More Startups Were Hired in January 2022 Than All of 2023 and 2024

More Startups Were Hired in January 2022 Than All of 2023 and 2024

Author

Peter Walker

|

Read time: 

1 minute

Published date: 

January 24, 2025

January 2022 produced more net new hires across Carta startups than all of 2023 and 2024 combined—a stunning data point on just how frozen startup hiring has...

LinkedIn: More Startups Were Hired in January 2022 Than All of 2023 and 2024

Shocking stat: US startups using Carta had more net hires in a single month (January 2022) than they did in all of 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱.

And many more companies use Carta today than did so at the start of 2022.

Net hires here is defined as the total number of employees hired minus the total employees who left the company that month. Total left includes those who left by choice and those who were laid off. The data for 2024 only runs through September, but I'm confident the results will hold even if there was a big hiring surge in Q4.

Slight caveat, this only looks at equity-holding employees. It's possible that many startups have simply pivoted to hiring fractional or part-time workers or potentially outsourced a large amount of roles.

But I don't think that accounts for most of the gap.

Early-stage companies are trying to stay headcount lean as long as possible. Late-stage companies are scrutinizing every new hire.

Feels like a new normal, honestly.

#startups #startupjobs #founders #startuphiring

Peter Walker
Author: Peter Walker
Peter Walker runs the Insights team at Carta, focused on discovering key data and narratives across the private capital ecosystem. In a former life, he was a marketing executive for a media analytics startup and led the data visualization team at the Covid Tracking Project.

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