From Tech Royalty to Unemployable: The Shocking Reality for 1.2 Million Laid-Off Workers

The Golden Era is Over

On February 10, 2025, at 7:32 a.m., the dreaded email hit my inbox. After nearly six years at Meta as a content strategist, I got the axe. The company announced the layoffs were due to "low performance"—a gut punch after years of glowing reviews and praise from colleagues.

Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Getty Images Plus.

The Bloodbath Continues

The 2010s and early 2020s were the golden era of tech—aggressive hiring, generous salaries, and flowing perks defined the industry. The years since have been a never-ending bloodbath. More than 1.2 million people have been laid off in tech since 2022, according to TrueUp.Io. Because these are only the publicly reported layoffs, the number could be higher.

From Heavily Recruited to Unemployable

Recruiters used to message me weekly, sometimes daily, a few years ago. The options were copious, the outlook optimistic. After enduring so much job insecurity early in my career, I thought I had made it. In the past year, though, I've applied to at least 100 roles for which I was an excellent fit. I've secured referrals, used A.I. to customize my résumé and cover letter, openly shared on social media, and simply persisted.

But my job prospects have been bleak. I've interviewed for three full-time roles and one fixed-term contract role in more than a year. I've never felt so unemployable.

A Widespread Crisis

My story isn't unique. Tech workers across the industry are struggling to regain employment in their fields despite relentless searching, experiencing burnout on top of unemployment. People like me, once heavily recruited and flush with career choices, now can't catch a break.

"I applied to hundreds of roles over several months. But the process was extremely slow and led nowhere," technical recruiter A. Kapadia told me. Kapadia was laid off in March 2024 and has held two short-lived roles since, supporting herself through paid content creation and side jobs like dog-sitting.

The AI Factor

What's particularly frustrating is that many CEOs admit they over-hired during COVID and are now cutting costs to improve "efficiency" and to ramp up A.I. infrastructure. Not only is A.I. a costly investment that companies hope will pay off by automating more jobs, but the layoffs are also occurring at a breathless rate. While I was writing this piece, Oracle slashed another 30,000 jobs on March 31.

Joseph Politano, founder of the Apricitas Economics newsletter, explained: "Tech in particular has gone from adding 200,000 to 300,000 jobs per year to losing 10,000 to 50,000 jobs per year in one of the worst swings of any sector. This is genuinely the worst tech job market in decades."

The Recruitment Bottleneck

A.I. is largely to blame for the hiring chaos, according to Tiberiu Trandaburu, CEO and founder of tech staffing agency Uptalen. "By adding the use of it, recruiting teams are increasing their productivity, but it's leading to more noise due to the greater number of people in the process and causing over-filtering and missing out on good candidates who don't meet rigid criteria," Trandaburu said.

A Temporary Reprieve

I eventually landed a fixed-term contract role at another big tech company. I'm paid 25 percent less than I was for my job at Meta, with five annual PTO days and zero paid holidays, and I'm overqualified for the work I do. Nonetheless, I'm grateful to be employed—and in the field I've invested so much of my career in. But I'm also exhausted. I feel like I'm trapped in a maze that keeps changing its configuration.

The Human Cost

What tech leaders fail to grasp is that as they reprioritize toward a technology that's positioned to displace more workers, they're sending a message: Profits trump all and workers are fat to trim. The golden era of tech is dead.

Forty-nine percent of the American workforce says they're struggling, according to Gallup, the first time it's outnumbered the percentage of folks who say they're thriving. And discontent can be contagious, ultimately having a ripple effect on worsening morale and productivity.

The U.S. job market is projected to add 5.2 million jobs through 2034. The health care and social assistance industries are expected to experience the largest job growth and be the fastest-growing industries. Tech is playing a risky game of chicken with talent—because they will find greener grass elsewhere.