Nearly 50,000 tech workers have lost their jobs since the start of this year. Now, Gen Zers are looking at a different sector for job security.
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00:00 Working in big tech is not as cushy as it used to be.
00:05 This year, nearly 50,000 people have already been laid off from their jobs in the tech
00:10 industry.
00:11 I just got laid off about two hours ago.
00:13 I was a victim of being laid off with the massive tech layoffs.
00:16 We're going to be announcing that we're restructuring.
00:19 And Gen Z now is starting to look at a different sector that's nearly layoff-proof.
00:24 I'm Kadena Topless.
00:25 I'm a senior correspondent at Business Insider.
00:28 In the 2010s, it was pretty cushy to work at places like Amazon or Meta, Google.
00:38 Salaries were high, the jobs were pretty steady, and there was tons of perks, like free food.
00:47 Thank you.
00:48 Free daycare.
00:49 And even free laundry services.
00:53 Oh, thank you.
00:55 And these tech companies had money to burn.
00:57 They were funding these moonshot projects.
00:59 Things like a wind turbine kite, a self-driving car, robotic cell service tower on a balloon.
01:14 So now companies are starting to cut back and even lay people off.
01:19 I think we can all agree that working in tech is not an amazing place to be right now.
01:22 So why is this happening?
01:24 For a long period in the 2000s and 2010s, it was really cheap to borrow money.
01:33 There were low interest rates.
01:34 It was called the ZERP period, zero interest rate phenomenon.
01:38 The Fed has raised interest rates.
01:40 This affects things like the cost of a home mortgage loan, for example.
01:44 But it also means that for companies, it's harder to raise capital, raise money.
01:48 This means it's just more expensive to run a business.
01:51 During COVID, a lot of these companies grew a lot and they hired a lot.
01:56 And there was overhiring during this period.
01:58 And now they're sort of adjusting and cutting back.
02:02 And the last reason is AI.
02:06 And a lot of these companies, they're not replacing workers directly with jobs that
02:11 are run by a robot or AI.
02:14 But what's actually happening is a lot of these big tech companies are sort of rethinking
02:19 and restructuring their workforce around new goals about how they're going to develop AI.
02:26 You're still working in corporate and you haven't been laid off.
02:28 You're probably super worried that you're going to be part of the next layoff.
02:31 My friends, my colleagues, myself included, we're all pretty scared and a little bit stressed.
02:35 It's a lot harder to get a job now.
02:37 And that's for two reasons.
02:39 One is these companies have fewer job offerings.
02:43 All I could do was just apply every single night.
02:44 Apply, apply, apply.
02:46 The amount of rejections or no callbacks or anything I received is insane.
02:52 The other is that there's a lot more applicants than there used to be.
02:55 And that's because these jobs were so desirable for so long that a lot of people decided to
03:00 major in computer science.
03:02 There's more people looking for jobs than companies hiring.
03:06 There's been twice as many computer science graduates as there were a decade ago.
03:12 And overall what this means is it used to be that you had to be in the 65th percentile
03:17 of engineers in order to pass an interview at a big tech company.
03:22 Now you have to be in the 83rd.
03:25 So what does this mean for Gen Z?
03:27 Well, there's a new kind of job that's starting to become very desirable for them.
03:32 And that is government jobs.
03:36 Here's how to get into tech in 2024 in a tech sector that does not have mass layoffs.
03:40 Gen Z is diversifying where they're looking for jobs.
03:43 And that's partly because compared to two years ago, it is a lot harder to find a job.
03:48 The number of job openings has gone way down since 2022.
03:51 Although the big tech jobs and private sector work often will have much higher salaries
03:58 than the public sector, there are a lot of upsides to working for the government in a
04:04 federal job.
04:05 Things like student loan relief.
04:09 A lot of public service jobs or public sector jobs will erase your student debt after a
04:14 certain amount of time.
04:16 Another is job security.
04:19 People think that I'm exaggerating when I say that it's almost impossible to get fired
04:22 by the federal government.
04:24 People are much, much more likely to lose their jobs through a layoff in the private
04:29 sector.
04:30 About three times more likely than the public sector.
04:34 Health insurance.
04:35 I work in the public sector and I really love it because one, I always wanted to be a government
04:39 employee.
04:40 Two, I have great health insurance.
04:41 My deductible is $350.
04:42 I have a pension so I don't have to worry about the market.
04:45 Early retirement.
04:46 A lot of these jobs you can retire at actually 65 or even sooner.
04:51 These things really matter to Gen Z.
04:53 And of course money is important.
04:55 Money is important to everybody.
04:57 But Gen Z is rating job security as the number one thing they care about when looking for
05:01 a job.
05:02 I do admit working in the public sector, you don't make a lot of money.
05:05 And it could be based on where you live, but also what you do.
05:08 I actually looked it up.
05:09 If I went into the private sector for what I do for work, I came up over six figures.
05:14 And that is very nice.
05:15 And that literally changed my life.
05:17 But I always remember you could be laid off.
05:19 Joe, you're late.
05:20 What are you going to do, fire me?
05:21 All right, Joe, I'm not going to ask you again.
05:22 Get off your phone.
05:23 What are you going to do, fire me?
05:28 [BLANK_AUDIO]