Better Than Corporations: Layoffs in Crypto Are On the Rise, Still Lower Than in Other Industries

According to a LinkedIn study, blockchain developers are in high demand on the platform, becoming one of the fastest-growing emerging jobs in the United States.

Over the past three years, jobs relating to blockchain, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency have been on the rise on LinkedIn.

Hired's "State of Salaries" report also noted a 400 percent increase in demand for blockchain engineers by prospective employers since 2017, all despite the bear market that has dominated in 2018.Crypto layoffs pale in comparisonAccording to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement company, November saw an uptick in the amount of looming job cuts in different industries in the U.S.As a sign of the times, Challenger cited General Motors move to cut 15 percent of its workforce - which equates to around 14,000 jobs - in October, a move that would reportedly save about $6 billion.

"Monthly job cut announcements averaged under 35,000 in all of 2017 and just under 44,000 in 2016. In 2018, cuts are averaging nearly 45,000 per month, with the last four months averaging over 55,000. This upward trend is indicative of a potential economic shift and could spell a downturn."

In comparison to more significant job cuts around the world, the current slump in the cryptocurrency markets and ensuring job cuts in associated companies seems relatively benign.

In 2015, The Washington Post published an article that took a look at the biggest job cuts in history by some of the biggest corporates around the world, according to data from Challenger.

IBM's layoffs in 1993 are still ranked as the highest in history, with 60,000 jobs cut.

Citigroup, Sears, Roebuck & Co, and the U.S. Army each cut over 50,000 jobs at different stages, but these job cuts put most others in perspective.

An objective viewAs previously mentioned, one can draw similar parallels between the rise of internet companies in the 1990s and the rise of cryptocurrency- and blockchain-focused companies from 2010 onward.

As an article from the Guardian back in December 2000 summed up, the year the dot-com bubble burst saw around 130 internet companies close their doors, leading to around 8,000 job cuts from internet companies.