• The headlines out of Silicon Valley are enough to send shivers down the spine of any tech worker.

• Layoffs and hiring freezes have happened at companies of all sizes but hit Big Tech especially hard.

• Yet experts are calm, and studies have found that tech jobs are abundant in other industries.

The bad news: The pandemic-fueled hiring spree across Silicon Valley — which allowed the tech giants to grow beyond their means — has backfired, now prompting many companies to lay off troves of workers.

Last month alone, Amazon cut 10,000 workers, Meta slashed 11,000 roles, and Twitter let go of 3,750 people. Amid high inflation and recession fears, Big Tech companies, including the historically stable Apple, have closed their doors indefinitely with hiring freezes and left their employees feeling uncertain about their futures.

But well-paying tech jobs are abundant if workers look at other industries, new research suggests. Recruiters and other experts tell Insider that tech workers are in especially high demand in sectors including insurance, healthcare, retail, government, and banking.

"That's the thing about being laid off in a tight labor market: You discover your worth," said Julia Pollak, the chief economist of ZipRecruiter.

Analysis from the tech-careers site Dice found that job postings for tech-focused roles were up 25% from January to October compared with the same period last year. About 60% of the top 100 employers of tech talent during that period were from nontech sectors, like healthcare, consulting, defense, and banking.

For many job seekers the interest in those kinds of companies is mutual, said Allison Hemming, the CEO of The Hired Guns, a tech-recruiting firm in New York City. "As a recruiter, I ask every candidate: What are your dream companies?" she said. "It was always the same for years — Google, Amazon, and Meta — and it was hard to peel people out of that."

So much of working in tech is about finding fixes to vexing problems, inventing new ways of doing things, and bringing fresh creativity to bear. Those skills and expertise — a crucial part of the job for engineers, data scientists, and product managers — are needed across a variety of industries, says Art Zeile, the CEO of Dice.