A single industry appears to be the focus of the headline-making layoffs: tech. In 2022, there were more layoffs in the tech industry than in 2020 and 2021 put together. According to layoffs.fyi, as of May 3, 274 IT companies had let go of 79,852 employees in 2024. A significant number of these mass layoffs are from well-known, huge corporations. Tech layoffs are a result of a number of issues, including the state of the economy, inflation, rising interest rates, overhiring and the COVID-19 pandemic job readjustment. Considering the present circumstances, an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad shared his perspective on the “quaint notion of dream companies”.
Sanket Shah posted on a now-expired page on LinkedIn, “Well, isn’t it just grand to see these big corporations making such thoughtful decisions for their employees? Google, the beacon of innovation, decides it’s a fantastic idea to let go of their entire Python team. Because, obviously, Python is the last season for them.”
He added that Tesla, in his view, had perfected the art of layoffs. Comparing it to a team-building exercise, he noted that instead of “trust falls”, employees were handed “pink slips.”
He continued by saying that Atlassian’s hiring and firing practices kept us on our toes. In his words, it is like a “rollercoaster ride of emotions for those poor students” who believed they had a chance to succeed there.
He also satirically wrote: “Who needs stability when you can have a front-row seat to the circus of corporate decisions?” He concluded by calling the concept of a “dream company” a “quaint notion.”
“Who needs dreams when you can have profit margins !! Let’s all raise a glass for the corporate overlords because clearly, they’ve got our best interests at heart. Cheers to uncertainty and disappointment!”
According to layoffs.fyi, there were 262,682 job losses in the tech industry in 2023 as opposed to 164,969 in 2022. The number of layoffs in 2023, which totaled 1,186 firms, is also above that in 2022 when 1,061 tech companies let go of employees.
In 2023, Amazon laid off the most employees (27,410), followed by Meta (21,001), Google (12,115), and Microsoft (11,158).
In an otherwise robust job market, these layoffs represent a strange anomaly: according to data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics, the unemployment rate has been between 3.4% and 3.9% since December 2021.
Although major corporations create headlines for making massive layoffs, the BLS reports that some smaller and midsize businesses are still employing tech personnel.
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