After a decade of rapid growth, the tech industry is facing a major slowdown. A recent report from Gartner predicts that worldwide IT spending will decline by 7.6 percent in 2020, and another 5.5 percent in 2021. The pandemic has been a major factor in the slowdown, as businesses have cut back on spending and many consumers have shifted to cheaper alternatives. But the slowdown was already underway before the pandemic hit, and it is likely that layoffs will continue even after the economy rebounds. In fact, Gartner estimates that global IT employment will decline by 2 percent in 2022, with the largest job losses occurring in North America and Western Europe.