Regardless of 2024 being a difficult yr for a lot of tech professionals, marked by layoffs and fewer job alternatives, a brand new report from Cube signifies that the state of affairs could possibly be worse.
In a survey of 520 absolutely employed U.S. tech professionals, 80% preserve a constructive outlook for the tech sector within the subsequent 5 years. The extra fast image acknowledged that “layoffs have been significantly extreme this yr,” with 60% extra tech professionals shedding jobs in 2024 than in 2023.
Moreover, the report discovered “a notable lower within the proportion of full-time staff inside the tech sector.” In final yr’s survey, practically half of respondents (48%) have been employed full-time. This yr, that determine has dropped to 38%, which factors to a troubling pattern of diminished job stability, in accordance with the report.
The proportion of respondents who’re unemployed however actively looking for work has risen sharply, from 34% in 2023 to 40% in 2024.
Regardless of the turbulent occasions, the survey’s extra stunning findings are that “in comparison with final yr, a considerably bigger variety of tech professionals at the moment employed full-time are actively looking for new roles and usually tend to change employers within the coming yr,’’ Cube CEO Artwork Zeile advised TechRepublic. “That is taking place regardless of their decreased confidence to find a good place inside the tech business.”
Views on tech progress within the present financial system
The report famous combined sentiments on the way forward for tech progress.
Practically one-third of tech professionals (31%) stay cautiously optimistic about financial situations over the subsequent yr, unchanged year-over-year. Nonetheless, an virtually equal proportion of tech professionals harbor pessimistic views, indicating a cut up in financial sentiment throughout the business. Simply 20% of youthful professionals between the ages of 18 and 34 have an optimistic view of the financial system, the bottom amongst these surveyed.
Tech professionals who maintain a extra optimistic view attributed their constructive outlook to:
- A powerful perception in technological progress.
- Confidence of their capabilities.
- The presence of favorable financial indicators.
“In an election yr, it isn’t stunning to see that this optimism is commonly tempered by an consciousness of potential challenges, together with financial and political shifts that might affect what the subsequent yr brings,’’ the Cube report acknowledged.
The extra pessimistic tech professionals expressed considerations about financial coverage, job market volatility, inflation, and political instability.
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Areas of focus: AI surging, cloud expertise declining
The survey additionally discovered an emphasis on AI and machine studying abilities, which “aligns with tech professionals’ expectations that AI/ML would be the most quickly rising area over the subsequent 5 years.” Already, 76% of HR professionals reported that their corporations already supply the chance to be skilled or upskill in AI or ML abilities.
Regardless of the heavy concentrate on generative AI, “fewer tech professionals appear to have adopted the expertise into their workflow than anticipated, with simply 30% utilizing GenAI no less than as soon as every week,’’ Zeile famous.
The concentrate on cloud applied sciences has “declined considerably this yr,’’ to 46%, in accordance with the report. This can be because of the maturity of cloud applied sciences in recent times, driving the skillset to be extra generalized and main fewer professionals to spend money on upskilling on this space.
Different areas that tech professionals stated they have been coaching/upskilling in anticipation of future progress are cybersecurity (46%), large knowledge (43%), Web of Issues (22%), and robotics (15%).
What tech professionals need of their subsequent position
Practically all job seeker respondents (94%) are focusing on full-time positions. Motivations for contemplating a job transfer embrace:
- Larger compensation (65%).
- Higher duty (42%).
- Improved advantages (36%).
“These elements spotlight a workforce that isn’t solely financially motivated but in addition looking for profession progress and stability,’’ the Cube report stated.
Dissatisfaction with their total profession, job, and administration are the elements propelling tech professionals to change jobs. This dissatisfaction can be compounded by a increased price of burnout, which is 3.3 occasions extra frequent amongst these planning to change employers, in accordance with the report.
The main reason behind burnout cited by these professionals is a “poisonous work surroundings,” reported by 28% of these prone to change — adopted by unfair pay, which was talked about by 21% of the tech professionals on this group.
Most tech professionals can discover roles in industries outdoors of tech that also leverage their specialised tech abilities. Nonetheless, working inside tech is the clear desire amongst surveyed contributors. Practically seven in 10 tech professionals would most prefer to work for a tech firm, and 21% favor to work for large tech firms particularly.
Whereas tech layoffs and a decline in sure roles have outlined a lot of 2024, Zeile identified that “sure tech subindustries equivalent to cybersecurity are … dealing with an acute scarcity of employees with very particular talents.” He cited the 2024 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Research, which discovered there are 4.8 million tech professionals wanted worldwide to fill open cybersecurity roles.
Zeile stays optimistic concerning the future for tech professionals, saying “new applied sciences, equivalent to AI, are already altering the panorama — bringing extra new forms of jobs and definitely extra wanted abilities to the market than they’re taking them away.”
He added, “Whereas right now’s hiring panorama could appear tumultuous, if there’s one factor historical past and knowledge constantly present, it’s that hiring tendencies are cyclical. Indicators are pointing to tech hiring selecting up in comparison with final yr. Tech professionals and functions should keep optimistic and proceed their concentrate on constructing their profession for the long-term.”