Despite a wave of heavy crypto layoffs to start the new year, employees in technical and engineering roles, as well as senior management, will continue to see “strong demand” for their skills, recruitment professionals believe.
It has been a difficult first few weeks of 2023 for crypto businesses and their staff. In just two weeks, the market has seen over 1,600 crypto-related job cuts as a result of continued market volatility and uncertainty.
However, not all departments are seeing the same level of cuts.
SAFU: Senior-level tech and engineering
Rob Paone, founder and CEO of crypto recruitment company Proof of Talent, told Cointelegraph that technical and engineering roles are “by a wide margin” the most in-demand jobs, even in bear markets.
He said the company was still seeing “strong demand” for the function, adding that the salaries were still “very competitive” although a “bidding war-type scenario” was no longer in play for the employee.
Johncy Agregado, director of crypto recruiting firm CapMan Consulting, said most mid-level roles are cut during bear markets, but said senior functions tend to “double or triple” during bear markets.
Agregado added that roles such as chief technology officer and chief information security officer tend to be safe, as people in those positions must keep the business running smoothly and keep “things” while the market corrects itself.
No SAFU: ‘Non-mission critical’
But Paone said the jobs that crypto companies typically cut are “mostly around” internal recruiting, customer service, compliance, and anything “non-revenue or producing a product.”
Investor and podcaster Anthony Pompliano – who is also the founder of crypto recruiting company Inflection Points – said that while every company approaches bear markets differently, he has historically seen “non-mission critical jobs” most affected by layoffs.
These roles, according to Pompliano, are roles outside of product, engineering, operations, customer service and management.
Commenting on the ongoing bear market, Pompliano said he had heard “a lot of reports” of salary cuts at smaller companies, while others had halted salary increases and annual bonuses.
Paone also added that in some cases, even those in technical roles may not be able to avoid job cuts, explaining that crypto companies forced to make “deeper cuts” will have to reduce their engineering and product teams.
related: Crypto layoffs triggered a mixed response from the public
The last month has seen a string of crypto companies, particularly exchanges, cut staff amid the market downturn.
Last week crypto exchanges Crypto.com and Coinbase both announced global job cuts.
Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek tweeted on January 13 that the exchange has made the “difficult decision” to reduce its global workforce by “about 20%” due to difficult market conditions and recent industry events.
Meanwhile, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced on January 10 that the exchange will cut 950 jobs as part of a plan to reduce operating costs by around 25% amid the ongoing crypto boom.
Crypto exchange Binance is one of the few to announce the opposite, hinting at plans to “hire employees” in 2023 during a crypto conference in Switzerland.
However, Paone suggests that while the crypto shutdown has been front and center, it hasn’t caused crypto professionals to withdraw from the industry.