Remember, the big tech cos also increased their work force sizes dramatically during COVID, so a more aggressive reduction push is understandable.
The term was coined during the Obama era[0] and I've seen it shopped around by a few US dev shops recently. It's also called "near shoring" or "rural outsourcing."
[0]: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/01/11/everyth...
Which is great, IMO. It's time we opened the doors to more talented developers across the country rather than requiring everyone to move to a few big cities to get the best jobs.
Yes, compensation will come down relative to those big cities, but it will still be coming up for those devs outside of major metro areas (otherwise they wouldn't be taking the jobs, obviously)
During Covid freshly printed money was raining from the sky fort big tech. Not so much now.
Hire when others are cutting because you can get good people at a good price. Stop hiring when everyone else is hiring and salaries are bonkers.
Most companies suffer from groupthink and do the opposite.