Layoff plans are on the rise in the tech sector. 80,000 jobs were cut in 2022, to which must be added 134,000 job cuts since the start of the year.
Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Google: the sky is falling on American tech. Stock market tumbles and decline in turnover follow one another. The setbacks in the sector lead to numerous redundancy plans. Since the beginning of the year, 134,000 job cuts have already been announced.
Amazon got the ball rolling earlier this year by announcing plans to cut 18,000 jobs, followed the same day by Salesforce. The computer giant separates from 10% of its workforce, or 8,000 employees.
In recent days the plans have multiplied: 12,000 cuts at Alphabet, the parent company of Google (6% of its teams), 10,000 at Microsoft (5% of its payroll) or even Meta, which has reduced its workforce by 13% by eliminating 11,000 jobs.
The only exception to the table: Apple, the only one not to lay off. The company hired less during the epidemic and offers less advantageous contracts than its competitors, especially as sales are holding up with a 9.7% increase in iPhoneRELANCE sales.
214,000 on since the beginning of 2022
These are just the latest announcements in a wave of sweeping redundancy plans. Over the year 2022, more than 80,000 job cuts were announced in the sector. To which must be added the 134,000 announced since the start of the year in the sector in the United States, i.e. 214,000 since the start of 2022.
Two explanations come up: investors fear first of all the sluggishness of the American economy, caught between inflation and the rise in interest rates, and above all the breathlessness of the boom of the pandemic from which the whole sector had benefited.
Video conferencing, movies on demand and home shopping had exploded and led to massive hiring to keep up with demand. Announcements in the wake of the stock market collapse of almost the entire sector last year.
The Nasdaq, on which most of them are listed, has lost almost a third of its value in one year.
