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Tech Jobs Are Safe, But It May Not Be a Good Thing
If you’re among the lucky ones, now is not the time to cheer.
Recessions always mean lost jobs. But during the recessions of the 60s and 70s, most jobs that were lost remained viable. So when the economy started recovering, the unemployed workers were simply asked to come back.
The ‘08 recession showed us a different picture. Shook up by the crisis and enabled by technology, employers started aggressively hiring freelancers and investing less into current employees — only to later cry about a lack of ambitious, motivated workforce. At the same time, the power of unions decreased dramatically, meaning that as the unemployment rates crawled back to normal, real wages almost flatlined — which meant that people had less and less incentive to actually get a job, as opposed to try side-hustling into a full-time income.
The Covid-19 crisis properly shook up our habits. As a result, the changes in the labor market that would normally take years and decades happened in just a few months. People cannot shift their entire skillset in just a few months.
Most tech companies — and their employees — are having a blast right now. Facebook is said to will have hired 10,000 people by the end of this year, while Google, Amazon and Apple are happily feasting on…
