HN Who is hiring job posts over time

#1

Post by bfung » Mon, Nov 28, 2022, 2:27 PM UTC

With the economic downturn over the last year and the recent rounds of layoff news, I was curious to see if the "Ask HN: Who is hiring?" job posts reflected that.

Here's the code used to scrape HN API, kinda hacky: https://github.com/bfung/HNAnalytics

Here's the data and the a chart on [google sheets](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18kLWHkrEedpl1eXzAht_se8GEKd0G9zrlz7SutP2uLQ/edit#gid=846434603)

A few things stick out: Dec and Jan are low job post months, as it makes sense due to holidays and fiscal cycles, and it shows in the # of posts.

Hope this helps would be job hunters in preparing for the next few months.

Re: HN Who is hiring job posts over time

#2

Post by mtmail » Mon, Nov 28, 2022, 2:44 PM UTC

Related from October 2022 "Lowest “Who is hiring?” Post Count in 30 Months" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33083279

Re: HN Who is hiring job posts over time

#3

Post by themanmaran » Mon, Nov 28, 2022, 2:44 PM UTC

The []() syntax doesn't work on posts. Clickable google sheets link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18kLWHkrEedpl1eXzAht_...

Re: HN Who is hiring job posts over time

#4

Post by ndr » Mon, Nov 28, 2022, 2:53 PM UTC

Nice addition of the S&P500 as market reference.

Is there any easy way to correct for HN traffic? For example, is that what's driving the change in volume in 2016?

Re: HN Who is hiring job posts over time

#5

Post by faitswulff » Mon, Nov 28, 2022, 2:54 PM UTC

themanmaran wrote: post #3

The []() syntax doesn't work on posts. Clickable google sheets link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18kLWHkrEedpl1eXzAht_...

Interesting that the url within the parentheses isn't recognized.

EDIT - actually, none of the urls are recognized as links.

Re: HN Who is hiring job posts over time

#6

Post by anon50118810 » Mon, Nov 28, 2022, 2:55 PM UTC

Also for anyone looking to draw conclusions here, remember that the HN crowd including the hiring thread is a very small slice of the tech industry generally, and for most people you only need to find one job for your job search to be over.

Re: HN Who is hiring job posts over time

#7

Post by eatonphil » Mon, Nov 28, 2022, 2:59 PM UTC

This is awesome! I saw the number going down the last few months but good to see it in context with last year. And also the S&P 500.

Re: HN Who is hiring job posts over time

#8

Post by going_ham » Mon, Nov 28, 2022, 3:06 PM UTC

It seems 2020-2022 was boom for tech industry. Now the rate is going backing to pre-2020 which shows it was already in decline! That is quite surprising.

Re: HN Who is hiring job posts over time

#9

Post by arcturus17 » Mon, Nov 28, 2022, 3:14 PM UTC

going_ham wrote: post #8

It seems 2020-2022 was boom for tech industry. Now the rate is going backing to pre-2020 which shows it was already in decline! That is quite surprising.

Yea, 2018-2020 sees a downward trend in hiring, while the S&P500 was still growing steadily.

Thing is though, HN Hiring posts seem very FAANG and (even more) startup-biased? The S&P500 is more than that.

Re: HN Who is hiring job posts over time

#10

Post by debacle » Mon, Nov 28, 2022, 3:16 PM UTC

Hiring has slowed to a crawl, and the hardest hit appear to be junior/low level devs not going into the startup space.

I'm seeing a lot of hiring for senior positions. I'm getting more, not fewer emails for interviews as a CTO. Meanwhile, it seems like unless a new grad is headed to a FAANG they are not finding jobs the way they were a year ago.

This is how things started in 2007, anecdotally. The ladder got pulled up earlier in the year, and then right around the holiday season everything fell apart. It took a good 2-3 years for everything to recover, but in that time salaries were down roughly 20-30%.