32,000 Laid Off in a Month... Global Tech Companies Face Wave of Job Cuts

Snapchat Lays Off 500 Employees... Amazon, Google, and MS Also Join
Overstaffing Correction During COVID Period... AI Talent Recruitment Streamlining

In just over a month this year, 32,000 employees have packed their bags at global tech companies. The tech industry cites the reason for layoffs as streamlining the excess employment that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

On the 5th (local time), Bloomberg reported, citing Layoffs, a startup tracking tech industry layoffs, that 32,496 workers have been laid off from 123 tech companies as of that day.

On the same day, Snap, the operator of the social networking service Snapchat, announced it would lay off 540 employees, accounting for 10% of its total workforce. Also, on the 1st, software company Okta cut about 400 employees to reduce costs, which is 7% of its total workforce. On the same day, Zoom laid off 150 employees. Additionally, SAP laid off 8,000, PayPal 2,500, and Salesforce 700 employees.

Big tech companies also joined the layoff wave from the beginning of the year. Amazon laid off hundreds of Amazon Prime employees, and the streaming platform Twitch reduced its workforce by more than 500. Google cut staff by dozens to hundreds in teams such as X Lab, advertising sales, hardware, and augmented reality. Microsoft decided to lay off 1,900 employees from Activision Blizzard and Xbox.

Roger Lee, founder of Layoffs, explained, "Tech companies are still struggling to correct the excess employment that occurred during the pandemic," adding, "They continue these efforts because the high-interest-rate environment and the tech industry's economic downturn are lasting longer than expected."

While economic factors are the biggest reason for tech companies laying off employees, the recent AI development boom has also had an impact. As companies focus on AI specialists, they have streamlined other job categories. According to analysis by CompTIA, a nonprofit IT organization, AI-related job postings recorded 17,479 from December last year to January.

Some predict that after large-scale layoffs for efficiency, companies will start hiring en masse again. Burt Veen, CEO of Insight Global, said, "Most layoffs have been done, and (employment) seems to be starting to rebound. However, it is still very uncertain." He added, "The labor market is expected to maintain its current state for about two quarters, and this trend will continue until the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) begins to lower interest rates."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.