Sudden mass layoffs at the world’s largest tech companies could be an opportunity for Australian organizations to fill long-standing gaps in their workforce.
More than 70,000 employees have been laid off in the past year from tech giants as companies such as Google, Microsoftand meta – which experienced tremendous growth during the pandemic – are now reducing their workforce.
Far from a cause for concern for IT professionals that has long been told their skills are widely neededProfessor Barney Tan, Head of the School of Information Systems and Technology Management at the University of NSW Business School, is confident that demand for technical staff will remain strong.
“From a long-term perspective, the fundamentals of the technology sector that needs more workers remain sound,” he said.
“This is because we are likely to see tech talent from these big tech companies move into start-ups, as well as ‘traditional’ companies that have struggled to attract tech talent for some time.
“For me, it’s not that the tech talent market is shrinking, but simply a period of adjustment where those organizations that were more attractive to tech talent — and who had the resources to hire almost at random during a boom period – now think they should let them go.
In the US, Silicon Valley analysts have suggested that the layoffs are a way of keeping skilled tech workers under control through a sense of insecurity that makes executives the ones who wield the power.
Elon Musk has provided a kind of public blueprint for this management style at Twitter where he has gutted the workforce, canceled remote work policies and quashed internal disagreements.
In public, a lot of the large technology companies facing layoffs have said they expected pandemic-led growth in digital products and services to continue and that they must now cut spending in response to an economic slowdown.
Professor Tan said that for Australian organizations that have been clamoring for IT skills for years, the HR upheaval at North American tech giants could create a unique opportunity.
“The impact of all this on Australia is likely to be minimal as we still have a lot of large companies clamoring for technical talent,” he said.
“This global development could at least lead to greater availability of tech talent for Australia as the talents forced out of the US, Europe and UK may now be forced to relocate.”
Lachlan Feeney, founder and CEO of Queensland-based blockchain development company Labrys, shared Information age the pandemic was a particularly difficult time to hire people with technical skills.
“With our borders reopening to the world and the technology sector laying off en masse – especially in markets such as the United States – this offers more opportunities for Australian companies to think and look global when looking for talent,” he said.
“Since early 2023, we’ve been receiving the most qualified resumes we’ve ever received, with highly experienced and seasoned professionals seeking full-time positions.”
Feeney’s business is in a technology area that is particularly sensitive to market shocks.
Where technology companies see their share prices fall by less than half, cryptocurrency values have tanked as the sector that received unprecedented attention during the early phase of the pandemic almost disappeared overnight.
The local cryptocurrency industry has been facing major issues, including the Swyftx exchange has cut a third of its workforce late last year.
Still, Feeney remains convinced that “when the dust settles and the industry starts to grow again, the serious players will stay”.
“Access to tech talent that was once unavailable will help us and the industry drive innovation and build real solutions that generate real value for companies and industries,” he said.
