📰 In this issue

🔹 Industry Pulse: Tech job market - cautious optimism & red flags

🔹 Skill Spotlight: Moving beyond one-way advancement

🔹 Career Moves: The 2025 US layoffs creating a new global talent pipeline

🔹 Tech Corner: Beyond LinkedIn - own your professional identity

🔹 Work-Life Integration: Exercise: the secret to work-life balance

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📰 Industry Pulse

Tech job market - cautious optimism & red flags

If you're a tech worker on the job hunt, the landscape is complicated. There are some encouraging signs, but also a few reasons to stay sharp and proactive.

Let’s start with the good news: The IT unemployment rate just dipped from 5.7% to 5.4%, even though the industry has shed about 9,100 jobs so far this year. That tells us something important—tech professionals who are out of work aren’t staying that way for long. Plus, across all industries, tech unemployment sits at a low 3.3%, well below the national average of 4.1%.

🚨 Economic uncertainty—D.C. policy shifts are making companies cautious.

🚨 Government contract freezes—A lot of IT professionals depend on these, and cutbacks could and most likely will have ripple effects.

🚨 Federal job restructuring—Elon and DOGE are shaking things up, which absolutely will push more government IT workers into the private sector (hello, more competition).

🚨 Recession concerns—We’ve heard this before but the economy muscled through it, but this is a different game. Companies are rethinking hiring.

And if you’ve been in the industry for a while, there’s another challenge—companies are prioritizing candidates with emerging tech skills over those with more traditional backgrounds.

The silver lining? AI is on fire. If you're thinking about upskilling, this is where to focus:

✅ Job postings mentioning AI skills have more than doubled in the past year.

✅ Across the board companies are in on the AI action, not just the big dogs.

✅ Security pros and programmers with AI expertise are in especially high demand.

Bottom line: The tech job market is still alive and kicking, but it’s evolving fast. The safest bet? Stay ahead of the curve by building skills in AI and other emerging technologies. The more future-proof your skill set, the better positioned you’ll be—no matter what the market throws your way.

📎 Related Resources

• Amid much uncertainty, the job market is clearly softening

• Tech Jobs Shrink, Small Businesses Cut Workers—How IT Spending Will Be Affected

🏫 Skill Spotlight

Moving beyond one-way advancement

The days of climbing a rigid career ladder are fading fast. Instead, forward-thinking companies are treating careers a little differently — where you can move sideways, diagonally, or even make surprising leaps, not just aim for the next rung. And it’s paying off.

Shifting to a skills-based career approach opens up more opportunities for both organizations and employees. Here’s why it works:

• Unearths hidden talent – Companies can spot skills their current workforce already has but might be underusing.

• Gives employees more growth paths – Moving into new departments or trying out different roles becomes easier, keeping work fresh and meaningful.

• Cuts hiring costs and reduces turnover – When companies promote from within or shift people into new roles, they spend less on recruiting and keep valuable employees longer.

For this approach to work, both sides have to rethink how they view careers:

💡 Companies need to embrace true internal mobility – Letting people explore cross-department moves, not just promotions, keeps things dynamic.

💡 Employees need to highlight all their skills – Don’t just focus on what you do today. Showcase everything you bring to the table—whether it’s from past roles, hobbies, or side projects.

User-friendly platforms that track skills, interests, and training opportunities are becoming essential. With AI in the mix, companies can even suggest surprising career moves based on skill matches—helping employees discover unexpected (but fitting) roles.

So take heed, by building careers around skills, not titles, companies unlock flexibility, innovation, and growth. And employees get more chances to thrive—whether that means moving up, over, or into something completely new. Cool, eh?

📎 Related Resources

• Skills-based hiring can help us recruit for jobs that don’t exist yet

• Skills Over Titles: The Big Shift Highlighted at the SHRM Talent Summit

🚀 Career Moves

The 2025 US layoffs creating a new global talent pipeline

Whether you are a US reader or not, you’ve no doubt heard what Trump, Musk et.al. have been up to in 2025. The wave of US federal workforce layoffs in 2025 is more than just a domestic shakeup—it could be a signal of what’s to come in other markets like the EU, UK, Canada, and APAC. With hundreds of thousands of public sector employees suddenly moving into the private job market, the ripple effects could reshape hiring trends worldwide. As governments look to cut costs and automate services, we’re likely to see similar public sector downsizing in other regions. That means more highly skilled, policy-savvy professionals entering the corporate world—especially in finance, tech, and healthcare.

🌐 Multinational companies will see ex-government employees as valuable assets. Their knowledge of regulations, compliance, and security will be in high demand, especially for roles dealing with cross-border policies or AI governance.

⚙️ Former government experts in cybersecurity, defense, and policy will be hot commodities. Their skills in risk management, privacy, and crisis response will make them prime candidates for private sector jobs in AI ethics, data privacy, and regulatory tech.

📉 As governments scale back, private firms could take over regulatory-heavy functions, creating new career paths for public sector pros with specialized knowledge.

