I haven't seen any improvements in the job market. I am gainfully employed but I am actively seeking a different role. I am presently the Lead Developer for my company. But I'm also the only developer. I was hired as a web developer but now find myself managing a large undocumented project that spans 5 repositories and utilizes 6 different languages and 3 different frameworks.

Of course all of the code was created by an outsourced contractor and now they expect me to make sense of it all. I'm presently seeking a React/NextJS role without much luck thus far.

I don't see a big change in terms of hiring as of now. I think a lot more openings are being off shored.

In terms of strategy, I am focusing on picking up the right set of peers and leadership than a job. Learned it the hard way that best of the jobs can be ruined by toxic/incompetent environments. Also, work changes rapidly and it important to be in a marathon with the right set of people.

Look for SWE jobs in financial tech. They hire aggressively.

Make sure you sign up for alerts on gettjalerts.com! It's free, I made it to get alerts on jobs they use my tech stack.