I can only speak for the UK, but the tech market is very different here. We don't really have large tech companies like in the US. Most tech work in the UK is in sectors like finance, retail, or public sector. While our economy isn't great and there are lay offs it would be wrong to call it "tech layoffs".
We have some tech startups here too though, and those are obviously struggling right now, but startups don't normally lay people off, they simply fail, and that happens all the time anyway.
However, where it is like the US is in the way tech hiring has dropped off a cliff. So if you're working at a startup and the startup fails, or if you're a contractor and your contract isn't renewed then you're going to find it extremely hard to find work right now. I'm getting a lot of messages from ex-colleagues at the moment struggling to find work but thinking about it I don't know anyone who actually got laid off unless you're talking about long-term contracts not being renewed.
The only sector that seems completely fine is public sector work, but there's just not enough public sector work to go around.
> We don't really have large tech companies like in the US.
No, but you do have the governemnt, HFT and banking industry which pays contractors well, plus local branches of many top US companies which is still a leg up on the labor market comapred to most EU memebers, meanign salaries at the top end are much higher than most of the EU.
Look for jobs in countries without top banking and no branhces of top US companies and see what salaries are like. UK will seem like a paradise.
In my experience, average contracting rates are not that different between UK and mainland Northern Europe. It's around 500-600 GBP in UK, and 500-700 EUR in Northern Europe (or local equivalent in SEK, DKK etc.). Southern Europe is much worse, and Eastern Europe also pays less, but in EE the money goes much further, so you might actually be better off than a contractor in London City.
There are big tech companies in the UK and they've done layoffs just like in the US. Plenty of companies still hiring though and overall tech workforce is much higher than pre-pandemic.
We have some tech startups here too though, and those are obviously struggling right now, but startups don't normally lay people off, they simply fail, and that happens all the time anyway.
However, where it is like the US is in the way tech hiring has dropped off a cliff. So if you're working at a startup and the startup fails, or if you're a contractor and your contract isn't renewed then you're going to find it extremely hard to find work right now. I'm getting a lot of messages from ex-colleagues at the moment struggling to find work but thinking about it I don't know anyone who actually got laid off unless you're talking about long-term contracts not being renewed.
The only sector that seems completely fine is public sector work, but there's just not enough public sector work to go around.