Anecdata here but: literally every single dev I talk to on a regular basis has told me their company has laid off a sizable amount of staff in the last 3 months. Every single one.
The companies range from startups to enterprise, at practically all stages of funding, but they each told me their funding never materialized or investors gave management ultimatums.
A few were in crypto, two are in fintech, a few more in various b2b tech companies. But they all gave almost identical explanations: management sees a rough economy ahead and tightened their belts accordingly.
I’m not trying to be doom and gloom, I still have a job, but even my partner, who is also a software engineer, just survived a round of lay-offs at their fintech that happened yesterday. They laid off 25% of their company across the board.
Besides, if you work for any tech company, you should be able to throw your resume in the aid and get another job. Even if you are a blue collar worker, there are plenty of companies looking. I have a friend who works in finance for a major manufacturer. He said the company had to be a lot more lax about firing factory workers because they already had a shortage.
They were “tightening their belt” a profitable company doesn’t have to worry about that.
My CTO said specifically “we need everyone we have and we aren’t going to be successful by laying off people. We have a vision and we need you all to help execute it”. They were bought out less than 9 months later for 10x revenue. I had moved on to $BigTech by then after leading their “cloud modernization” efforts.
The profitable tech companies are using it as an excuse to get rid of dead weight. No one is going to come after Cook, Jassy or Nadella for short term revenue misses.
Facebook and Google still have founders who own more than 50% of the voting shares. No one can come after them.
You can say a lot about the big 5. But none of them can be accused of short sightedness.