Comment on U.S. Tech Layoffs Hit Two-Decade High in October
jtj4135@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Atmospheric and Oceanic science has been heavily defunded this year. A quarter of my program at NOAA has been laid off this year.
If I lose my science job, I was planning on going into tech. Now where do I go??? It feels like the walls are closing in.
I should have gone to a trade school instead :/ STEM was a bad choice.
Tech is a field where there’s always infinite work to do, and it’s always only limited by the budget.
We had very low interest rates for over a decade, which made investments more profitable and thus there was always a ton of money to go around. The current financial downturn is the main reason of all the tech layoffs with no budget there are no jobs.
The upside of that: Even with all the talk of AI and stuff, once the interest rate goes down and investments go up, all the jobs will be back.
IDK. Tech companies are bringing in more revenue than ever. The trend seems to be companies reporting great revenue growth, then laying off shortly after, to which the investors seem to reward. In the past, layoffs would usually bring stock prices down, since they have less human capital to generate profit from.
The layoffs are usually due to a race to meet quarterly projections; when the projections slip, the fastest way to match them again is layoffs. And for companies to keep their stock prices up, quarterly numbers have to keep climbing.
Revenue and profit are different things. In times of low interest it’s growth at all costs. Investors love market share and growth, because they expect to make money when they sell their shares. That’s risky, but with low, no, or even negative interest it’s still worth the risk.
When interest goes up, parking money in safe, interest-based forms of investment becomes more interesting, so to compete companies also need to lower the risk. In a climate like that investors want to make money via dividends, so companies need to maximize dividends and to do so they need to maximize profits. Growth, market share and future plans become less relevant.
That’s what we are seeing right now.
This isn’t entirely true either. Layoffs can actually increase stock prices by lessening liabilities. This is a legit tactic in shareholder primacy theory.
Don’t wait, go straight into training in another field. Send out your resumes for a tech job, but start working on a backup.
That’s a good idea! And if I get rejected, at least I’ll know which new skills to focus on. In the meantime, I’ll try to figure out what other career besides tech would fit my education and skill set.
I have a master’s of science in atmospheric and oceanic science, which unfortunately is a very niche field. I made a miscalculation that my field would grow due to the increase in severe weather and negative affects from climate change.
Thanks for your advice :)
Globally, there’s going to be continued need for your skills.
Locally, it may vary.
Look globally. And good luck with finding your path. I have done the unemployment track and it is unpleasant.
Education, perhaps? I know it’s under attack as well. Maybe there are some opportunities though.
Professors in STEM often need a PhD and postdoctoral degree to get a teaching job at a university. And those jobs were difficult to get before the federal government’s cuts in higher education.
I feel this in my soul. I should’ve just went to law school.
I am probably older than you and just wrote the lsat to bail on tech. You can too!
Thanks for the encouragement homie.
I was going to mention it seemed about right but it is worse than back then and I can’t put my finger on why and I think you have found it for me. Since stem across the board is being hit it makes it that much worse than just a tech meltdown.
It honestly feels like public science is collapsing within America. I expected cuts to atmospheric and oceanic science given that the Heritage Foundation (creators of Project 2025) said they were going to break up NOAA due to our “climate change alarmism”. However, I didn’t expect that nearly every field of science would also get defunded this year, especially medical research. Anti-intellectualism is destroying the United States :/
yeah and other deparments like education to.
most stem degrees were pretty bad place, within the last 10 years. maybe if you going for bio to health pipeline you have some kind of career, or engineer(its a little bit iffy). i was CMB major, but if arnt in a lab before graduation , which by the way arnt very reluctant to show them selves for universities to volunteer in. and besides theres a huge preference for women over men in labs.
Are you working for the government?
NOAA is run by the US government, yes.
Yes, I’m a contractor for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Sorry misread the parent comment. My dyslexic ass skipped “my”
IronBird@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
uironically, leave the US. plenty of countries/international research orgs are pouching all sorts of US-intelligencia right now.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
This is not entirely true and blown away out of proportion by the writers of all the articles you’re seeing. For example that big one that got a bunch of attention in France was only for 15 applicants. Also outside of a few exceptions, most STEM workers lack the resources to pick up and leave where they are at.
Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Counter arguement: you need to do your own research/planning/applications and so on. There won’t always be an easy “all inclusive” path. But opportunities are there for those who are looking for them.
That being said, it would massively help to speak at least one other language fluently.
You’re also correct that it’s not easy from a resource perspective. But if people from much poorer countries can make it work, than so can people in the US.
jtj4135@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
This person is unfortunately correct. One of the most educated and skilled employees within my group at NOAA was rejected from a job. Apparently, the board in charge of that scientific organization rejected her because they didn’t want to hire an American :/
HubertManne@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
yeah that stuff is about grabbing PhD’s with labs that have or could possibly win nobels and such or just is doing big things in technology. Bad for the us but not useful for people generally working in stem.
ripcord@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You say this like it is easy/simple
wewbull@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Depends on what stage of life you’re at.
ripcord@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It isn’t simple at any stage.
themaninblack@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I left and got two Sr SWE positions within 3 months. It’s like the 90’s down here
jackal@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
Where did you land? How much paperwork was involved in the transition?
themaninblack@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Dual citizen with Australia, sorry. Though it is fairly light paperwork for Americans who are in tech - as in the U.S., the best chances are to get in stateside with a big company that has an Aussie HQ (Atlassian, Xero, Canva, FAANG, etc.) and then transfer
Meron35@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Obviously you should try to consider all options, but the amount that this is happening is way exaggerated.
Europe in particularly is diverting a lot of funding away from public sector to defense spending due to geopolitical anxieties.
International organisations aren’t safe either, because they rely on funding from the developed countries who are all cutting funding, i.e. US, Europe, etc.