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Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

economist.com

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Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#51

Post by travisjungroth »

popularrecluse wrote: post #35
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #25

Given we are in the AI revolution right now, a part of those workers, often quite well paid so they have a bit of cash aside, have taken the opportunity to explore that. Maybe those layoff will create tomorrow's unicorns.

Was laid off Thursday after 10 years. This is exactly what I'm doing for the immediate future. In no hurry to go through the dog and pony show of groveling and prostrating myself for the opportunity to make money for someone else.

I did my first actual prostration last week. Let me tell you, I’d much rather lower my heart to the earth for someone who moves me with her singing than play ego minesweeper on a whiteboard for an engineer who happened to be hired earlier than me at a company revolutionizing the used tire industry.

Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#52

Post by ryandrake »

techperson20007 wrote: post #41
shams93 wrote: post #18

Being laid off at 50 is fairly brutal but hoping to find something using my django experience and get back to work. Fortunately my mom is still alive I had to move in with her, I had already been laid off once, when you are laid off 2 times in one year they force you to go 6 months with no income whatsoever as a form of punishment.

Sorry to hear this and good luck in the search. Out of curiosity, at age 50, wondering why you wouldn't have a substantial savings by this age, enough to avoid losing housing? Or are you simply living with your mom to reduce the impact on that savings? Sorry if i'm making it sound like everyone at 50 should have a ton of money, I know thats not the case. Just curious.

Not OP, but also almost 50. The ability to save doesn't tend to scale with income or age. Major costs like taxes, housing, healthcare and so on very efficiently and elastically scale up to soak your income, even as that income is rising. If you're living in the Bay Area and making a "typical" Bay Area comp, your rent cost is likely set by knowledgable local landlords to maximize the amount of that income they can sponge up. Health insurance works similarly.

Of course there are other good reasons for not being able to save. Medical debt, education debt, child support, parental support and so on.

Without guaranteed pensions, saving takes deliberate effort, deliberate avoidance of lifestyle creep, a lot of health luck, and a lot of luck in the market. Those savings vehicles you do manage to take advantage of, like 401(k)s and so on, are mostly inaccessible outside of the context of retiring. So anything you put into them is gone until you're elderly.

Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#53

Post by Maximus9000 »

indigodaddy wrote: post #21
pakitan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm finding that one of ChatGPT strengths is summarizing fluff-heavy texts.

Can you give it the URL, or do you need to provide the full body text for it to summarize?

Yes, just ask it to summarize the article and provide it with the link. I just did, here is the output:

------------------

"The article explores the job market for tech workers who have been laid off from their previous jobs due to the pandemic. Despite the high demand for tech talent, many of these workers have struggled to find new employment, and the article highlights several factors that may be contributing to this.

One of the main challenges is the way in which hiring managers are evaluating candidates. Many companies are now using AI-powered tools to screen resumes, which can lead to qualified candidates being overlooked. In addition, there may be biases in the hiring process that are preventing certain candidates from being considered.

Another issue is that many of the jobs that have been created in the tech industry during the pandemic are concentrated in certain geographic areas, such as the Bay Area and Seattle. This can make it difficult for workers who live in other parts of the country to find new employment.

The article also notes that many of the workers who have been laid off come from industries that have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, such as hospitality and tourism. These workers may not have the same level of experience or technical skills as those who have been working in the tech industry for years, which can make it harder for them to find new roles.

Overall, the article suggests that while the demand for tech talent remains high, the job market is still challenging for many workers who have been laid off due to the pandemic. Companies and hiring managers may need to rethink their approach to hiring in order to ensure that qualified candidates are not being overlooked, and more support may be needed for workers who are transitioning to new careers in the tech industry."

Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#55

Post by horsawlarway »

t-3 wrote: post #8
jebarker wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: how is the Bay Area housing market artificially inflated? I assumed the high prices were the normal market response to high demand from many people with deep pockets.

IIRC, new housing is not being approved for construction mainly because the local gov is full of people who own real estate. In a natural situation, supply would be increased to meet demand.

But this is not artificial.

This is a result of the fact that some resources do not have infinite space to increase supply. Land is one of those resources.

No matter how much someone demands it, we cannot simply wish more land into existence in SF.

So while we can increase housing supply by optimizing the usage of that land (more houses per unit area), this has adverse consequences for the people already using it...

Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#57

Post by kokanee »

mywittyname wrote: post #17
_fat_santa wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it, you have these tech companies that are writing larger and larger checks to their employees. Combine that with limited housing and you start getting bidding wars from folks making $500k, all of a sudden that house that went for $600k is now going for $1.2M. If you work back from that price you see that the prices would not have been able to go that high had all these tech companies not offered massiv…

That's not artificial though, that's fair market pricing. It's growth in income leading to higher prices for goods purchased with that income.

I think that when people describe these kinds of markets as "artificially" inflated, they're reacting to the sharp increase in income inequality. For a person who has had a 60-80th percentile income for 20 years, it probably feels more like prices are artificial than it feels like their economic status has declined significantly. Unfortunately the latter is the case, as increasingly fewer people gather an increasing share of wealth.

I would definitely agree that the pricing is not artificial, but I don't think I would call it fair.

Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#58

Post by kazinator »

dgs_sgd wrote: post #15
jebarker wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: how is the Bay Area housing market artificially inflated? I assumed the high prices were the normal market response to high demand from many people with deep pockets.

artificially inflated in the sense that if it wasn’t for government regulation that makes building difficult, then the normal market forces that incentivize builders to meet demand would result in costs lower than they are now.

If you want to model the hypothetical non-artificial situation, you have to remove all relevant government-controlled knobs and levers.

That can't be the only one?

Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#59

Post by taude »

dukeyukey wrote: post #40
atlgator wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not necessarily the tech workers. 42% of US existing home purchases were from foreign investors (defined as non-residents). That’s for the US as a whole, and it stands to reason that outsized investment is happening in high demand areas, driving up the price. https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/annual-foreign-investment-i...

> 42% of US existing home purchases were from foreign investors Maybe I misunderstood you, but that article says out of house purchases by foreigners, 42% were by foreign buyers living abroad, and the other 58% were by foreign buyers living in the US. US citizens buying property _vastly_ outweigh foreign buyers, in both numbers and dollar amounts.

I have to find the article, but my understanding is 15% of all US residential real estate is bought by foreign buyers, and then combined with the 25% that's bought by investment firms, a total of around 40% of the US housing marking is off the table.... Should be pretty easy to find the articles.

EDIT: it should be noted, that foreign investment was down the last couple years do to covid, though.

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