Layoffs

Layoffs are down significantly in 2025, with 22,692 layoffs in Q1. The total for the year is projected to be 190,972, a sharp decline from 2023’s 429,608. Most cuts are in non-technical roles (HR, communications), not engineers.

Hiring Surge

Demand for engineers skilled in AI/ML and infrastructure is rising as companies implement new AI tools. The software development sector is expected to grow 17% by 2033.

How Engineers Are Thriving

Engineers focusing on technical depth, open-source projects, and persistent applications are succeeding in today’s market.

Outlook

The job market is strong for skilled engineers, especially those adapting to AI advancements.

Tech layoffs are a familiar cloud hanging over one of this century’s fastest growing industries. Pandemic-era hiring sprees were followed by scything cuts on oversized workforces, sparking concern among software engineers about long-term career stability.

The State of Layoffs

2023 was the harshest year on record, with over 260,000 tech job cuts. While the end of the year showed faint signs of recovery, with an increase in hiring of 11.6% between July and December, the layoffs continued into 2024, with 237,000 layoffs across 1,107 companies.

As the biggest household name companies defined global perceptions of the ruthless hiring market - Meta cut 13,000 employees and Amazon 18,000 in 2024 - the nuances behind the numbers are not as well understood.

Many aspiring technologists now believe there are simply no more jobs for software engineers, a sentiment that has spread far and wide, but the real story of software engineering jobs in 2025 is far more nuanced.

Layoffs Are Declining, and AI Is Fueling a New Hiring Wave

As of March 2025, layoffs have decreased significantly - 22,692 tech employees across 81 tech companies. This year is projected to see 190,972 total layoffs, a massive drop from 429,608 in 2023.

Meta leads the pack with 3,600 layoffs, followed by Hewlett Packard with 2,500. Data shows that companies at the top of the tech food chain, who overexpanded rapidly in 2020-21, continue to stabilize their numbers, but that companies are actively recruiting engineers at all levels.

This rise in hiring is partially a result of new AI tools that offer companies across all sectors the opportunity to transform their productivity and products, increasing appetites for engineers proficient in AI and ML to maintain the new systems being implemented.

This trend is expected to persist. According to the US Bureau of Labor statistics, the software development sector is expected to grow 17% by 2033, one of the fastest growth rates across all occupations.

Ark Nigay, a software engineer at Twilio and Codesmith alum, says that Twilio is hiring "hundreds" of software engineers as a result of the AI boom.

Who’s Really Being Laid Off in Tech? It’s Not Engineers

The myth that software engineers are the main victims of layoffs is misleading. The reality? Most cuts are in non-technical departments: In February, Google reduced its People Operations (HR) teams; Amazon laid off staff in its Communications & Corporate Responsibility team.

Microsoft and Meta both reported restructuring efforts targeting operational layers, not core engineering roles. According to TechFinitive, this could be a moment of enormous opportunity for software engineers expanding their technical capacities to cover the implementation and maintenance of AI infrastructure.

Senior Microsoft engineer on the Xbox team and Codesmith alum, Will Kencel says this sentiment is echoed by Victor Janulaitis, CEO of labor market research firm, Janco Associates, who explained that tech companies are retaining their tech teams, but non-technical project managers, middle layers, and those performing "administrative" tasks were more at risk.

Underperforming Teams and Discontinued Products in Engineer Layoffs

Engineers are predominantly affected by layoffs when part of a company team is underperforming in comparison to other teams, or a key company product gets discontinued.

PlayStation’s Visual Arts studio laid off engineers in March this year after the cancellation of multiple live-service games, while its parent company Sony was forced to lay off around 100 engineers in 2023 who were working on underperforming video games.

Discontinued products continue to lead engineer layoffs, which make up a small portion of tech layoffs, rather than the rise of AI tools replacing humans, as is often discussed.

How Engineers Are Thriving in Today’s Hiring Market

Despite lingering fear, many engineers are not only surviving but thriving in 2025. Here's how:

1. Focus on Technical Depth: Engineers need to leverage their skills effectively.
2. Create an Open Source Project (OSP): This demonstrates expertise and showcases capabilities to potential employers.

Mateo Lopez-Castillo, a Codesmith grad recently hired by Meta, gives his perspective on the market and what aspiring engineers need to succeed. Finishing Codesmith at the end of 2023, it took Mateo most of 2024 to navigate the job search and receive an offer from Meta.

He says that as soon as the Meta recruiter contacted him, he set to work to get to the top of the pile by continuing to build the technical capacities that Meta were looking for. Ark from Twilio spent over five months on the job hunt and sent out "100s of applications" before he had even got his first onsite interview. Mateo at Meta said he gave up counting how many applications he had sent, but at last count, he’d sent over 1,000.

Pro Tip:

Avoid "easy apply" on LinkedIn. Prioritize external application links—they often yield higher response rates.

"Hiring in tech is a cyclical thing," says Will Kencel, a senior engineer at Microsoft Xbox. There’s a burst every December when budget approvals roll in. Be ready to move when the doors open.

Software Engineering Job Market: 2025 Outlook

Despite the noise, the outlook for software engineering jobs in 2025 is optimistic.

• AI is driving job creation, not destruction, especially for engineers with skills in AI/ML, infrastructure, and UI.
• Layoffs are down, with the brunt of cuts hitting non-technical and administrative roles.
• Hiring is up, especially at companies rebuilding smarter tech teams post-2023.

While layoffs persist in certain areas, particularly for non-technical roles and underperforming products, the hiring market remains strong for skilled engineers. Persistence, technical depth, and strategic application efforts remain the keys to landing a job in today’s evolving tech landscape.