Hot off the press: State of Startup Compensation
Our macro view of the startup job economy shows that not much has changed over the two and a half years from January 2024 to June 2026. January of 2024, 2025, and 2026 each had between 33,000 and 34,000 new hires across all US-based startups on Carta.
It’s clear that hiring has cooled off. The 2024-2026 figures are much lower than the highs of 70,000+ and 42,000+ new hires that we saw in the Januaries of 2021 and 2022, respectively.
At the same time, employee departures are on a downward trend. January 2026 saw 19,000+ departures – both voluntary and involuntary – compared to 23,000+ in January 2024. Over the past two and a half years, the share of departures that were layoffs has held steady around 40%.
With steady hiring and declining turnover, the startup sector may have finally moved past the leaning-out phase, though rapid AI adoption could change this trend yet again.
This is just one of nearly 20 charts from our new State of Startup Compensation Report. The full report also analyzes employee tenure, salary benchmarks, geographical adjustments, equity benchmarks, option exercise rates, and more!
More from the Carta Insights team:
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State of Startup Compensation 2026: APAC & MEA
Curious about the startup landscape in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa? We looked at hiring and equity compensation trends in those regions, with comparisons to the U.S. market.
Cheers,
Hamza Shad
Carta Insights
eShares, Inc. dba Carta, Inc.,
333 Bush Street Floor 23, Ste. 2300, San Francisco, CA 94104
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