The year 2022 marked the resumption of economic activity which was halted due to the Covid 19 pandemic coupled with one of the biggest layoffs seen in the economic sector. The majority of the top companies in the world are on a layoff spree, especially the IT giants. Tens of thousands of employees have been laid off, even at once by some companies.
Source- Dice
Employees of technology companies have been particularly at risk of layoffs due to the industry having overhired amid the economic recovery following the onset of COVID-19. Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet expanded their respective staffs by upwards of 20% in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, according to Axios. According to a few sources which have been tracking job losses since the start of the pandemic, 153,110 workers were let go in 2022, led by companies like Meta, Twitter, Oracle, Nvidia, Snap, Uber, Spotify, Intel, and Salesforce, among others.
Amazon and Meta, two of the biggest tech behemoths, kicked out several thousand employees in 2022. Besides them, nearly 50 other enterprises laid off more than 90,000 staff globally. Chinese tech conglomerate Alibaba bid adieu to nearly 10,000 employees to cut expenses amid sluggish sales and the slowing economy. Credit Suisse Group went ahead with sweeping plans to cut 9,000 jobs in Asia. The move was part of the company-wide overhaul meant to draw a line under a series of scandals and help it recover from a £3.5bn loss.
Billionaire and Tesla founder Elon Musk acquired the social networking platform Twitter for $40 billion, making it one of the most expensive acquisitions in history. Over 3700 employees were laid off after Musk took over the social networking platform. One of the biggest automobile manufacturers in the world, Ford, announced in the month of April that 580 of its US employees would be laid off. Later, in August the company began its second layoff, firing over 3,000 employees and contract workers.
Edtech unicorn Byju’s announced in October that it will terminate 5 percent of its workforce (2,500 employees), over the next six months. Another edtech giant Unacademy in April laid off about 1,000 contractual and full-time workers. Later, the edtech startup slashed up another 350 staff.
Google became the latest company to join the list of tech giants announcing massive layoffs amid looming recession fears. Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc has announced that it is eliminating close to 12,000 jobs. This announcement came days after Microsoft Corp announced that it was mulling to lay off as many as 10,000 workers.
Global inflation is on the rise and amidst the rising recession and economic slowdown, big corporations have started laying off their employees for cost-effective measures. According to the predictions of economic experts, the world will be witnessing a massive recession in 2023.
