A trite statement like this has very little meaning. You don't need a double-blind placebo study to observe the shifting market.
Is your data based on just a few of your friends? How is that considered a "shifting market"? My friends and I do not experience what you are arguing. In fact, we experience the opposite of what you are saying.
Sure, "the plural of anecdote isn't data" and all that, but talk to recruiters and you'll hear much the same. Yes, even in this market it's possible to get outstanding offers but I'm fairly confident in asserting that that's much rarer right now than it was, say, a year or two ago.
Those layoffs were to appease shareholders. Did you forget that the market already needed a massive amount of programmer talent? That hasn't changed, my experience hasn't changed. I can get a high paying ($300k) job at literally any point anywhere.
"In 2023, the software engineering industry faces a record-breaking shortage of professionals. This skills crisis has resulted in an astonishing 1 million tech job vacancies that still need to be fulfilled. Reports suggest that the number of US job vacancies, due to a lack of talent, will reach 85.2 million by 2030."
> Sure, "the plural of anecdote isn't data" and all that, but talk to recruiters and you'll hear much the same. Yes, even in this market it's possible to get outstanding offers but I'm fairly confident in asserting that that's much rarer right now than it was, say, a year or two ago.
All of these are anecdotes and nothing more. If you have data that would support that I would like to see it and then I can agree with you.
This doesn't disprove any of what's been shared earlier in this thread. Because of the layoffs and uncertainty around the future effects of interest rates on the wider economy, many companies have laid off thousands and are being much pickier about their hiring.
So even though there's vacancies, that doesn't mean the experience of seeking a job is as easy as it used to be - just the opposite, in fact. This is what many mean by "the market has shifted".
I don't know if there's studies out there conclusively proving that it's gotten harder to find a job (longer to land an offer, lower salaries on offer on average, # of remote jobs available, # of applicants applying to them etc), but I think we might never find such to begin with because these specific metrics might not be as keenly tracked.