I see a lot of people blaming this on AI and raised interest rates.
The real reason for this stagnation is Section 174 of IRS code that was added by the 2017 tax cut bill. The section took effect in 2022 and was added to balance the budget.
This section basically doesn’t allow to deduct cost of the software engineers and they are amortized over 5 years (10 years for international engineers). This puts some strains to regular businesses, but it kills start ups, as they are required to pay taxes even when they are still not profitable and might not even pay 5 years.
Lack of start ups means there is smaller number of openings which is lower mobility. Combined with amortization, it discourages hiring new people as again it requires 5 years.
I see this being dismissed and “it is definitively the interest rates and AI” AI is nowhere close to replace software engineers, in fact from the coworkers that enthusiastically embraced it I see lower quality of code. Interest rates actually came back to what they originally were before 2008.
The hiring issues started exactly when section 174 went into effect. I think the hiring craze in 2021 was only because companies realized that with slim margins in Congress a bill won’t pass that will repeal it so they were hiring like crazy before it become a law. Indeed Democrats were trying to repeal it, it even pass the house, but it was blocked by Republicans in the Senate. Because God forbid they would help Americans and in turn let economy to look good under Biden.
entwine413@lemm.ee 3 days ago
Man, I hope so. I’ve been job hunting after my position with a government contractor was eliminated in February, and despite a decade of experience, I can’t even get to the first round of interviews.
I think we’re going to see a big shift towards small to medium IT/dev companies, and a ton of freelancers. I’m one of those, because I’m about to start doing IT work for businesses in my small town.
jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 3 days ago
I’ve had several places reject me without even a phone screen. My last job was the same role, the same tech stack, and I achieved the things they wrote about in the blurb. I just get back “we’re looking for someone more aligned with our needs”.
What needs?? I check every box you put on the post!
My friend thinks the jobs don’t exist, and they’re just posted so the company looks good. Or they’re some other fraud.
I think that happens, but also there’s incompetence in the funnel. Recruiters can’t read, ai sucks, blah blah blah.
blarghly@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Often companies post jobs “to be fair”, but have already decided on an internal hire. The word is 80% of hirings never appear on job boards.
10001110101@lemm.ee 3 days ago
I have over a decade of experience as well. Nobody in my small personal “network” knows anyone that’s hiring right now (I hate the fakeness of networking for networking sake, and am not very social, so I don’t have much of a network). I’ve applied to hundreds of job postings over 6 months, interviewed with maybe 6 companies, and rejected usually just because they were also interviewing 10-20 people for the same role, and another person had slightly more experience with a specific part of their stack, or they just liked another person more for whatever reason. I believe all remote job postings get 1000s of applicants, and every one local to me get 100s.
It all kind of reminds me of when I tried using online dating apps, lol.
Serinus@lemmy.world 3 days ago
They definitely did that at college job fairs. They wanted to keep their spot, but weren’t hiring that year.
grrgyle@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
My friend is a townie, and he does this. Actually, we’ve been musing about putting our lot in together, since I usually work for the corp outfits, except I can’t find fuck all lately in the 9-5 realm.