Some of big tech seems to not have a hot job market and that they're desperate. The number of emails I get from Amazon and Facebook is crazy. And the fact that they're emailing me tells me that that they are indeed desperate.
Well that's the thing, those recruiters will keep emailing you desperately until the morning of the layoffs are announced. Facebook's hiring freeze was so sudden that it even caught their own recruiters off guard.
Also what we are seeing is the early stage of hiring cooling. Some companies will start with "soft" hiring freezes, which means no new headcounts but the ones that's already opened will still be kept open, along with back hire for attritions. In those cases recruiters would still be reaching out.
Then there is the "hard" hiring freeze, which means open head counts are taking away, sometimes even impacting people already in the interview process. That's what FB did for all their recent openings under a certain level (<M2 and <E6).
So yeah, recruiting emails alone don't really tell the whole story.
AWS or Lab126? AWS is a meat grinder and can't stop hiring or they'll run out of folks quickly due to the turnover(which may actually slow down in a bit if the remaining jobs market gets tight).
Personally, I think hiring in SW will remain stronger than other industries unless we see a profound recession, and even then it will be late in the cycle. Sure, non-profitable companies, reliant on debt to continue operations and lacking solid cash flow, will cut staff earlier as they have already begun to do. Sectors like Defense, which is starting a super-cycle, will likely hire strongly until things really grind to a halt in the economy.
Or simply indicative of the fact that they can, and could not begin to care a whit whom they might piss or cheese off by doing so.
Just like every other recruiter out there.
Things can turn on a dime.