiet quitting, your bosses learned two things: that they can run the company with remote workers, and that workers abroad are just as good. All those free certifications from Amazon and google, Nigerians and Indians have been eating them for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner. They took jobs, did them well, and now companies are outsourcing even more. 5 years ago people in such countries were grateful for being paid $500 a month to do the job of 2 EU or US developers, now they are getting paid in thousands a month and working as contractors for two or even three companies.

2. AI. As much as people might ignore it, AI is taking jobs and a lot of them. Think about it, what did you do in your web coding job that was so new and authentic? Nothing. You did repetitive work day in a day out. The more SCIENTIFICALLY complex the products you worked on, the harder it is for AI to compete. If you did anything that a 6 month bootcamp can teach to a highschool graduate, AI is coming for it and it will do it faster and better. Instead of a senior developer with two or three juniors doing simple tasks, they will have a senior developer, an AI to do simple tasks, and a college intern to guide the AI. If your skills are bootcamp transferable in less than 2 years, if you are not special (PhD in computer science, Specialist in AI), if you are not someone's baby and that someone's name is heavy, you are done. I am a christian so I believe prayers can do miracles but I know that most of today's babies are too "smart" to believe that.



Seriously, learn to weld.

While looking at one company is interesting - the real issue is how many engineers were simply hired by another company within a few months? For example, Disney put me on furlough when the world ended (COVID). I did some personal things and had a mini-retirement for 6 months until I got bored. The moment I put myself back on the market, I got flooded with opportunities. I ended up getting a better job, with more pay and fully remote. Disney did finally get back to me but they only job they had open was doing some old-school Java and PLSQL - meh, no thanks. The IT sector was well under staffed when COVID happened. While there was an initial firing frenzy, many folks laid off simply found jobs elsewhere in markets less impacted by the pandemic. It all evens out. I will say that the silicon valley crowd will have their "come to Jesus" moment when they realize their 400k salary isn't sustainable outside their bubble - you'll just have to "settle" for 150k like the rest of us. LOL

Thank you for the insight!

It’s because tech ain’t that hard anymore.

This guy speaks so fast. Its hard to keep up.

Does Data Engineer count as Software Engineers in the stats? I see Data Science has a it’s own grouping

Can you speak more on the DevOps/ Cloud Architecture side?

"recession never hit" or more correctly, the definition of recession was changed by politicians to make the economy not look as bad as it was/is. whoever wrote that is either lying or ignorant. let's hope it's just ignorance instead of malice.

Buddy talks and sounds like he was a short documentary narrator for Msnc or Bloomberg..all
He is missing is the cliche techy narrator music in the background 😅

Guys, don't specialize, this is bad advice. You loose value because you're less versatile. For very big companies this might work, but for smaller to medium sized ones this will be terrible. One hand will not know what the other is doing which leads to messes I see every day, because people got no clue / no broader knowledge of how stuff works. And in smaller companies you are more likely to work in multiple areas instead of only lets say one single Go service, one React frontend, etc.

They always scream bloody murder during tech layoffs but never tell you it's mostly recruiting and HR...who are completely disposable...unlike engineers

Non-technical people in tech have a rude awakening coming, and they know it...

In my opinion, there is an aspect to it that links to DEI, ESG and those types of things being pushed so hard in tech/the wider corporate culture; if you look at the mechanisms of those programs and companies backing them more cynically (ie. not being a naive rube and trusting everything blindly), they are designed to keep the racket going and convince executives they are 'essential' for as long as possible (it's the death throws of dying fields).

yall getting replaced by gpt6

DEI gone

AI will replace all the developers in 3 to 4 years. The advancement in hardware now reached to a point where you can write a bad code and get away with it. In other words GPT can write bad code and still companies wouldn't care much. I am surprised to see still many students choosing CS major

Maybe the the engineers laid off are 10%, I know people not able to find jobs for more than 6 months now. HR or recruitment is not just for tech employees though. Being an SE has never been difficult these days

Junior developer in California costs you about 140k per year. He knows how to solve leetcode, but doesn't have any real experience.

Senior/Lead developer in East Europe with 8+ year of experience cost you about 45-55k per year. And it is high-end salary, for which people ready to work for years (this person will be predictable and stable).

__

So, USA developers are just not competitive to developers from other countries. During good times, companies were able to pay such salaries, but not now.

Thanks bro. So encouraging! I'm 1 month away from being homeless 💀. Time to join the military

Thank you soooo much for this video!!! Clarifies a ton of doubts as I head into my software engineering degree. WE WILL NOT BE HOMELESS🤲🏻

Well done and presented. I'm also an Engineer from Tech and was in that 10+ category. Fortunately, I created several revenue if-then-loops that keep the home, hearth, and family warm. Engineering FTW. :)

I don't like the policy of elon mask when he running a company first he have his own rules and he ignore a lot of things he don't care about employees and he have basically a bad management

Very humble to admit that SEs at big tech companies are priviledged. I agree. I get paid 280k to work a 9-5, more like 30 hours a week, I work from home 100%. Work sucks no matter where you work. SEs jobs just suck less.

But the other factor of all this is that recruiting is way down. Even companies that are didn't have layoffs and are still actively growing aren't hiring as much as they used to be. The market is oversaturated with qualified candidates looking for jobs and not enough openings. So most engineers may still have their job, but now the companies hold all the leverage. I've noticed recruiting emails that mention salaries, the salaries are about 1 level lower than they used to be (e.g. a senior salary is where mid-level used to be, etc.).

Damn

That's a good overview of layoffs. However there should also be a consideration for not many companies are actually hiring and it's a very competitive job market right now. Especially for new grads as most companies are preferring 1-3 years experienced devs over training new people.

When I first started my career a software engineer there were a bunch of layoffs of Juniors and I thought this is awful I wont be able to get any jobs, it was complete opposite. Essentially a bunch of jobs started appearing a few months later at these companies but with lower pay

despite all odds there is no noticeable differences with design. Maybe it only hit painter/ illustrators

Love this. Thanks for sharing.

I’m doubting the engineers were saying “I want…”. The companies were saying “We’ll give you…”

I know sw engs that are not technical just button pushers 😅