Tech jobs are popular despite layoffs at Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft

Big-name tech firms like Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft are experiencing mass layoffs, but job prospects for job seekers in the broader tech ecosystem will be among the best of any industry in 2023, according to a new ranking.

Eight of the top 10 “best jobs” in the U.S. this year are technology roles, according to Indeed, which compiles its annual list of top jobs for job seekers.

These tech jobs are ranked #1 by Indeed for full-stack developers; data engineers (No. 2); cloud engineers (No. 3); senior product managers (No. 5); back-end developers (#6); site reliability engineers (No. 7); machine learning engineers (#8); and product designers (No. 10).

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Psychiatric Nursing and Psychiatric Nursing were the two non-tech jobs in the top 10, coming in at No. 4 and No. 9, respectively.

Almost half, 44%, of the top 25 were technology jobs.

Technology opportunities extend beyond traditional tech giants to industries such as retail, finance, professional services, travel and tourism — all of which need technologists to build a firm’s online and business presence, said Scott Dabroski, Indeed’s career expert. erial trends.

“The technical skill set is in high demand in all companies,” Dobrasky said. “Because every company today is a technology company.”

Indeed’s ranking is based on “opportunity” for job seekers, which means roles should grow quickly. For example, there were 1,398 positions available for full-time developers out of every million listings advertised on Indeed, the highest share of any job listing. (A full-stack developer builds the front-end and back-end of a website.)

All jobs on the list have an annual salary higher than the national average. At least 10% of their job postings offer remote or hybrid work, a metric that is increasingly important to American workers, according to Indeed.

That broad tech roles will be hot in 2023 may seem counterintuitive at a time when traditional tech giants have announced massive job cuts in recent weeks.

On Friday, Google announced plans to lay off 12,000 people, the biggest layoff in the company’s 25-year history. Last week, Microsoft said it would lay off 10,000 employees by March 31. Earlier this month, Amazon said it would cut more than 18,000 jobs, the biggest cut in its history. Meta said in November it would cut more than 11,000 roles, 13% of its workforce.

In some cases, layoffs are the result of overzealous hiring at the start of the Covid pandemic and are not necessarily a harbinger of general economic malaise. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy alluded to this excessive increase when explaining the rationale for their respective layoff plans.

Company representatives are also preparing for a possible downturn in the United States. The Federal Reserve is raising interest rates, hoping that higher borrowing costs for consumers and businesses will slow demand across the economy and dampen high inflation.

However, labor market indicators don’t show that a recession is imminent, economists say — and, overall, it’s a good time to get a job.

Vacancies (a barometer of employer demand for workers) and the attrition rate (a barometer of confidence in the ability to find a new job) are near all-time highs, despite some cooling in recent months. Wage growth remains strong – especially for people changing jobs – and the unemployment rate is at its lowest level in five decades.

Tech skills are in “high demand across the economy,” Julia Pollack, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, wrote in November. Government agencies, aerospace companies, health systems and retailers are among the employers that “frequently” cite shortages of software engineers, cybersecurity specialists, data analysts and web designers, Pollack said.

“If tech companies continue to grow at a breakneck pace in 2020-2021, they would monopolize American tech talent and make it impossible for non-tech employers to hire tech talent,” she said. “Now other industries may have a chance.”

As well as good news for existing tech workers, the high demand for tech skills is also a “big sign” of what opportunities exist for those starting out or changing careers, notes Indeed.

Employers are willing to find candidates with skill sets in “non-traditional ways” in today’s hot job market, Dobrasky said.

For example, workers can often pick up some basic technical skills through software development bootcamps, online courses or certification programs that last a few weeks or months, he said.

Current workers, especially at larger companies, can take advantage of mentoring opportunities and new on-the-job training programs to acquire different skills or advance their careers within the company, Dobraski said.

Workers should also consider where their current skills can be transferred to another discipline, Dobraski added. Human resources roles, some of which are in the top 25 best jobs in 2023, may have the opportunity to use sales and marketing skills, for example, he said.