Employment in tech occupations grew 12% YoY to a record 6.39M in November 2022, as workers eye banking, retail, health care, and manufacturing amid tech layoffs
across the economy, beyond the Silicon Valley belt-tightening. Not immune to a weakening economy, but remarkably resilient. w/ @trippmickle https://www.nytimes.com/... Scott Brinker / @chiefmartec : Every company is becoming a “software company”... As Silicon Valley Retrenches, a Tech Talent Shift Accelerates https://www.nytimes.com/... #martech Steve Lohr / @stevelohr : Silicon Valley has been cutting. But tech jobs, across the economy, have increased this year. Why? Businesses in every industry are increasingly digital. They need tech talent. https://www.nytimes.com/...
The reason, per Scott Brinker's framing in the coverage, is that businesses in every industry are digitizing and need the talent themselves, so banking, retail, health care, and manufacturing become the absorbers of workers Big Tech sheds.
First-order effects
Laid-off Silicon Valley engineers now have a landing zone outside tech proper: banks, retailers, hospitals, and manufacturers are hiring for the same skills, redirecting talent flows away from the usual Bay Area circuit.
Big Tech's headline layoffs do not translate into shrinking tech employment overall — the occupation grew 12% YoY even as the sector cut, meaning individual firms' pain masks economy-wide demand.
Second-order effects
Non-tech employers gain access to senior technical talent they previously could not compete for, accelerating Brinker's 'every company is a software company' thesis and raising the digital baseline across banking, retail, health care, and manufacturing.
Compensation bargaining power shifts toward whoever can offer stability rather than equity upside, pressuring startups and mid-tier tech firms that relied on stock-based pay to compete for the same workers.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, 'tech jobs' and 'tech company jobs' permanently diverge as labor categories — the occupation diffuses across industries while the sector's own headcount stays cyclical, a split later coverage of mass layoffs and experienced workers struggling to re-enter tech firms reinforces (some veterans were already pivoting to non-tech roles).
The 2026 analysis showing US tech companies cutting ~140K jobs — more than a third of announced US layoffs — suggests this is not a one-year anomaly but a structural redistribution of where technology work lives.
The trend: Technology employment is decoupling from Silicon Valley headcount and diffusing into every industry, with each layoff cycle at Big Tech accelerating the shift of tech talent into banking, retail, health care, and manufacturing.
Up 12% since last year: demand for computer science grows across industries despite inflation and recession. “Alphabet, Amazon and Meta aren't hiring? Well, JPMorgan Chase, Walmart and UnitedHealth are in need of tech talent.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
More people are creating software as their jobs than ever before. But we're going to see fewer people in their mid-thirties who are a director at FAANG with a net worth of $2.5M wondering why they can't afford a $10M house. https://www.nytimes.com/...
The employment shake-up in the tech industry has accelerated a shift of professionals looking beyond the most well-known employers. Now many tech jobs are in mainstream industries like health care and banking, which need workers with digital skills. https://www.nytimes.com/...
This is great news. Big Tech has been hogging new engineers who did nothing useful - stealing our data, mostly. Actual industries have been starved of tech talent for years, while tech bros, awash in easy cash, didn't know what to do with it. https://www.nytimes.com/...
“There have been ups and downs, but job growth in tech occupations has nearly doubled since 2000, when 3.33 million Americans were employed in tech occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
The big picture on tech jobs — across the economy, beyond the Silicon Valley belt-tightening. Not immune to a weakening economy, but remarkably resilient. w/ @trippmickle https://www.nytimes.com/...
“In a reordering of the market for tech workers, more technology professionals are looking beyond the well-known Big Tech employers to companies in many other industries that increasingly offer challenging opportunities.” https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
The tech industry's retrenchment is making employment in other industry's like finance and retail more appealing to engineers. https://www.nytimes.com/...
“If this transition redeploys skilled tech workers to other sectors of the economy, that may very well be a healthy development,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. https://www.nytimes.com/...
The employment shake-up in the tech industry has accelerated a shift of professionals looking beyond the most well-known employers. Now many tech jobs are in mainstream industries like health care and banking, which need workers with digital skills. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Silicon Valley has been cutting. But tech jobs, across the economy, have increased this year. Why? Businesses in every industry are increasingly digital. They need tech talent. https://www.nytimes.com/...