Startup Employees Can Exhale, But Not Relax Too Much

Maybe, just maybe, startup employees who held onto their jobs amid spurts of mass layoffs over the last year and a half can exhale. They have survived. The number of monthly job cuts at tech companies—just over 4,600—hit an 18-month low in September, according to Layoffs.fyi, the venerable tracker of employee career pain. The recent sprinkling of venture-backed IPOs helped lift the mood, too.

But now isn’t the time for employees to get too comfortable. It’s a time to ask questions of executives about how they plan to prepare for pain ahead—and cushion potential blows to employees.