PINK SLIP SEASON

Through July 2016, major Silicon Valley tech firms terminated 62,917 positions – up 71 per cent over the 36,881 in July 2015, according to outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., which tracks employment terminations at large organisations. The sheer number of technology job cuts now exceeds the peak of the dot-com era. While Cisco Systems confirmed 5,500 layoffs – down from the mammoth 14,000 jobloss estimates – Microsoft’s total planned job cuts for 2016 is 4,700, and that of HP Inc. is 3,000. Intel’s announcement of shedding 12,000 workers and Dell’s 10,000 layoffs lead the job-loss list.

Meanwhile, everything’s not well in the Indian e-commerce start-up space, either, in 2016, with everyone trying to cut corners to prevent further cash burn – Ola Cabs is reportedly shedding around 1,000 employees; Flipkart cut 1,000 jobs citing poor performance; AskMe saw resignations of some 650 people across its 40 offices; Hiree laid off 80 per cent of its workforce; CarDekho.com reportedly sacked 60 employees; Foodpanda India laid off more than 300 workers; Grofers shed 10 per cent of its workforce and revoked 67 campus job offers; and CommonFloor terminated about 100 employees. Some of the companies, however, have contested the reported numbers.