Jonathan Duncan was laid off from Microsoft in Might after greater than twenty years on the tech large. Since then, he’s utilized to roughly 200 jobs. The response has been silence.
“Not a squeak,” Duncan instructed GeekWire. He’s tried adapting resumes for every position, subscribing to job alerts, networking with friends, and inside referrals. Nothing has labored.
He’s not alone. Skilled tech professionals throughout the business are studying they’re not proof against widespread layoffs — and that discovering a brand new job isn’t as simple because it was once.
For years, tech staff have been instructed there was a expertise scarcity. Recruiters chased them. However in 2025, leaders who constructed their entire careers on rising headcount and mastering organizational processes are getting “mowed down proper now in gorgeous numbers,” stated Laura Shut, CEO of Shut Cohen, a job search and government teaching agency.
Shut stated some “tremendous high-value professionals” she works with are taking 12-to-18 months to discover a new job.
“The golden age of the fast turnaround is over,” she stated.
And in an business that “equates youth with innovation and stamina,” Shut stated longtime staff are discovering that their earlier success metrics are now not valued — many years of experience have change into liabilities, not property.
“What we’re seeing proper now’s ageism on steroids,” Shut stated. She famous that in tech, age-related bias typically begins as early as 40 — sooner than many assume.
A cooling market
Allison Shrivastava, an economist with Certainly, stated it’s troublesome for anybody making an attempt to get employed — from new faculty grads to extra veteran staff.
“For those who’ve been making an attempt to get a job or change jobs in a tech-related area, you’re most likely actually, actually struggling,” she stated.
Whereas unemployment broadly stays low, the period of time that folks stay unemployed is rising, Shrivastava stated.
Greater than 114,000 tech staff have been laid off this yr up to now, in comparison with almost 153,000 staff in 2024 and almost 265,000 in 2023, in accordance with Layoffs.fyi. The tempo has slowed from 2023’s peak, however the cuts proceed.
Seattle-area tech giants Microsoft and Amazon have introduced main workforce reductions in 2025. Each corporations are investing closely in AI infrastructure whereas emphasizing effectivity.
As a senior supervisor at Microsoft, Duncan stated budgets have been just lately slashed throughout the board — coaching, journey, morale-building. When individuals left, they weren’t changed. Each quarter introduced new calls for to return unspent funds.
He additionally seen what he calls “underleveling” — senior director roles being posted at decrease ranges than earlier than, supervisor positions provided at what was once particular person contributor ranges.
“I feel the times of high-paying tech jobs are drying up,” he stated.
Shrivastava stated the present layoffs are probably a “shedding” from a large over-hire through the post-pandemic tech growth, not essentially an AI restructuring story.
However on the similar time, as The Wall Avenue Journal reported, many corporations are betting that AI can assist them develop — with out rising headcount.
‘Who am I?‘
For a lot of of those staff, the timing couldn’t be worse with getting old dad and mom, children heading to varsity, and retirement on the horizon.
“I think about this the most costly time of my life,” Duncan stated. His eldest son is a sophomore in faculty, and his youngest begins subsequent fall. He’s additionally pricing out household plans for insurance coverage for the primary time.
After which there’s the inventory compensation. When Duncan was laid off, he had tons of of hundreds of {dollars} price of unvested Microsoft shares.
“That was the children’ faculty funds,” he stated.
Nancy Poznoff, an government coach at Shut Cohen, stated monetary stress is compounding an id disaster for a lot of laid-off executives.
“They’ve been excessive performers their entire profession,” Poznoff stated. “They’ve adopted all the principles. They’ve accomplished what they have been purported to do. And now they’re immediately having this id disaster on high of it, as a result of numerous them have been at their firm for therefore lengthy, they’ve this concern round, ‘How do I function once I’m not at Amazon?’ Like, ‘Who am I?’”
“So that you’ve received this monetary stress, and you then’ve received this ego bomb,” she added. “It’s a extremely powerful time.”
Duncan nonetheless talks to his former teammates at Microsoft. The stress inside, he says, is brutal. He’s unsure he’d wish to return — even when he might.
Angus Norton, a former Microsoft and Amazon exec, just lately wrote in regards to the toll of perpetual layoffs on those that stay.
“It creates a hierarchy of concern. Everybody turns into a possible goal. Everybody is aware of somebody who was let go regardless of stellar efficiency,” he wrote. “The message is evident: nobody is protected.”
