The “Trump Effect” on Tech Jobs?
When President-elect Trump invited technology leaders to meet with him earlier this month, jobs, jobs and more jobs were on the agenda. However, while Donald Trump has appointed Peter Thiel to identify how technology companies can create more jobs for workers outside of Silicon Valley, many within the broader technology industry worry that a Trump administration could have a negative impact on the job outlook within certain technology sub-sectors.
To find out what sub-sectors may be effected the most we asked 200 new passive job-seekers on the Anthology platform in December — from companies across technology sectors, such as Square, Facebook, Tesla, Amazon, Oscar and many more — What technology sectors do you believe will see the most job cuts as we transition into a Trump administration (choose all that apply)?
Here is what our respondents said:
CleanTech (123 Respondents): As you can see from the graphic above, technology workers believe the CleanTech sector will be most negatively impacted on the job front by the incoming Trump administration.
The Obama administration was a big backer of the CleanTech sector as part of the road to recovery from the economic recession. Obama’s Energy Department executed on several initiatives, including new investment routes for CleanTech startups through the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy and the Loan Programs Office.
Comparatively, Trump’s early stance on addressing global warming through CleanTech initiatives has been cold, to say the least. That, along with a likely curbing on oil and drilling regulations (check out the 35% gain for big oil and gas Co’s post-election), have CleanTech businesses and potential workers worried.
HealthTech (67 Respondents): While HealthTech workers may have initially thought that a Trump election would be a doomsday scenario for the industry, things may be looking up. Initial forecasts that Trump would look to kill Obamacare may have been overstated as hospital executives have gotten Trump to consider how devastating of a move that could be.
While there still may be a bit of a Trump waiting game to play for technology companies like Oscar, which are focused on the insurance side of the sector, companies disrupting the digital health record and IT side of the sector may find even less shear to their growth prospects with the new administration. That is certainly a more positive narrative for passive job seekers and recruiters in the industry than many initially thought.
AdTech / Media (34 Respondents):In addition to leveraging big data (more on that in a minute) to assist in winning the election, Trump was also utilizing AdTech. One example was his campaign’s use of Rocket Fuel to track Website visitors and send them targeted email messages.
Of course, a post-inauguration pushback against “fake news” could mean a loss in revenue/jobs for AdTech companies focused on native advertising, sponsored content, etc. However, on the other hand, the FTC is likely to operate in a more laissez-faire fashion under Trump. That means we’ll likely see even less native ads complying with FTC guidelines, along with less repercussions for those that aren’t complying.
eCommerce (34 Respondents): The fear for job losses in the eCommerce sector under a Trump administration revolve around Amazon and potential new tax regulations. Given the eCommerce giant employs over 300K workers there are a lot of current and future jobs at stake. In the past, President-Elect Trump has been outspoken in saying Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos went as far as buying the Washington Post to keep his taxes low.
There could also be antitrust issues that the Trump administration looks into in terms of Amazon having pricing monopoly in the eCommerce industry. While that could prove very hard to prove, it could slow down the growth and hiring engine for the Seattle-based eCommerce retailer.
AI / Big Data (33 Respondents): Trump himself road the use of big data into the White House. It seems that passive job-seekers aren’t overly concerned about job cuts occurring within this very hot and innovative market.
FinTech (20 Respondents): Google, Apple and Amazon have all asked the Trump administration to appoint regulators and create policies that will bolster the use of financial technology. The push is part of a joint effort to modernize regulations that can curb the use of these types of technologies. This is good news for technology workers in the space, who could see a number of new job opportunities open up within the industry — both with incumbent financial service companies, new FinTech startups and technology providers like Apple that are moving further into digital payments. Widespread job cuts within the space under Trump are unlikely.
What are your thoughts on the job prospects for technology workers under the Trump administration? Where should passive job-seekers be looking for new opportunities and what sectors of the industry should be worried about potential job cuts?
