‘The Great Tech Reset’ of 2024 - Why are we seeing so many redundancies?
t’s been referred to as the “Great Tech Reset”. From CISCO to Intel, Amazon, Microsoft, Okta and Splunk - this year continues what has been a tumultuous couple of years of layoffs.
Reductions in headcount like these we’ve seen are of course, extremely stressful for those affected. Their lives are upended, they’re facing a period of emotional and financial uncertainty as well as the prospect of entering the job hunt alongside many other candidates in the same boat.
But what is causing the redundancies at the moment? And what does the forecast look like for the next 6 months in an industry that was once thought of as ‘secure’?
The Economy
It won’t come as a surprise that the turbulence in the economy has a lot to answer for. Global financial and economic uncertainty is making companies nervous, they’re cutting down on spending and revising budgets. This, coupled with high inflation and interest rates is a recipe for headcount reduction, given that often the biggest expense in a business is its people. Huge companies like the ones mentioned above have made big workforce cuts, with “layoffs surpassing 60,000 workers across 254 companies this year alone” (Tech Business News). On the start up side, access to funding and investment has also significantly dried up which makes it hard for smaller ventures to keep up and retain their staff.
AI and Automation
According to ISC2’s AI study, AI Cyber 2024 - “88% of cyber security professionals believe that AI will significantly impact their jobs, now or in the near future” - and they weren’t wrong. The rapid uptake of AI technologies has meant revisiting what skills are needed in different roles, and more mundane and repetitive tasks are now being handed off to automation. Cybersecurity roles in particular are becoming more affected by threat detection and risk management solutions provided by AI. While it does seem contradictory to use AI in lieu of skilled professionals when AI-fuelled security breaches are on the rise - budgets are being constrained and again, when it comes to the bottom-line, people are an expensive investment.
The Impact
For displaced cybersecurity professionals, the job market has grown more competitive and stressful, with limited openings relative to the recent influx of candidates in the market for work. There's also a lot more contract work around as businesses are reluctant to commit to multiple FTE jobs and want to stay agile. According to the 2024 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, 25% of respondents reported layoffs in their cybersecurity departments, up 3% from last year. The result, according to the survey respondents, is that these cuts have immense impacts on a cybersecurity teams’ ability to secure the organisation, and that without the numbers in their team and the right range of skills they can't meet their targets.
So what does the future look like?
At Decipher Bureau, we're seeing all of this first hand, and it's hard to watch talented cyber security individuals struggling for work in this current competitive landscape. We feel the redundancy wave will be acute to this financial year hopefully, and that hopefully there will be a shift in early to mid 2025.
If you're on the hunt for a job and want us to help out, reach out to one of our friendly consultants for a confidential chat and let's work to get you hired.
If you’d like any information about how to hire cyber security talent of all levels for your organisation, get in touch with the Decipher Bureau team. With offices across Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra - and an experienced team around the world, we’d love to help you out.