They say you can’t have too much of a good thing. Tech execs would disagree. The tech industry is overflowing with talent, which has become a problem for hoards of unemployed tech workers. The surge in hiring driven by low-interest rates has been reversed by rate hikes, prompting companies to rethink their staffing levels.

End of days: This downturn in the tech industry has resulted in the highest number of layoffs since the Dotcom bubble. Unlike in 2001, waiting for new job opportunities might not be enough this time around. Despite hopes that some of the nearly 500K lost jobs since 2022 will eventually return, many may not.

• As employees find their way into the job market, Janco Associates CEO Victor Janulaitis says they will face a disconnect between their skills and the salaries they expect.
• According to Dice, average tech salaries declined in 2023 — and data from Carta found that tech startups are offering 37% less equity to new hires.

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Adding to the challenges is the burgeoning threat of AI, which could imminently threaten entry-level tech and data jobs. Even with the IT industry adding 267K employees in 2022, Janulaitis expects it to shrink by 20-30K jobs in 2024. Not even the once highly sought-after software engineers are immune, with companies building potential replacements for the industry’s highest earners.

• For instance, after raising $21M from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund in 2023, Cognition AI debuted Devin last week, touted as “the first AI software engineer.”
• The company claims Devin can “take on and finish an entire software project on its own,” building websites, mobile apps, and games in minutes.

More for less: While such AI tools may streamline app and website development, they also pose a risk of displacing developers in an already competitive job market. Indeed reported that software dev salaries fell in Feb. 2024 for the first time since recording this month-over-month data in 2019 — and coding job postings are down as much as 67% from Mar. 2022. If software devs struggle to find work, many other fields could also be in for a rude awakening.