HN Explorer

Ask HN: Is the tech layoff trend new or has this always happened?

17 points by aliqot ↗ HN
It makes sense that there have usually been higher amounts of hires during financial 'good times' but have tech layoffs always been happening during financial 'bad times'?

I remember the dotcom bust, the housing bust, and the pandemic era, and I'm curious if it is the degree of layoffs that is changing or the degree of publication and 'connectedness', or even 'newsworthiness' of tech layoffs that is changing.

Interested in your opinions

8 comments

[ 5.3 ms ] story [ 32.3 ms ] thread
kasey_junk
My opinion is that a) tech layoffs haven’t actually gotten that bad (perhaps yet) b) tech was the biggest winner in the covid online boost, so it makes sense for it to be disproportionately impacted by a pull back c) the fed has a goal to lower employment so it makes sense for the hottest employment sector to be hit first.

My anecdotal feeling is that both the Dotcom crash and 9/11 had bigger impacts on tech employment generally than this recession has to date.

mainguy
I wonder about this myself (sorry don't have a strong opinion)...but today we're so connected and I constantly wonder "if a tree falls in the woods and nobody tweets about it, did it actually happen?"
hairofadog
This has always happened, yeah. The real question in my mind is whether most of the pain is behind us, or if this is just the start? The least-bad approach to layoffs is the rip-the-bandaid-off approach, but it seems like it's a lesson that has to be learned the hard way over and over again.
devnull3
Anecdotal experience: The people in my circle who are not in tech industry are having schadenfreude when it comes to tech layoffs. The sentiment is "look-at-these-high-earning-hotshots" ... who is laughing now? Extending to wider people (like journalists, commentators, etc) this is one of factor behind newsworthiness.

> have tech layoffs always been happening during financial 'bad times'?

Yes. Although in this case, a lot of companies over-hired in last 2-3 years and hence I feel current round of layoffs are just the beginning. There will be more.

> I remember the dotcom bust

I think compared to dotcom era, tech is much more tightly coupled in our daily lives. Whatever can be digitized will be digitized. Whatever can be automated will be automated. So tech is here to stay and hence I would expect a revival in late 2024-early 2025.

crmd
I think the majority of people here over age 40 who saw early career SWEs routinely discussing $250k-$350k packages knew that the past couple of years was not an exact repeat of, but certainly rhymed with, the dot com era.
strangattractor
“Those who forget their history are condemned to see it in a comment with links in HN” - It would be difficult to find a time when there weren't any tech layoffs. Seems like some people think they are much more essential then they really are.

Apple layoffs 1990 https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/20/business/apple-layoffs-ar...

Tech Layoffs 2000. https://www.axios.com/2022/11/01/year-2000-tech-flashback-do...

Tech Layoffs 2009. https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/tech-layoffs-the-sco...

A history of Layoff. https://qz.com/work/1663731/mass-layoffs-a-history-of-cost-c...

Tech Layoffs 2015. https://www.challengergray.com/blog/tech-sector-shed-over-79...