Tech companies slash thousands of positions

Even the most lucrative businesses seem to be suffering these days. The tech industry in this country has been a reliable source of cushy, high-paid jobs and booming stocks for more than two decades, but as the saying goes, “all good things must come to an end” and that seems to apply to tech, as well.

Seventy-two companies have laid off more than 24,000 tech workers this month, adding to a total of 120,000 tech jobs that were lost this year, according to layoffs.fyi. The website tracks job cuts in the tech industry.

Amazon is the latest company to announce layoffs. About 10,000 technology and corporate employees will be cut. The layoffs will focus on the devices division, including Alexa, as well as its human resources and retail divisions.

Earlier this month, the company announced a hiring freeze on corporate jobs.

“We’re facing an unusual macro-economic environment and want to balance our hiring and investments with being thoughtful about this economy,” Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president for people experience and technology, is quoted as saying.

Amazon isn’t the only one suffering. Meta, Instagram’s and Facebook’s parent company, laid off 11,000 people, last week. That accounts for about 13% of its staff. CEO Mark Zuckerberg attributed the layoffs to over-hiring during the pandemic. In a letter to staff posted to the corporate website, he said a decline in e-commerce, increased competition, the wider economic downturn and a decline in ad sales were factors. The latter is the primary way the company makes money.

Twitter also cut about 3,700 jobs, so far, under its new ownership. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk bought the platform, at the end of last month, and wasted no time in making cuts.

He immediately ousted the chief executive officer, chief financial officer and the top attorney.

Mass layoffs were announced, on Nov. 4, and about 50% of that staff was cut.

“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day,” he tweeted.

Many of the companies blame over-hiring during the pandemic and the broader economic wobbles, which have made brands more reluctant to spend money on digital ads, as two main factors for the layoffs.

The over-hiring was done because people were online a lot more during the pandemic, since they were at home.

The Internet boom has faded and people are engaging more in life offline, so those companies that hired during that time, now believe the new employees seem too expensive, according to an NPR report.

It would seem that no industry is safe from the “falling ax” in this economic climate and being in a field that’s vulnerable to cuts is no fun.

It’s something that industries like print media have been dealing with since at least 2008.