microsoft

Contractors at Microsoft earned $90/hr in 2021, while PhD holders now earn $45/hr

Unusual Whales

Mar 31, 2023 • 1 min read

Per Bloomberg

In 2021, Microsoft was reportedly paying its contractors $90 an hour. Now, some tech jobs are still paying workers $120 an hour.

PhD holders, on the other hand, were only making $45 an hour. This was according to a former UX designer, Hang Xu, who ran a New York tech talent agency called Collective Supply.

Xu: “Microsoft was paying $90 an hour for contractors during the height, and now you’re routinely seeing $45 an hour for someone with PhD experience."

Linda Lutton, a tech firm recruiter since 1987, also commented on the situation, saying she doesn't think that the situation was a "bust" since firms were still replying to her. It was compared to the dot-com crash of the early 2000s, with the main difference being that companies now were still taking her calls.

Lutton: “I’m in constant contact with my tech clients, and they keep telling us, ‘We will come back,’... I haven’t had a single message from a single client saying, ‘We have to cut everything down.’ ”

It was noted that the current situation with the layoffs was a result of the pandemic-fueled hiring, which saw 600,000 new workers. Per CompTIA data, it was noted that total employment reached 9.16 million positions in 2022.

It was noted that employees were starting to check out at record rates, applicable to all positions, including remote, hybrid, or onsite jobs. Employment engagement reportedly declined from 34% in 2021 to 32% last year.

Despite the high rates, it was noted that there was a noticeable decline in software engineering and data science job listings, dropping from 27% in 2022 to 24%. The report noted that this had something to do with the wide range of layoffs across the industry, including major companies like Google and Meta.

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