Microsoft cut 10,000 jobs due to the economic uncertainty and tried to shift their focus to growth and development. The cuts will impact less than 5% of their global workforce which is still a large amount of people. The reports showed that the layoffs mostly affect the engineering department.It's the largest layoff at Microsoft in about eight years, where the company cut more than 20,000 jobs in about a year. Microsoft also plans to make some new changes to its hardware portfolio and tighten up their leased office spaces which will cost them about $1.2 billion.
Similarly Google cuts 12,000 Jobs due to economic pressure. Their 12,000 layoffs represent 6.5% of Google's 185,000. There are more employees are being laid off now than worked at Google in 2006, when there were just over 10,500 workers Google now plans to take its focus and direct the remaining work on to projects that are a that include in Ai
The question remains why are these big tech companies really laying off this many employees? During covid these companies took a hiring spree and salaries were at an all time high as competition rose. This could mean that, in some ways, these cuts represent a pull back of hiring policies put in place since the pandemic.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2023/01/30/the-real-reasons-for-big-tech-layoffs-at-google-microsoft-meta-and-amazon/?sh=83606cf2b67d
https://www.cnet.com/news/google-cuts-12000-jobs-amid-economic-pressure/
There seems to be a large emphasis on AI in many of the large tech companies recently. I'm interested to know what has changed for the companies between covid and now that is leading them to layoff such massive numbers of workers.
ReplyDeleteAI and cutting on advertising are definitely being main reasons tech companies are laying off many employees. It's interesting how these large tech firms have laid off so many people but unemployment in the industry is just 1.8% (December 2022).
ReplyDeleteIt has been interesting to watch how companies have gone back and forth between needing workers and laying off people. The tech industry is definitely not alone when it comes to laying people off recently. Although it is different for this specific industry because of the constant growth and advancement.
ReplyDeleteIt's always been the same story with tech companies. They have these periods where they hire on a lot of workers and then let go a lot of workers. How does AI play into the hiring on of workers and the letting go of workers. It seems the more AI builds into these tech companies the less they will need workers.
ReplyDeleteMidway through 2022, I believe the majority of these businesses were overstaffed, and it is impossible to determine what was overstaffed. Hence, in my opinion, all other businesses are just following the social proof trend.
ReplyDelete