I guess the anecdotal evidence I’ve seen among all my peers and social networks contradicts those numbers

Definitely possible that Silicon Valley is in some kind of IT recession. They’ve been swinging for the fences at crypto, VR, and AI going on six years and wiffing like crazy.

But if you’re just a glorified digital accountant (like me), I’m here to report that IT is doing perfectly fine. You can earn a high-five / low-six figure salary at any number of mid-cap businesses. Even basic SQL experience is in high demand. Tons of legacy infrastructure to support. Tons of interfaces to build and data to massage between systems. Tons of new applications to deploy and customize. The real work is endless. The phony baloney bullshit work is what ran out.