As some companies began to curb job growth, personal technology job seekers began to feel the fear of economic slowdown caused by factors such as inflation and falling stock markets.
In some cases, companies cancel job offers after signing them, which makes it difficult for those who cancel interviews or refuse competitive offers from other companies.
However, recruiters and technical leaders said that this impact is not very common, which largely depends on the industry the company operates and the type of jobs it fills. For example, the demand for engineers is still high.
Redfin, a high-tech real estate brokerage, confirmed on Friday that in order to quickly adapt to “the economic uncertainty caused by the fastest interest rate surge in history and the rapid cooling of the real estate market”, the company “made a difficult decision to freeze recruitment and cancel a small number of jobs”
“We offer our sincerest apologies to those affected,” the Seattle based company said in a statement. “It’s painful to change our recruitment plan according to changing conditions, but it’s necessary to keep the company growing.”
A recent graduate from the University of California, Irvine information, wrote on LinkedIn that a job offer she signed with redfin last December was cancelled this week, less than a month after she began working as a product designer in San Francisco.
Facebook’s parent company meta, which employs more than 7000 employees in the Seattle area, also said on Friday that it was tentatively stepping on the brake of the company’s overall growth.
“We regularly reassess our talent pool based on business needs and slow down its growth accordingly according to the expenditure guidance for the current profit period,” meta spokesman Tracy Clayton said in a statement. “However, we will continue to expand our workforce to ensure that we focus on long-term impact.”
Dara khosrowshahi, chief executive of Uber, a widely cited memo last week was a hot spot in the technology industry, warning of a “seismic shift” in the market, further exacerbating existing concerns and heralding tougher times and tighter belts.
Some CEOs of startups who took part in the geekwire award last week admitted to reading his information carefully. Some say their hiring plans depend in part on their ability to raise funds in the coming months.
However, as venture capitalists relax their investment pace, raising more cash may become difficult. In a letter to the founder of the portfolio this week, y combinator wrote: “even the top venture capital funds with a lot of money will slow down the deployment of capital during the economic downturn.”.
At the same time, rapid inflation has led some financially sound companies to take measures to retain the best employees. Earlier this week, Microsoft announced salary and stock compensation adjustments, focusing on retaining employees who might have wanted to change jobs.
Especially for engineers, the job market is still highly competitive.
“Have some companies decided to scale back? Of course,” said Albert squiers, general manager of technology practice at Seattle fuel talent. “However, the recruitment industry is growing at an alarming rate. Even if the decline is small, there is still more demand for engineers than ever before. Between rising salaries and the real estate market, it is hard to imagine that the pace will slow down much in the next six months.”
After sending this message, squires added a new message, that is, due to the changing market, a company plans to offer quotations and decides to slow down recruitment, except for high priority and business critical systems.
“However, for every company that closes one job, the other seems to be open,” he added. “I still think Seattle’s engineering labor market is’ very tight ‘because it is still a 100% candidate driven market.”
At the same time, he said, “it’s clear that things will change soon.”