So for those of you who opted for the “buyout” or just got booted for some other contrived reason, here’s some private sector info;

🛠️ : Government resumes are loaded with acronyms and policy-speak. In the private sector, hiring managers care about impact, efficiency, and results. So, instead of saying you "ensured compliance with OMB Circular A-11," say you "optimized a $50M budget, cutting costs by 12%."

🔗Public sector experience in regulations, crisis management, and policy is gold for companies in finance, legal, and healthcare—especially with tightening global regulations.

🚀 Government work is often seen as slow-moving, but that doesn’t mean you are. Highlight moments where you streamlined processes, hit tight deadlines, or drove efficiency—showing you can thrive in a fast-paced corporate environment.

🌎 Lastly, networking … Private sector hiring is heavily referral-based. Start connecting with industry groups, attending global events, and reaching out on LinkedIn to build new networks.

By 2030, public-to-private career moves will likely become standard, not exceptional. US federal layoffs aren't just an American issue—they'll probably trigger similar downsizing globally as governments follow with their own cuts. This will flood job markets worldwide with specialized talent, creating real competition for knowledge workers everywhere. Companies will face disrupted hiring pools while knowledge workers will need to adapt quickly, developing versatile skills and international connections to survive in this new, more volatile global job landscape.

📎 Related Resources

• The Fed’s 2025 Rate Strategy and Its Global Ripple Effects

• Examining the potential ripple effects from DOGE cuts

💻 Tech Corner

Beyond LinkedIn - own your professional identity

Cogitating and implementing combined mean revolutionizing. That’s what we’ve been doing at Candle. We know that data sovereignty presents an extraordinary opportunity for job seekers to differentiate themselves from the LinkedIn masses.

Your personal data is your most valuable professional asset. Instead of surrendering it to platforms like LinkedIn, imagine controlling a secure digital portfolio that showcases your verified skills, experiences, and achievements—shared on your terms.

LinkedIn's model relies on harvesting your professional data while controlling who sees it and how it's presented. Our data sovereignty approach will:

1. Give you control over how your professional identity is represented

2. Allow selective sharing of verified credentials with potential employers

3. Enable direct monetization of your expertise and insights

4. Create transparency in how your information is used in hiring algorithms

🗂️ Personal Professional Data: This can be done via Web 3 containing your verified credentials, work samples, recommendations, and skill assessments—all semantically tagged for AI readability.

🔑 Selective Access: Grant potential employers time-limited, specific access to relevant portions of your portfolio based on the opportunity.

✅ Verified Achievements: Use of a blockchain to create tamper-proof records of your accomplishments, certifications, and references.

💸 Skills Monetization: Offer paid access to your specialized knowledge, creating income streams independent of employment status.

A decentralized professional network built on data sovereignty principles could address LinkedIn's key weaknesses:

👁️ Transparency: Clear visibility into how hiring algorithms evaluate your profile

🔒 Authenticity: Verified credentials that eliminate credential inflation

💰 Value Capture: Direct compensation for your professional insights rather than platform enrichment

🎮 Control: Freedom from algorithmic manipulation of your professional visibility

As data privacy regulations strengthen globally, job seekers who pioneer this approach will stand out. By positioning yourself as both a practitioner and advocate of data sovereignty, you demonstrate forward-thinking leadership in the evolving digital economy—making you inherently more valuable in roles requiring strategic vision.

The process is underway and we expect adoption rapidly.

📎 Related Resources

• What is data sovereignty?

• Will personal data become a legally owned asset in the future?

🧘 Work-Life Integration

Exercise: The secret to work-life balance

This doesn't come as any big surprise to me: regular exercise doesn't steal time from work-life balance—it enhances it. It might seem counterintuitive for you to add workouts to your packed schedule, but the benefits definitely outweigh the time commitment. Plus, when you look in the mirror in the morning, you don't have to wonder if you've accidentally wandered into a carnival funhouse.

First of all, it significantly reduces stress, lowering cortisol levels and making both work and home time more productive and enjoyable. By decreasing stress, exercise effectively "expands" your available time—less time is lost to anxiety, burnout, or mental fatigue.

Secondarily, regular workouts boost self-efficacy, the confidence in your ability to tackle challenges and accomplish goals. This sense of capability spills over into both professional and personal domains, making you more effective in all areas of life—from nailing the presentation to assembling that "no brainer" IKEA bookcase that's been sitting in your hallway for a year.

Do you have an extra 30-45 minutes? If you don’t then there’s a real problem. We’re not talking about a marathon, consistency matters more than duration. Morning workouts can prevent scheduling conflicts by knocking out your exercise before the day gets out of control and before you can formulate some BS excuses. Midday sessions offer a mental reset, boosting focus and productivity for the afternoon, but, honestly, I’d rather be scarfing something tasty. Alternatively, evening workouts can serve as decompression time, helping you transition from work mode to real life - don’t say you’re burned out.

Far from competing with work-life balance, exercise strengthens it by reducing stress, boosting confidence, and making you more present and effective in both your professional and personal life. The bottom line: Prioritizing regular movement isn't just good for your health—it's a smart career and life strategy. And who knows? You might actually fit in those pants that have been hanging in the closet for years.

📎 Related Resources

• Physical activity

• What is the best time of day to work out?

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