Big Tech's hiring freeze unlocks a rich talent pool for U.S. startups

These startups can offer competitive salaries because they make money from their successful products. For example, Stack Overflow, a coding platform, has hired a lot of new employees this year, some from big companies like Google and Apple. When big companies have layoffs, their employees might start looking for more stable jobs elsewhere.

X1 Card, a credit card startup, has also hired more people recently and plans to hire more from big companies soon.

Big tech companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta didn't comment on this hiring trend.

This hiring is happening while startup funding is getting harder to find because of high inflation, a strong U.S. dollar, and higher interest rates. According to GlobalData, startups in the U.S. raised less money from venture capital in the first eight months of 2022.

Some startups that rely on venture capital have slowed down their hiring, but those with successful products are doing better. They are hiring carefully and taking advantage of a job market that's not as crazy as it was during the pandemic.

A survey by hiring firm A.Team and startup consultant MassChallenge showed that more than 40% of tech startups expanded their hiring plans in the first half of 2022. To get good workers, they are making their hiring processes faster and offering better pay.

Startups are also telling executives that they can make more decisions, like Mansoor Basha, who left Accenture to work at Stagwell, a $2.2 billion marketing company. He said this is a chance to make important decisions.

But some experts warn that startups might have a hard time keeping up this pace of hiring if the economy gets worse. Dante DeAntonio, from Moody's Analytics, said that if there's a recession, it will be even harder for tech companies because people won't buy as much.