Layoffs at big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon and SAP have intensified, numbering around 70,000 in the month of January, reported Layoff.fyi, the tech layoff tracker.
The new cuts come on top of those in November 2022, when Twitter, Meta, Amazon and others shed some 51,000 employees en masse, making it the deadliest month in 2022.
The declines continued in December, although at a slower rate, but some 10,000 jobs would have been lost in that month in a measure that the technology companies adopted to overcome the complicated economic outlook that is coming and a reduction in sales.
Fernando Suárez, president of the College of Informatics Engineers, told Efe that these are “tail blows” after the adjustments that companies are making after the unprecedented hiring that occurred as a result of the pandemic, while today they are facing other circumstances and are they are readjusting until “the waters return to their course”.
According to Suárez, the big technology companies face a reality characterized by an economic slowdown, caused by high inflation and a drop in demand.
“The consumption of technology is decreasing. We have seen a few months ago that there have been significant layoffs, which will decrease once the companies adjust to the new situation, but which will continue to occur for a few months,” added Suárez.
Technology companies have revealed in their earnings reports that unlike the pandemic when sales increased, today customers are looking to optimize resources by trying to be more austere, in the face of a looming recession.
According to Layoff.fyi, 1,040 tech companies shed 159,684 employees in 2022.
In November of that same year, around 52,00 layoffs were recorded in the hands of 225 companies.
In January 2023, 210 technology multinationals made layoffs, with more than 67,000 so far, where Alphabet would have cut 6% of its workforce (12,000 workers); Microsoft, 5% (10,000 employees); SAP 3% (3,000 workers); Amazon, 2% (8,000); and IBM 2% (3,900).
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