Layoffs have been making the headlines, and this seems to be centred around one job sector: tech. According to The Challenger Report, the tech industry increased its layoffs by 649% in 2022, which is the highest since the .com bubble more than a few decades ago. Where more tech employees were laid off in 2022 than in 2020 and 2021 combined.
Job losses: around 270 staff
Recruitment platform ZipRecruiter announced it was laying off 270 of its staff, due to economic pressures leading to a poorer than expected demand for new employees. According to the company, half of those affected are in sales and customer support. CEO, Ian Siegel, also agreed to take a 30% pay cut.
Job losses: around 55,000 staff
BT announced that it was shedding 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade, reducing the number of employees from the current 130,000. Cuts are expected as the firm finishes work on the UK fibre network, and fewer requirements for maintenance. In addition, CEO Philip Jansen stated that a fifth of the roles are expected to be replaced by AI.
Job losses: around 11,000 staff
Vodafone’s newly appointed CEO, Margherita Della Valle, announced that the company would be cutting around 11,000 roles over the next three years, from one million employees. The CEO stated that the results of the company’s financial year were ‘not good enough’, and that the new priorities were to ‘simplify our organisation’, and reallocate resources to better serve customers.
Job losses: around 716 staff
LinkedIn is to cut 716 roles, CEO Ryan Roslansky states that the cuts to jobs in sales, operations and support teams were designed to streamline the decision process. However, Roslansky also stated the move would create 250 new roles. It was also announced that it would be removing its service from China.
Job losses: around 500 staff
Dropbox announces job cuts of 16% of its company workforce. CEO Drew Houston blamed the company’s stalling profits on the economic downturn, and the need to pivot to an AI-driven strategy.
Job losses: around 1,200 staff
Lyft announces restructuring measures, including cutting around 1,200 roles at the company, around 30% of the company’s 4,000 staff.
Job losses: 180 staff
Buzzfeed announced job closures, including the shuttering of its Buzzfeed news division. In a memo to staff, CEO Jonah Peretti stated that the company could “no longer afford to fund” the news outlet.
Job losses: around 800 staff
EA announces that it is cutting 800 jobs, around 6% of its global workforce, as well as reducing office space. CEO, Andrew Wilson said that the company was moving away from projects that don’t contribute to the company’s strategic priorities, and carry out restructuring.
Job losses: around 2,200 staff
Indeed announces that it was cutting 2,200 roles at the company. CEO Chris Hyams said that the cuts were hard to make, but taken ‘with care’, and blamed the losses on a diminishing job market and the expectation of fewer openings in 2023/2024.
Job losses: around 9,000 staff
Earlier in the year Amazon already announced 18,000 redundancies, however, another 9,000 job cuts were made recently. Roles affected included those in Amazon Web Services, gaming division Twitch, advertising, and human resources. In a statement, CEO Andrew Jassy blamed the job losses on an ‘uncertain economy.’
Job losses: around 10,000 staff
Meta confirms that it is laying off 10,000 members of staff. CEO Mark Zuckerberg releases a statement on the company blog stating that from here on, efficiency will be a key goal of the company.
Job losses: around 500 staff
eBay intends to lay off around 500 of its staff, globally. Which amount to around 4% of the companies total workforce, where CEO Kamie Iannone, state this will allow additional space to invest and create new roles in high-potential areas – new technologies, customer innovations and key markets.
Job losses: around 1,300 staff
Zoom announces that it is laying off 1,300 staff, around 15% of its workforce. Zoom experienced a meteoric rise during the pandemic, with its name becoming synonymous with web conferencing to the general public. Now however, the company is tightening its belt, blaming the “uncertainty of the global economy”, as chief executive, Eric Yuan, put it in an official statement.
Tech companies hired big during the pandemic. With a vast majority of the world stuck at home, the demand for tech was higher, and tech companies were innovating faster to keep the world communicating with each other. Where users were spending more time online than ever before, and to keep up with demand, tech companies needed more people.
With the pandemic over, the reliance on tech has subsided slightly, and with that, many tech companies have felt the need to prune their staff.
It only takes one big tech firm to make layoffs to start a domino effect among other companies. When investors see competitors making cuts, they’ll demand the same too. Unfortunately, job cuts are a quick way to make substantial savings for companies, and keep investors happy. For example Twitter cutting its workforce, and remaining operational for a much lower cost, investors are bound to notice.
The huge boom in AI has certainly cast a shadow over the big tech workforce. Recently Goldman Sachs predicted that a massive 300 million roles could be automated, and there are plenty of jobs at risk from AI.
With also starting to see some tech companies cite AI in their layoff statements. Dropbox dedicated a lot of space to AI in its most recent layoff communication, which resulted to 500 workers losing their jobs.
It’s an inescapable fact that consumer’s spending power has declined in the last year, with demands for tech services and products declining with it. The cost of living has hit many hard, and multiple factors such as inflation and the war in the Ukraine severely affecting the global economy. While the UK and US isn’t officially in a recession, many financial experts suspect it’s more a case of when, rather than if.
If you’re concerned about performance at your company, tech solutions may be able to help optimise your workflow, maximise performance and save you money on a monthly basis. This could help reduce the need for redundancies in some situations.
This is where Via Resource can help, by providing solutions to streamline project management, improve communications (enabling staff to work efficiently from anywhere, and reducing office costs) and defend against cyberattacks that could majorly disrupt your plans. For more information please contact us.
Job losses: around 270 staff
Recruitment platform ZipRecruiter announced it was laying off 270 of its staff, due to economic pressures leading to a poorer than expected demand for new employees. According to the company, half of those affected are in sales and customer support. CEO, Ian Siegel, also agreed to take a 30% pay cut.
Copyright © 2023 Via Resource. All Rights Reserved.
