Is This the Hardest Time to Get Hired at a Startup in 10 Years

Is this the most difficult time to get hired at a startup in 10 years?

In Q1 2022, the total number of people working at startups on Carta surged by 111,000.

In Q2 2024, that figure shrank by 707.

So yea, startup job seekers - it's not just you.

This is the biggest change that's happened to startups over the past few years, in my view. Brought on by the interest rate changes and the difficulty of fundraising and all of it. But the change in startup employment has been stark.

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱.

You can see from the chart below, which tracks net headcount change across more than 40,000 US startups. Black bars show quarters in which the total employment rose, orange bars are for quarters where it fell.

And look - adding over 100,000 new startup employees in a single quarter was unsustainable. There was certainly some over-hiring going on as the boom ripened. But in Q1 2019, the net change was still a healthy 40K or so.

So what's coming in the future?

We are seeing layoffs finally retreat, which is wonderful. Startup workers are becoming slightly more willing to jump from their current gigs by choice as well, which is another positive sign.

But the overall hiring environment, outside of a few discrete areas like AI/ML engineers, remains lackluster. Hopefully that picks up a little closer as the year moves forward.

Companies will likely turn back on the hiring pumps as conditions with fundraising improve 🙏 here's to a better second half!

#cartadata #startups #hiring #layoffs #startupjobs