Tech's talent drain

A software engineer's best job offer may now come from a bank. Banks are paying them a median 13% more than tech companies do, and healthcare and life sciences firms are coughing up to 17% more, according to staffing firm Randstad.

Those industries are picking up workers Big Tech has let go. More than half of the non-tech companies Randstad surveyed said they're hiring in the wake of tech layoffs, and in the U.S., 70% are taking on workers from that field. Oracle cut about 21,000 jobs in the year through May, and its September layoffs fell hardest on software developers and engineers.

Companies outside tech are betting on AI. Randstad CEO Sander van 't Noordende said they "see massive potential in AI" and that the money that once poured into tech is now moving to companies seeking to profit from it. Job listings calling for AI skills have multiplied more than fivefold in the past year, Randstad said.

The hard part for U.S. employers is finding people who can turn their AI spending into business results, said Michael Morris, global head of platform and talent at Randstad Digital. He said that's especially true for jobs designing computer systems and coordinating AI tools.

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Shoppers and businesses both spent more this summer. U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 3.4% annual rate from July through September, up from 2.2% in the spring and above the 3.1% economists had expected, the Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated Thursday.

Businesses added to their stockpiles and bought more equipment, especially computers. Health care led the rise in consumer spending on services, and prescription drugs led spending on goods. Government spending also added to growth, while falling exports pulled it down.

Prices picked up again in September, though. The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge rose 3.6% from a year earlier, up from 3.4% in August and well above the central bank's 2% target.

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said Wednesday that domestic spending "has been resilient." He also said that "it's our responsibility to get inflation down."

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