For workers in white-collar fields like tech, consulting, and media, it's an especially weird moment — fewer layoff headlines, but still difficult conditions when it comes to landing a new job. The larger companies may be done cutting for the moment, but they're not ready to rehire aggressively in the parts of the economy that tend to drive long-term productivity and wage growth.
https://qz.com/why-fewer-layoffs-dont-mean-healthier-job-market
Because it's too much pay for very little work. You either get phased out or accept a big pay cut, because a ton of youth and foreigners will do it for 1/4 of the extremely overpaid salaries for what are just admininstrative duties (email, powerpoint, excel). There are no recognized professional titles outside of PE's that should be making anywhere over $70k. And that is exactly the salary most often posted now.
What is so confusing? The supply of "white collar" workers vastly outstrips demand
I have even worse news for you. Thanks to automation and specialization of labor, experience matters less and less and your job is doable by most new grads for half of what you demand