> Presumably a lot died in the pandemic
Deaths weren't a big labor market driver. Around 1 in 300 Americans died from covid, but only a quarter of those were working age, and tech skews even younger. Long covid could be another story.
That said, I read the comment the same as vineyardmike. More people are working in tech today than in 2019, and that's beyond if the 2019 trend had held.