There's a lot of panic in the job market because everyone follows what happens FAANG + Twitter, and a disproportionate amount of engineers want to work in the top 10 tech companies. You will always find work in the top 500 companies in my opinion.
Could it be because the top 10 tech companies pay well?
I know I could easily find jobs which pay 150k. But why should I do that if I can put in some effort and get a 250k job?
I believe a more important factor is that the sw engineering job market is still a seller's market. Many large and well-known tech companies still struggle to compete with the tech giants. Even if several of them have frozen hiring.
It is difficult for me to agree with the very popular notion these days that the epoch of employee's choice is now over. Perhaps for FAANG and a few more exceptions. But I have been referring tens of very skilled engineers to my company and I often heard they have accepted other offers. From my perspective, employers must still compete for good talent. Maybe even entry-level talent, although maybe not so much.