Ask HN: How are you finding the job market in 2026?

In 2023 it took me 6 months to find a new job where I was quickly elevated into management. Now I am looking again and there are fewer management jobs to apply to.

I am considering figuring out freelance work instead.

I find myself in a strange position. I have the option of retiring from the New York State Retirement System. I can take early retirement. There is a rule which says that I can take a full time job and collect a pension if it is not part of the system. I am finding it nearly impossible to find anything that is not part of the system right now. I got a bunch of minor certifications, but I am finding that my profession is contracting right now. I look at the positions that are listed and they are very technical, often with advanced skills. They are also seem to be constantly relisted every few months. They get filled and three months later they are relisted. I don't know if they are expecting magical unicorns to fill the positions.

I also go to meetups and see there are a lot of people starting businesses or startups. The barrier to entry is dropping for business, there are a lot of people with lots of experience who are starting because there are very few regular jobs being listed. They are also advertising themselves as consultants. Some of the people I talk to are extremely experienced. The barrier for finding a job is very high. I can sit and watch things because I have patience and can wait for the right opportunity. They way things are going, it could take a few years.

Jobs are dead, start a business.

Even if it's the same thing you'd do as an employee.

Trying to be a "software engineer looking for work" in 2026 is depressing - everyone hates that idea now

I simply stopped looking for one and created a few products, then I started getting job offers via email.

I am now just a consultant for a few companies and work from my home office.

I am from Australia, I have just changed my job when I knew my previous employer was going to lay off most of our team in Australia very soon. I am quite lucky to find a good one in my first try while everyone is saying job market sucks, but what others didn't know is that I had started the preparation since mid last year to precisely target the market requirements, by doing side projects and steering my team to the initiative the market will like to see in your CV.

I would say the job market now requires you to pay more effort on preparation.

[dead]

[dead]

[flagged]

[flagged]

I wonder if a women who knows nothing about coding and she's english isn't good, but she can built many things with AI, is there any jobs for her ?

A desolate, dystopian wasteland that I wish to take no part in.

[dead]

For the unlucky, regular joe-shmoes who have to hunt for jobs, and don't come with the privilege of having relevant connections, the job market is getting tougher by the minute, not the least because of a flood of AI written applications paired with HR departments equally using AI for pre-filtering. Nobody reads any job descriptions, cover letters, CV's or applications anymore.

Particularly in tech companies, I think we're in the midst of a shift toward folks that can own the work end to end from product, design, engineering, and beyond including with going to market.

People that can do this with a verifiable track record I think are in a good position to connect with job opportunities right now.

I find it terrible. I am applying and trying to find a software developer job for far too long now with 10 yoe. I might got myself into a awkward place by being a developer with Blazor technology that is kind of niche and not having enough paper trail of being a backend developer even though i can and i did work on backend easily but still. Every time i see a position i can easily do i just get automated rejections, or just silence. There is no humanity anymore at all. And i am in a position where i have a child on the way without light at the end of the tunnel regarding the job search.

My whole team got laid off recently and I have been in constant communication with them, I also have multiple friends who got laid off this year who shared the pain it has been to get a new role,

Market seems better than the last few years but it still does not feels right to me,

We have got multiple people reaching out but the majority of the roles are in-office or hybrid while I work fully remotely.

I posted on LinkedIn, with the help from friends I got quite a lot of visibility (most viral post I have ever had) but still, out of the ~10 recruiters that reached out, only 2 are remote roles, I also got a few offers to work for equity only.

I posted on the monthly "Who's wants to be hired?" thread, it has lead to a few offers to work for equity only + shady people that want me to attend calls and "delegate" the work to them while splitting the revenue.

I also got the people reaching out with promising offers with the intention of getting me to run their malware hidden in coding challenges + recruiters that magically have a role that hasn't been published yet but they use a gmail address, these ones just keep requesting more and more info like an Executive Summary.

I have also got a few referrals and even for these, they are moving slowly.

To put it in perspective, years before I'd easily get 10 recruiters in my inbox per week.

Market seems tough and I can't imagine what junior people are passing through while trying to get a job.