New reports are suggesting significant changes in an important part of the technology sector – hiring.
Owen Hughes at ZDNet reports a study by the analytic firm Hired combed through some 525,000 pieces of interview data and 10,000 job offers to find that average salaries over the last couple of years are estimated at around $152,000.
Specifically, researchers found a recent 1.1% decline in average salary in 2021 compared to 2020.
Hughes reports the researchers believe this may be tied to a change in hiring structure where companies are hiring remotely, hiring less experienced professionals and consequently paying them less.
“(Hired) attributed this to increased pressure on hiring pipelines driven by the pandemic and the ensuing ‘Great Resignation’, which has seen employees quitting their jobs at record rates,” Hughes writes. “This has led to heightened competition for software developers and other specialist tech workers, and “significantly shorter hiring cycles” as companies battle to meet demand: 30 days to hire in the U.S. and 34 days in the U.K., down 25% on average from a year ago.”
However, the firm found that remote work salaries were up 4.6%.
How does this jibe with the overall national picture in terms of worker economy?
“For many (workers), the pandemic was the last straw,” said former labor secretary Robert Reich in a Guardian piece October 13, talking about the overall context of labor changes happening now in America. “Workers are fed up, wiped out, done-in, and run down. In the wake of so much hardship, illness and death during the past year, they’re not going to take it anymore.”
Citing the long-term benefits of this kind of arrangement, Reich said it’s “about time” for companies to readjust.
Tech workers have long enjoyed a premium on pay, compared to other less skilled types of labor. Let’s see what this year brings for workers engaged in tech-related innovation, as analysts look at whether a rising tide will lift all boats.
