
When will startup hiring come back?
Earlier in the week, we showed some promising signs on the startup layoff front. However, that's not a complete picture when it comes to the startup job market.
In the chart below, black bars represent months where hires outpaced departures across all startups using Carta (36,000+ now). Orange months are where net headcount on the platform shrunk.
Jan 2022 - net headcount climbed over 50k!
Mar 2023 - headcount shrunk by nearly 7k.
Startup hiring just isn't keeping pace. This is also impacted by the many employees who are staying put in jobs currently rather than looking for new opportunities - which in turn reduces the need to backfill.
Recent months in the chart will likely look better in the coming weeks as more data comes in (there is a bit of a lag here). But we aren't in boom times anymore.
More data on startup employment and everything else in our Data Minute newsletter in the first comment below.
#cartadata #hires #layoffs #startups #headcount
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