When we opened a single developer role at Rival, we received thousands of qualified applications within days.
The signal was clear: This is not a talent shortage. It’s a structural imbalance.
The Market Has Shifted Faster Than Hiring Models
Over the past two years, tech hiring has slowed significantly. U.S. tech job postings remain below pre-pandemic levels across many engineering roles, even as AI investment has surged.¹ At the same time, layoffs across the technology sector have continued through 2024 and 2025.
Industry trackers estimate more than 95,000 tech workers were laid off in 2024, followed by more than 127,000 layoffs globally in 2025.² Even the largest technology companies have reduced headcount while expanding investment in AI infrastructure.
Amazon has eliminated more than 50,000 roles since 2022, including additional cuts in 2025 and 2026 as the company redirected resources toward automation and AI.³ Microsoft cut roughly 9,000 jobs in 2025, while increasing spending on AI infrastructure and data centers.⁴ Meta reduced its workforce by about 5%, affecting roughly 3,600 employees, while continuing to invest heavily in AI development.⁵
Meanwhile, AI tooling is increasing output per developer. Several industry leaders have openly stated that as AI coding systems improve, companies will shift hiring toward fewer, senior-level roles.⁶
The result: There are more capable developers than open positions to fill.
Early-Career Developers Are Feeling It First
A Stanford Digital Economy Lab study, cited by Stack Overflow, found that employment declined for younger workers in roles with high AI exposure while increasing for older cohorts.⁷
Translation: The pipeline into the industry is narrowing just as the number of capable builders continues to grow.
The traditional model, apply, wait, interview, repeat, does not scale to this environment.
The Industry Built AI. The Industry Didn’t Rebuild the Economics.
Software has always had an asymmetry: Developers create ongoing value. Compensation is often one-time or role-dependent.
AI accelerates output. It does not automatically expand economic participation. If intelligence becomes abundant, value shifts to execution. And execution should reward the builders behind it.
Why We Launched God Save The Coders
Rather than pretend the hiring market hasn’t changed, we chose to respond to it. GodSaveTheCoders.com is Rival’s initiative to expand how developers can participate. Not just through employment, but through execution-based earnings.
Craig, our CEO, explains the shift here:
👉
A Different Economic Model
Developers can publish tools on Rival and earn 85% of the tool’s revenue every time those tools run. This is not speculation. It’s usage-based participation. If your work runs, you participate in the upside.
Additional programs include:
A referral program
An extra credits program for experimentation
Limited merchandise with proceeds funding developer contracting
We are continuing to hire as we grow. But we also believe waiting in hiring queues should not be the only option available to builders.
The Bigger Thesis
AI is increasing leverage. The question is who captures it. If developers built the intelligence layer, they should have access to the execution layer too. That’s the direction we’re building toward.
Sources:
¹ Indeed Hiring Lab — U.S. tech job postings remain below pre-pandemic levels across many engineering roles (2025)
https://www.hiringlab.org/
² Crunchbase News — Tech layoffs tracker reporting 95,000 layoffs in 2024 and 127,000+ layoffs in 2025
https://news.crunchbase.com/startups/tech-layoffs/
³ Amazon layoffs and workforce reductions exceeding 50,000 roles since 2022
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2026/01/30/amazons-largest-layoff-and-what-this-mean-for-the-entire-sp-500/
⁴ Microsoft layoffs affecting roughly 9,000 employees in 2025
https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/microsoft-lay-off-many-9000-employees-seattle-times-reports-2025-07-02/
⁵ Meta workforce reduction of approximately 5% (around 3,600 employees)
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3816579/tech-layoffs-this-year-a-timeline.html
⁶ Industry commentary on AI-driven hiring shifts toward fewer, more senior engineers
https://www.businessinsider.com/
⁷ Stanford Digital Economy Lab study cited by Stack Overflow on AI exposure and employment shifts
https://stackoverflow.blog/