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miltonfriedman2028 t1_j5d4kul wrote

After all the layoffs, most tech companies still have more people than they had in the beginning of 2021. Tech companies over hired during covid, and it doesn’t really say much about the economy that they are right sizing now.

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matastas t1_j5dro6q wrote

Google hired, like, 26K people last year. Before their layoff, they had 170K employees. They laid off about 6% of their workforce.

I have all the sympathy in the world for the folks who got clipped: it's an awful experience, with no sugar-coating possible. But the media is blowing this out of proportion.

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sandman8223 t1_j5dipz3 wrote

absolutely right. The press is implying this is a tsunami of layoffs but the percentage of those layoffs to the total tech employment is very small.

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yaktyyak_00 t1_j5gxw0s wrote

Just scare tactics by MSM/government to whip the peasants. Have some layoffs, scare people, then they’ll be scared to job hop & stop getting pay raises.

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Welcome2B_Here t1_j5esznp wrote

There are much broader effects from headlines like these, though. It's easy to dismiss the numbers on a percentage basis from the sidelines, but the real impact will be a domino effect across communities. Mid-tier companies and SMBs copy what the large enterprises do, even if they don't really have to.

Also, as a side thought, if these large enterprises in the headlines are still making tens of billion in profit, then why layoff in the first place -- especially considering the narrative about a supposed labor shortage and skills gap? No one should wonder why people don't have loyalty anymore.

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rulesforrebels t1_j5ga2kb wrote

Plus those 10k or 12k peoppe all took vacations bought groceries and cars paid for services and they now will be cutting back which in turn affects all the businesses they spent money with. Add to that 70% of our economy is consumer spending so that means something

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Fair-Ad4270 t1_j5dr8t3 wrote

Totally. The hiring was off the charts, it’s just a correction

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throwaway92715 t1_j5dryxx wrote

And about time. It was getting nuts. It was an AI arms race competition for talent.

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uxcoffee t1_j5g6l62 wrote

Yeah basically this. It’s not that “everyone is doing it” - it’s companies all got bullish in the pandemic, hired a ton of people and now the revenue isn’t there as the world continues to have rock bottom consumer confidence due to a destabilizing war, supply chain chaos, freight costs, political instability and inflation. It bleeds into every industry.

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