Amid an industrywide shake-up and widespread layoffs, there’s no crystal ball for what tech talent should expect in 2023—but aggregate data on job openings may be the next best thing.

When you look at data from job platforms like Indeed, LinkedIn, and ZipRecruiter, many of the takeaways line up: Tech hiring peaked in mid-2021 but has fallen substantially, approaching pre-pandemic levels in some categories.

• Postings for software developers and related jobs are on the decline. These trends come as tech giants from Alphabet to Amazon—companies that once seemed impervious to large-scale layoffs—have laid off tens of thousands of workers, slowed hiring, and announced plans to “do more with less.”

Zoom in: Compared to February 2020, active online job postings in the US tech sector are up only about 2% through late January, according to ZipRecruiter data shared with Emerging Tech Brew.

“It’s clearly a period of reckoning…There’s a painful recalibration going on right now,” Nick Bunker, Indeed’s director of North American economic research, told us. Read the full story on the state of tech hiring here.—HF

If you’re the parent of a preteen and are looking for new ways to effectively say, “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed,” we wish you’d caught New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s (DCWP) virtual hearing on the status of its automated employment decision tools (AEDT) law, Local Law 144.

AI ethicists, politicians, and CEOs alike put on a masterclass in finger-wagging.

The law, passed in 2021, requires employers that use AEDTs to independently audit the tech for bias and publish the results. The final rules have been more eagerly anticipated in some circles than the reveal of Kylie Jenner’s baby’s name. (It’s Aire, ICYMI.)

• During a public hearing on Monday, New York City Council Majority Whip Selvena Brooks-Powers shared why she was one of the 38 lawmakers to originally vote for Local Law 144, calling it a “massive opportunity” to bring about “real progress on racial equity in hiring.”

However...Creating a first-of-its-kind law has proved difficult. Employers and HR pros have had questions, including what it means to perform a bias audit and who counts as an independent auditor. After proposing one set of rules and receiving criticism in public comments in October 2022, the DCWP pushed back the effective date of the law from January 1, 2023, to April 15, 2023, and released a new draft of the policy in late December.

During Monday’s hearing, seven of the 10 commentators had the same critique: The DCWP’s interpretation of when the law might apply is too narrow. Read the full story from HR Brew here.—SV

Coworking is a weekly segment where we spotlight Emerging Tech Brew readers who work with emerging technologies. Click here if you’d like a chance to be featured.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in tech?

As President and CEO of Vodafone US Inc., I lead our overall representation in the Americas region, where we’re not a household name, unlike our strong brand recognition throughout Europe. We’re recognized as one [of] the leading telco providers, and it’s my job to drive conversations with our multinational customers on 5G and tech migration, helping them to evolve their technology to better support their businesses.

What’s your favorite emerging tech project you’ve worked on?

I’ve been really immersed in mobile private networks (MPN), exploring how they’re revolutionizing the way organizations are connecting with data in a smarter, more optimized way. Vodafone Business had the opportunity to partner with Ford Motor to set up an MPN for EV production at its Dunton Technical Centre, near London. We paired the facility with another site in Cambridge using 5G MPN so both places could work together to perform complex processes, coordinating both the machines and computing power in real time.

Looking ahead, there are a number of future applications the Ford plant could explore, from untethered robots and automated guided vehicles that tackle repetitive tasks to AI systems that monitor and run predictive maintenance.

What emerging tech are you most optimistic about? Least? And why?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, my answer, once again, goes back to MPN. Specifically, I’m most excited to see how MPN and 5G continue to revolutionize the healthcare industry…Conversely, residential 5G for the everyday consumer is still not as prominent as people would expect and I’m curious to see if and how it evolves in the coming years.

Stat: Southwest’s software glitch around the holidays cost it a cool $800 million. Just in case you needed a reminder that tech is central to business priorities, uh, there it is.

Quote: “That’s a very personal decision…Different people, even different cultures, look at death differently.”—Joe Murphy, California business development manager at DeepBrain, a startup that creates AI avatars for dead people, in conversation with IT Brew

Read: Could home internet be 5G’s killer use case?

Personal finance tips: Money Scoop is a 3x-a-week personal finance newsletter that makes you smarter about your money. You’ll learn how to better invest, budget, spend, manage your taxes, and much more—all for free. 

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Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions:

• VC momentum slows for mobility startups
• A tracker of generative AI-related lawsuits
• The year ahead for the satellite space