It doesn't matter. The hiring of cost center people like engineers depends on the capital cycle. Hiring peaked when money and finance was the cheapest. Now it's not anymore. In the absence of easy capital, hiring will plummet.
Another factor is the capture of market sectors by Big Co. When buyers can only approach some for their products/services, the Big Co can drastically reduce quality and enshittify without hurting the bottom line much. This was the big revelation when Elon gutted Twitter.
And so we are in for interesting times. On the plus side, it is easier than ever to create software and distribute it. Hiring doesn't matter if I can get some product sense and make some shit worth buying.
Another factor is the capture of market sectors by Big Co. When buyers can only approach some for their products/services, the Big Co can drastically reduce quality and enshittify without hurting the bottom line much. This was the big revelation when Elon gutted Twitter.
And so we are in for interesting times. On the plus side, it is easier than ever to create software and distribute it. Hiring doesn't matter if I can get some product sense and make some shit worth buying.