2024 has begun with another wave of massive layoffs in the tech industry. However, this time, the cuts are much smaller than in other cases.
By early 2023, A bountiful decade for the tech industry has come to a painful end. In just a few months, more than 200,000 jobs were eliminated Amazon, Google, Meta The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and other tech giants have drastically cut their costs.
In January 2023 alone, more than 108,000 tech jobs disappeared. This January is a bed of roses in comparison For the industry, fewer than 45,000 positions were eliminated, according to the data collected TrueUp's redundancy tracker.
Software jobs are relatively plentiful, and tech companies are still hiring even as they lay off other types of workers.
In January 2024, Job opportunities in the software sector have increased slightly Compared to December 2023. The performance is better than last year, with January 2023 offers falling compared to weak December 2022, according to data compiled by Matt Hedberg, software analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
Small and continuous staff cuts
Why is the outlook for the tech sector so bleak?
Instead of mass layoffs, many companies are making smaller, ongoing workforce reductions. In 2023, the Band-Aid was suddenly removed. So far in 2024, it is taking off with an intolerable slowdown.
Google is a good example. In January 2023, a single report announced 12,000 layoffs. This year, there will be hundreds of layoffs in consumer hardware, many in sales and advertising…
In January last year, Amazon has made the biggest layoffs in its history By laying off 18,000 employees. Lately, the cuts have been smaller and more targeted.
A few hundred people in divisions A medicine and pharmacy With the company's „quiet layoff” tactics this week, for example, According to some workers. Last week, Amazon's chief financial officer refused to confirm that the layoffs had ended.
By the end of 2022, Facebook team It announced that it would cut 11,000 jobs. This year, the company And taking specific performance measures, removing some layers of management etc. Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently promised that this „lean” approach will be a „permanent part” of how they operate in the future.
The opening carnage
Right now There is a wave of startup closures. This tsunami of failures Not happening until early 2023. now, These closures are very common. They don't involve large numbers of job losses, but they're still traumatic for founders who struggle to support themselves and investors who see their money disappear.
So a constant stream of relatively bad news, comments from the management may not end the situation… It's not an environment where employees are comfortable.
