One of the defining tech industry trends of the past decade, along with the meteoric expansion of big companies and their insatiable appetite for talent, was the growing influence of engineers commanding ever-increasing salaries. 

That's changing with the waves of layoffs by Amazon, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Salesforce, Facebook parent Meta, and others. The big salary increases that workers could expect when changing jobs are becoming a thing of the past.

It's one of the major behind-the-scenes shifts happening as a result of the Big Tech cutbacks, our topic this week on the GeekWire Podcast. 

Related stories and links:

• Full memo: Microsoft to cut 10k jobs, about 5% of workforce, and take $1.2B restructuring charge
• Microsoft and Amazon job cuts mark new phase for tech industry after decade of massive growth
• Commentary: Washington state’s tech industry will continue to grow, despite layoffs
• Bloomberg: Amazon, Microsoft Job Cuts Deal Another Blow to Ailing Seattle
• Stanford News: Why are there so many tech layoffs, and why should we be worried? Stanford scholar explains
• New York Times: The Era of Happy Tech Workers is Over
• CNBC: Apple grew more slowly than Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta, and has so far dodged major layoffs

With GeekWire's Todd Bishop and John Cook