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Comment by jvanderbot

1 day ago

How are sec 175 changes in the US not also a top explanation? This has a massive cost to small businesses and startups trying to hire software engineers, and a big impact to any team trying to grow.

Because the data doesn't match. The author addresses this in his blog post -- essentially every country has the same graph of SWE jobs, but only the US has sec 175.

  • Big tech layoffs were a global issue and U.S. tech firms hire (and fire) globally. So like it or not, U.S. economic issues have a downstream impact around the world.

    Sec 175 especially hurt small to mid-size tech companies (especially fast growing ones...) which I imagine amplified the problem across the board.

> How are sec 175 changes in the US not also a top explanation?

You mean the change from deductible as a current expense to five-year amortization under changes to Sec 174? In an easy money situation, the way it increases tax liability in year one while decreasing in year 2-5 is not a big deal, it becomes more of an issue as the cost of financing goes up, so the main effect is to increase the already-high sensitivity of software development to tightening credit.