Let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Look at the Actual Data<\/strong> These are real people and real families, and I don\u2019t \u2013 for a second \u2013 discount the enormous disruption and uncertainty these layoffs have certainly caused them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But as many have noted<\/a>, companies are course-correcting after a lengthy period of over hiring and labor hoarding: hiring and holding on to high-value, high-cost workers, a common practice in 2020 and 2021. In fact, some companies<\/a> \u201cnearly doubled their headcount between 2019 and 2022\u201d as a result. Today\u2019s rebalancing, as The Wall Street Journal <\/em>observed, may be spurred by multiple factors: the promise of what AI might be able to do in the future, weak demand, and economic volatility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As of early November<\/a>, there are nearly 240K open tech jobs, a decline of roughly 50 percent from tech\u2019s peak and an increase <\/em>of 45 percent from the industry\u2019s low two years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s not zero. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s a painful normalization after an unsustainable spike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It tracks with what we\u2019re seeing at CoderPad. When I look at our own data on technical interviewing activity, comparing this time last year to today, we\u2019re seeing usage trending substantially upward, if we compare 2023 to today.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n As you can see, companies are still investing in technical talent. And they\u2019re doing so incredibly intentionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Companies Are Reshaping Hiring Based on AI (And That\u2019s Not Bad)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n AI isn’t decimating developer jobs so much as it’s transforming them in three fundamental ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI is changing the skills teams need, not eliminating teams entirely<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As organizations grow, they’re actively seeking people who can work effectively with AI tools, know how to leverage these capabilities, and bring AI-native thinking to their work. This is driving demand for different skill sets and profiles than we saw five years ago. Companies that relied on basic technical assessments are realizing they need better solutions to evaluate these evolving capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI is improving developer ROI \u2013 and, in turn, their value to companies<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Think about it this way: if a developer used to ship 10 product features a year, and AI makes them 30% more effective, that same person now delivers 13 features annually \u2013 for the same cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s not<\/em> a reason to hire fewer developers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s a reason to invest more<\/em> in developer talent because you’re getting better returns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Research from companies like GitHub<\/a> shows that developers using AI coding tools are seeing measurable productivity improvements, particularly in reducing time spent on repetitive tasks and code reviews. And we\u2019re seeing this driving an increased demand for developers \u2013 both internally at CoderPad and with our customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI is opening the aperture on what we can build today<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Features and products that would have taken years to develop \u2013 or had been completely impractical to invest in \u2013 are suddenly achievable. This isn’t theoretical for us. At my company, we’re experiencing this firsthand: so many ideas that were once in the “someday\/maybe\/if we have resources”column are now viable. We need more talented people to bring these possibilities to life. People power is critical \u2013 and I assure you, we\u2019re not the only company who sees that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smart Companies Are Hiring For AI-Savvy Developers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The macro data tells one story. But let me share what I’m hearing directly from customers and prospects in the past month:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shopify<\/a>, for example, is expanding its intern and junior developer program by 20x, from 50 hires two years ago to approximately one thousand. Why such aggressive growth in entry-level talent? Three reasons: there’s an enormous amount to build, they recognize they need to invest in junior talent today to develop senior talent tomorrow, and they know younger, AI-native workers will bring fresh perspectives and skills to their culture and processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite their layoffs, Meta, as you’ve probably heard, is on a significant hiring push. And Amazon currently has thousands of software engineer positions<\/a> open, also going against the Amazon headlines. Walmart is hiring aggressively for developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take Heart \u2013 And Action<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The full picture helps people make informed decisions about their hiring strategies, assumptions about where the market is heading, and their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re a developer<\/strong>: the skills you have and continue to build matter. Particularly if you’re learning to work effectively with AI tools, you’re making yourself more valuable, not less. Companies need you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re a hiring manager<\/strong>: look at your actual business needs and the ROI of technical talent in an AI-augmented world. The math may surprise you. And if you need to hire more devs, call me. \ud83d\ude09 <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re a junior developer<\/strong>: know that companies are actively seeking AI-native talent who can bring new approaches. Your fresh perspective has value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if you’ve been laid off<\/strong>: this is painful,and I’m sorry. Keep going. The data suggests opportunities are still out there. The market is shifting, not disappearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The question isn’t whether technical hiring is dying. It’s how we’re preparing for the kind of technical hiring that’s emerging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ready to start modernizing your technical hiring for the AI-era? CoderPad enables AI-aware, realistic assessments that measure how candidates actually work with modern AI tools\u2014so you get stronger signal, fairer evaluations, and faster decisions without encouraging \u201cno-AI\u201d test behavior. Get in touch with our team here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The headlines on tech layoffs feel brutal. Amazon, Accenture, Intel, Microsoft, Meta, Mozilla, and more have all announced workforce reductions, and decisions like these may not be over. And yet \u2013 despite how awful this is for everyone impacted \u2013 the narrative that \u2018tech hiring is dead\u2019 or \u2018AI is already coming for your jobs\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"persona":[28],"blog-programming-language":[],"keyword-cluster":[69],"class_list":["post-43580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hiring-developers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43582,"href":"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43580\/revisions\/43582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43580"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=43580"},{"taxonomy":"blog-programming-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog-programming-language?post=43580"},{"taxonomy":"keyword-cluster","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword-cluster?post=43580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Over the past five years, we have \u2013 without question \u2013 seen tech layoffs spike. It\u2019s worth noting that these aren’t just developer roles; they’re jobs across all functions at \u201ctech companies\u201d. In 2023, according to Trueup.io, the number was 430K people impacted; last year, it was 240K. In 2025, the number is projected to reach just over 200K. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/coderpad.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-1024x555.png\")
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