• Home
  • News
  • Fortune 500
  • Tech
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
SuccessCoinbase

Coinbase layoffs raise alarms about another dotcom crash, but LinkedIn tells a different story

By
Chloe Berger
Chloe Berger
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Chloe Berger
Chloe Berger
Down Arrow Button Icon
June 14, 2022, 5:52 PM ET
Courtesy of Coinbase

Another loss slammed the crypto industry today when Coinbase announced that it’s laying off about 1,100 employees in response to a volatile crypto market. The crypto giant plans to reduce its workforce by 18% after coming out of a long winter in which crypto value hemorrhaged. 

“There’s a lot of potential for [crypto] to be innovative, but, as I’ve learned the hard way, it can be pretty volatile and unpredictable,” Ashutosh Ukey, who recently had a job offer rescinded by Coinbase, told Fortune.

Coinbase is the latest firm in the crypto and tech world to contribute to a mounting wave of layoffs, sparking concern in an industry that has been typically insulated from a troubled economy for several years. More than 16,000 tech workers were let go in May, according to layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi. Since then, crypto company BlockFi, OneTrust, and electric scooter company Bird have all shedded employees this month.

Tech is already on rocky ground, with the NASDAQ plummeting over 28% since the start of the year. As Fortune’s Will Daniel reported, some experts are worried today’s bear market looks like the dotcom crash of the ’90s. But despite growing worries about job safety, the job market isn’t as bad for techies as it seems. The data just doesn’t support another dotcom crash in terms of layoffs, or at least not yet.

“While there is a lot of anxiety right now about the labor market in some of the more speculative tech spaces, we are not seeing any notable drop-off in our data just yet,” Kory Kantenga, LinkedIn senior economist, tells Fortune over email.

LinkedIn’s data doesn’t back up the tech sector’s anxiety. The networking platform’s June Workforce report shows that hiring in the tech sector increased by 2.1% month-to-month in May, which is not different from normal fluctuations in the field. Hiring remains steady, per the report, up 17.5% since last year.

The unemployment rate for tech sector jobs is also well below national unemployment rate of 3.9%, per an Insider analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Web developers have the highest unemployment rate of the industry at 2.2% and system administrators the lowest, at 0.1%.

But even for the unemployed techies across the globe, hope springs eternal among a bounty of open positions. “For people who did lose positions, there are still over 11 million jobs out there, of which two million are in professional and business services like tech (according to recent BLS data), so there are plenty of opportunities for these job seekers to pivot into,” says Kantenga, adding that tech workers have a wide-array of in-demand skills across all sectors.

Despite warnings of a recession, the job openings are a reflection of the overall labor market. The Great Resignation is still in full force, as many left their jobs and took advantage of the record number of job openings.

Hiring remains elevated in the US despite recent news about upticks in layoffs, Kantenga says. LinkedIn’s latest data shows hiring across all industries is up over 10% above pre-COVID levels, although it’s plateaued a bit from last year’s higher levels.

“The overall picture is that it’s still a strong job market for job seekers,” Kantenga says. Tech included—at least, for now.

Sign up for the Fortune Features email list so you don’t miss our biggest features, exclusive interviews, and investigations.

About the Author
By Chloe Berger
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Success

Jensen Huang
SuccessBillionaires
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admits he works 7 days a week, including holidays, in a constant ‘state of anxiety’ out of fear of going bankrupt
By Jessica CoacciDecember 4, 2025
2 hours ago
Successphilanthropy
‘Have they given enough? No’: Melinda French Gates rips into billionaire class, saying Giving Pledge has fallen short
By Sydney LakeDecember 4, 2025
2 hours ago
Geoffrey Hinton gestures with his hands up
Successthe future of work
‘Godfather of AI’ says Bill Gates and Elon Musk are right about the future of work—but he predicts mass unemployment is on its way
By Preston ForeDecember 4, 2025
3 hours ago
Factory worker on assembly line.
SuccessGen Z
Nearly 4 million new manufacturing jobs are coming to America as boomers retire—but it’s the one trade job Gen Z doesn’t want
By Emma BurleighDecember 4, 2025
3 hours ago
SuccessWealth
Meet Luana Lopes Lara: The 29-year-old ballerina spent summers working for Ray Dalio—now she’s the youngest female self-made billionaire
By Orianna Rosa RoyleDecember 4, 2025
4 hours ago
Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla stands on the court with his arms folded
Workplace CultureLeadership
You don’t need to have fun at work—take it from NBA head coach Joe Mazzulla: ‘Fun is a cop-out sometimes when things aren’t going well’
By Dave SmithDecember 4, 2025
8 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Economy
Two months into the new fiscal year and the U.S. government is already spending more than $10 billion a week servicing national debt
By Eleanor PringleDecember 4, 2025
7 hours ago
placeholder alt text
North America
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos commit $102.5 million to organizations combating homelessness across the U.S.: ‘This is just the beginning’
By Sydney LakeDecember 2, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Ford workers told their CEO 'none of the young people want to work here.' So Jim Farley took a page out of the founder's playbook
By Sasha RogelbergNovember 28, 2025
6 days ago
placeholder alt text
North America
Anonymous $50 million donation helps cover the next 50 years of tuition for medical lab science students at University of Washington
By The Associated PressDecember 2, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Scott Bessent calls the Giving Pledge well-intentioned but ‘very amorphous,’ growing from ‘a panic among the billionaire class’
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 3, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
AI
IBM CEO warns there’s ‘no way’ hyperscalers like Google and Amazon will be able to turn a profit at the rate of their data center spending
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezDecember 3, 2025
1 day ago
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.