Between March and December 2020, 70,000 tech workers lost their jobs during the horrific early days of the pandemic. Less than three weeks into 2023, the number of tech workers laid off is nearing that total.
The number of technology layoffs so far this year has reached 54,101, according to data from Layoffs.fyi, which tracks corporate layoffs and dismissals, after Google announced it would lay off 12,000 employees on Friday morning. bottom.
That’s more than a third of the total number of layoffs in 2022, when the tech winter winds kicked in, and nearly 50% of all tech jobs have been lost since the start of the pandemic.
Google, of course, isn’t the only company that announced massive cuts this week, with 5% of its workforce (around 10,000) out of work. Amazon has also launched new layoffs.
Over the past 12 months, these three companies alone laid off more than 60,000 employees.
The job cuts come as revenue growth slows across the industry and the economic outlook is uncertain. With recession fears still prominent, many tech CEOs are preemptively preparing for a possible recession after rushing to fill jobs during the shelter-in-place phase of the pandemic.
Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are not the only companies that have announced big downsizing rounds. Salesforce said on Jan. 4 he will lay off 7,000 employees. Coinbase cut its workforce by 950 on Jan. 10 (after he cut 1,260 last year). And online furniture retailer Wayfair said on Friday it was laying off 1,750 jobs.
One possible benefit for tech workers affected by these layoffs is that a significant percentage of employees were able to find new jobs quickly last year. wall street journal ZipRecruiter reports that 79% of laid-off tech workers found a new job within three months of losing their previous job.
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