Tech Hiring: Most Employers Added Jobs or Kept the Status Quo in 2023
Despite massive layoffs in this post-pandemic era by major tech companies, a new survey shows that most organizations overall didn’t cut their technical staff in 2023 — 37% of survey participants said they added tech employees in 2023, while 34% maintained the status quo in terms of tech hiring, and only 29% in aggregate eliminated technical headcount last year.
Cloud providers reported the biggest increases in 2023 (59% said they would add tech staff). Meanwhile, hardware and software companies were more sensitive to the economic cycle, as only 28% increased tech staff, compared to 37% who decreased it.
And even for workers who’ve been laid off, the report delivered some good news: It cited a Boston Consulting Group study that showed nine out of 10 tech workers who were laid off in 2022 have found new jobs and said they have improved their positions. Despite this fact, when The New Stack polled its readers in January 2024, 49% worried they wouldn't be able to find a comparable job if they are laid off.
However, the survey also revealed worries about the economy. About one in three respondents said they were more concerned this year than in 2023 about the impact of the general economy on their organization. An additional 46% said they were just as concerned about 2024 as they were about 2023. The largest IT organizations (those with 5,000+ employees) were even more likely (49%) about the economy’s impact on their organization.
The study by the Linux Foundation was conducted by an online survey conducted from late December to early February, with results based on 418 participants who hire or recruit IT professionals. Three of four respondents hire for their team or department.
Training and Turnover
The data showed significant interest in cross-skilling current employees (47% of hiring managers said they take this approach to fill skills gaps on their teams) and upskilling new hires and existing tech staff (43%). Only 29% said they focus solely on recruiting to fill those gaps.
Yet the findings also showed organizations cutting back on virtually all forms of skills training, especially those that require more financial support from an employer. For instance, while in 2023 nearly half (49%) of respondents said their organization sends their people to tech conferences, only 23% said the same in the current report.
Once new tech workers are hired to an organization, it’s taking longer to get them onboarded, according to the study. And more bad news: Once they’re onboarded, they’re more likely to either quit or be asked to leave within six months.
In 2023, in response to the question about how long it takes a new “technical headcount to reach normal proficiency,” results showed an average of three months. In the 2024 report, that number has climbed to 4.8 months. Overall, onboarding takes more than four months at 64% of organizations, up from 32% in 2023.
It’s also taking longer to hire, according to the report. In 2023, it took an average of 4.68 months to hire a tech worker; in 2024, that average is 5.4 months. Perhaps there are less qualified candidates available, or maybe hiring managers are being more picky; either way, only 36% of organizations are filling the average position within 3 months, down from 48% last year.
And once people are hired, it’s not easy to keep them. One example of the churn rate: In 2023, 23% of organizations said they lost more than 40% of new hires, either because they quit or were fired, within six months of being onboarded; in 2024, that share jumped to 52%.
Check out the full report for more on the state of tech talent, including the impact of generative AI on staffing levels.
