Part 8/13:
The pendulum swung abruptly in 2023, as the tech industry faced massive layoffs, with hundreds of thousands of workers unemployed amidst plummeting demand. The unemployment rate among tech workers surpassed the national average, leading to a landscape marred by uncertainty. Many coding bootcamps folded under financial strain, exacerbated by a market where recent graduates found insufficient paths to employment.
This situation starkly contradicts the predictions made just a few years prior, which spoke of an urgent need for one million new STEM workers. Instead, the number of software developers employed in the U.S. has shrunk significantly since its peak, leading to a sense of betrayal among those who had diligently followed the path set by the “learn to code” movement.