The crypto and tech labor markets are in a strange place right now—but not in the same way.
If you listen to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, you’d think the labor market was thriving across the board. In an interview at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. earlier this month, he said, “The labor market is extraordinarily strong.”
At a glance, U.S. federal data appears to back that up. The Department of Labor said that total payroll employment, not including agricultural workers, is up by 517,000 in January. Overall, unemployment rates remained steady at 3.4%, continuing their slow decline since October of 2022. Hospitality, government employment, healthcare, and construction are among the industries seeing job growth.
But the numbers and headlines from the crypto and tech industries paint a very different picture. In January alone, crypto layoffs already affected 2,806 employees, according to CoinGecko data. That’s a big number considering that 6,820 crypto workers lost their jobs in all of 2022. Put another way, in just one month, crypto layoffs in 2023 reached 41% of the total layoffs in 2022.
Huobi, Crypto.com, Coinbase, Gemini, Genesis, and Wyre are among the crypto companies that made big cuts last month, with Magic Eden, Polygon, Chainalysis, and Bittrex laying off staff in February.
“Quiet” Layoffs Trending
But Denise Carlin, Head of People at Web3 startup MPCH Labs, told Decrypt in an interview that there are also some “quiet layoffs” happening right now.
“People are trying to quietly lay off,” Carlin said of crypto firms, explaining that she has knowledge of two firms that laid off substantial percentages of staff—one saying goodbye to over 20% of its employees—without much press.
Dan Eskow, Founder and Talent Partner at Web3 recruiting firm Up Top
