U.S. tech salaries had their largest year-over-year decline in the past five years, though demand for experienced workers remains high, talent marketplace Hired reported.
Here are nine other things to know from the 2023 State of Tech Salaries Report released Sept. 21:
1. Tech salaries dropped 3 percent year over year, from $161,000 to $156,000.
2. Adjusted for inflation, salaries decreased 9 percent, from $141,000 in 2022 to $129,000 in mid-2023, the largest drop in the past half-decade. Remote workers, however, only had their inflation-adjusted salaries drop 6 percent, from $143,000 in 2022 to $134,000 in 2023.
3. Workers with less than four years of experience had the biggest declines in salary — 5 percent year over year — and demand, from 45 percent of jobs posted on Hired in 2019 to 25 percent in the first half of 2023.
4. Engineering managers earn the highest salaries in 2023 at $202,000, while specialized engineers are the most in-demand tech workers.
5. The most opportunistic hiring markets for employers are Atlanta, San Diego, Tampa, Fla., Los Angeles and Seattle, while the most competitive markets in which to hire include Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, New York City, and Columbus, Ohio.
6. Eighty-seven percent of tech workers don't view artificial intelligence as the primary threat to their roles, but 47 percent of employers say they plan to use AI to reduce their workforces by 2029.
7. A flexible work schedule is still the most desired benefit among tech workers, with 81 percent of employees favoring it.
8. Forty-one percent of employers said fully in-person employees had a better chance of promotion than remote workers, though 85 percent of women said they prefer fully remote work, threatening diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
9. To be more favorable candidates, only 30 percent of workers indicated a preference to be "fully remote" in June 2023, down from 34 percent at the end of 2022.
Hired based the findings on data from more than 1 million interview requests and nearly 250,000 job seekers on its platform between January 2019 and June 2023, as well as surveys of more than 1,300 tech professionals and 200 employers.