The tech industry and its workforce have faced wave after wave of layoffs in the past few (ph) years, and perhaps no place is feeling the pain more than Seattle. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, before the post-pandemic layoffs started in 2022, 15% of Seattle's labor force worked in tech, a higher share than any other major U.S. city. From member station KUOW, Monica Nickelsburg spoke with workers driven out of tech and into unexpected places.
MONICA NICKELSBURG, BYLINE: When Brett Burden went from working in his family's pack and ship store to handling crisis communication for Microsoft...
BRETT BURDEN: It felt awesome. It felt like I had finally gotten, like, a real big boy job that paid a lot more and felt real and big and important.
NICKELSBURG: Then the pandemic happened. Burden was part of Microsoft's contractor army, legions of workers hired by third parties that are often the first to go in a layoff. He spent a year looking for a new gig before landing another contractor role for Microsoft. But in 2023, Microsoft, Amazon and other tech companies laid off more than 200,000 workers, claiming they needed to correct for over hiring during the pandemic. That included Burden.
BURDEN: This time it was a little bit harder in a way because now I had to compete with people who had five, six, seven years of experience, people who had computer science degrees. I'd never graduated college. I was pretty low on the totem pole (laughter).
NICKELSBURG: The layoffs continued in the years that followed as tech companies look to free up billions in capital to build data centers. Burden decided it was time for a hard pivot.
BURDEN: Yeah, so this is the (inaudible) shop. This is going to be all the apprentices working on building ductwork. You got all the tools, forklifts. In the back, there's welding and stuff.
NICKELSBURG: He started training to become an HVAC technician. It's a field in high demand, thanks to the data center boom. He says he chose it in part because it feels like a safer bet than tech.
BURDEN: I'd like to see a drone go through a ceiling and fix an air handler or work with really minute details while computing pressure charges and electrical flow while we're 10 feet up in the air. There's no way they can automate that.
NICKELSBURG: So is learn a trade the new learn to code? Some seem to think so. Enrollment in two-year vocational programs has increased almost 20% since 2020. Meanwhile, overall undergraduate computer science enrollment is declining. Burden says he loves working with his hands, and he makes more money than he did in tech. But for others, this rapidly changing labor market can mean falling off the career ladder. Daniel DePaolo has been through multiple layoffs despite 20 years of experience as a software engineer. The one that hurt the most was Sports Illustrated, where he said he got good benefits and pay as a developer.
DANIEL DEPAOLO: I was like, wow, this is great, and maybe I could support support a family, maybe have a second kid and live some sort of ideal American dream or something like that.
NICKELSBURG: But after that layoff and then another and then a high-stress job he ended up quitting, DePaolo left tech. Today, he's driving a shuttle bus for Microsoft. His passengers are the type of people DePaolo once called peers.
DEPAOLO: I sometimes have a conversation, and they're usually kind of surprised when I tell them that I'm a software engineer.
NICKELSBURG: He's considered trying to get back into tech, but he's worried artificial intelligence will make coding obsolete. Whether that's already starting to happen remains an open question.
LISA SIMON: AI is certainly part of the story.
NICKELSBURG: Lisa Simon is chief economist at Revelio Labs, a workforce intelligence firm that crunches the numbers on the labor market.
SIMON: I do think any AI impacts we're seeing in tech so far are anticipatory effects.
NICKELSBURG: She says there's not strong evidence companies are replacing workers with AI, but they're betting they will be able to or at least make their current workers more productive. That means more layoffs and a slowdown in hiring.
SIMON: Even though we're not fully really seeing these (ph), like, increases in productivity just yet.
NICKELSBURG: Simon says it's difficult to measure just how much work is being handed over to AI, but the possibility is impacting the decisions that tech companies and workers are making today.
For NPR News, I'm Monica Nickelsburg in Seattle.
DETROW: And a note, Microsoft is a financial supporter of NPR.
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