Since the start of the year, tech companies, startups and more have been constantly under the news for one thing, massive layoffs. From Google to Meta to Byjus, to more not just in India but the world over, tech companies have been laying off employees in the thousands.

The range of the employees also varies from having been at the company for months to years, but employees are being laid off in extremely large numbers.

The biggest reason for the layoffs has been said the dismal state of profits that many companies saw in the previous year coupled with economic predictions that show not a very good situation. So companies as a way to cut costs have been letting go off employees and tightening their budgets.

Chirs Williams, the former Microsoft VP of HR, however in an exclusive report to Business Insider spoke on the recent phenomenon, its reasons and how long it could last for.

What Are The Reasons?

Williams gave the following as the three biggest reasons behind the recent layoff dump that we are seeing:

COVID

According to Williams where many industries came to a standstill in the COVID pandemic, the tech industry bloomed and flourished like never before.

He gave the example of Amazon which doubled its employee count from “800,000 employees in 2019 to over 1.6 million in 2021” but when things returned to normal realised it had “over-hired and has needed to retreat.”


Read More: With The Great Resignation Wave, Employers Need To Pay Attention To The Psychological Needs Of Employees


Shaving Away Extra

As per Williams “The wakeup call that came with the rebound from COVID also caused many tech companies to examine their businesses for excess. Tech has been famous for harboring people and projects beyond their usefulness.”

Safety In Numbers

The third reason is that companies that had been wanting to lay off people for some time using this as a way to do so without raising any alarm bells with their stocks.

According to Williams “With the cover of many companies doing layoffs, there was safety in numbers. Companies who otherwise would have avoided layoffs have done them. Even notoriously cautious and stable Apple has used this to realign their retail organization and lay off a small number.”

Williams also is not sure of the timeline but said that “I expect to see more coming through summer and into the fall.”

It is surely a difficult time for the job sector and things might not be getting better any time soon.


Image Credits: Google Images

Feature Image designed by Saudamini Seth

SourcesBusiness InsiderThe Verge, The Hindu

Find the blogger: @chirali_08

This post is tagged under: Massive Layoffs reason, Massive Layoffs, layoffs, current layoffs reason, tech companies, covid, employees, jobs, job sector, tech companies layoffs

Disclaimer: We do not hold any right, copyright over any of the images used, these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly mail us.


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