According to data from Layoffs.fyi, over 250,000 tech employees were laid off across over 1,100 companies in the past year. Despite this, over 23,000 development vacancies still exist on company websites, according to a report from Qt Group.
The company explained that there were a lot of redundancies reported in 2023, and that many layoffs were the result of re-prioritization efforts. For example, one tech company that had 27,410 redundancies still had 5,437 developer roles on its website as of November 15.
“The developer skills gap has been well-documented, but with so many tech companies forced into making redundancies across the business, the requirement for developer talent is as urgent as ever,” said JuhaPekka Niemi, senior vice president of product management at Qt Group. “Despite an uncertain economic market, companies are still looking for – and struggling to recruit – developer talent.”
The report concludes that in order to mitigate the skills gap, companies need to “refine their design and development process and improve efficiency.”
Qt Group also looked at the role AI is playing. They say that although there is a lot of excitement around AI right now, the demand for developers is still high because they play an important role in innovation and creativity.
