Last year ended with a steady stream of headlines of big layoffs at big tech companies. However, a new report has a reason for optimism for tech workers job hunting in the Portland area.
Companies are still hiring for technical workers and finding such talent is still in short supply, according to the latest “Portland Tech in Focus: 2023 Trends Report” by Portland technology staffing and consulting company ProFocus.
The firm surveyed Portland area tech professionals between Oct. 19 and Nov. 19. Forty-three percent of respondents said their companies expected to increase their internal tech staff headcount.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they expect company revenue to increase in 2023 and 33% said they expect their department budgets to increase.
The survey also found that despite fears of layoffs in the landscape or macro-economic uncertainty, more than half of individual contributors are either actively looking for a new job (42%) or are open to changing jobs (16%).
“It’s not that surprising because the people who are in this audience are specific-skilled tech talent,” said Jennifer Waldrip, partner at ProFocus and vice president of client and talent services. “They have more choices (because) that talent is still high in demand. It still puts candidates in the driver seat.”
Waldrip was pleasantly surprised by that optimism from workers despite the broader economic news. In addition to expecting increased revenue and budgets, the survey also found more companies plan to increase their headcount as well as on- and off-shore headcount than plan to decrease those investments, she said.
ProFocus works with companies that are both purely technology products and services as well as companies that are in other industries but have their own technology teams to drive business growth.
“With more than half of Portland’s tech talent willing to leave their current employer, this is a wakeup call for companies to prioritize engaging with their workers, improving company culture, and revisiting compensation before employees leave for other jobs,” said John Boone, founder and president of ProFocus in a written statement.
The survey results also show a connection between company culture and retention. The companies that struggled the least with retention were those that rated high in culture, work life balance and flexibility for remote work, said Waldrip.
“It’s so expensive to replace people, I think companies will pay more attention to keep their employees,” she said. “And top of the list for employees is compensation. Compensation needs to be fair and competitive and equitable. And offering remote work (is also high on the list).”
Larger companies seemed to have a harder time with retention than small and mid-sized companies, according to the report.
For anyone who is out on the job market now, Waldrip said ProFocus saw a slight pause in hiring activity around the end of the year but the activity has picked back up with the start of the year.
Her advice for those on the market: Outline what is important for your next opportunity.
This means job seekers should understand the size of company they want to be at, the size of team they want to be on, the type of work they want to do, the kind of career advancement they are interested in and the amount of compensation they want.
“Get priorities outlined first, before interviews start so they can articulate what is most important to a recruiter (or hiring manager),” she said.
