The massive layoffs by tech companies this year alone have surpassed the levels seen during 2008-2009 Great Recession, which began with the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
In 2008, tech companies laid off about 65,000 employees, and a similar number of workers lost their livelihoods in 2009, according to data by global outplacement and career transitioning firm global outplacement & career transitioning firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
In comparison, 965 tech companies have laid off more than 1,50,000 employees globally this year, exceeding the Great Recession levels of 2008-2009.
Led by companies such as Meta, Amazon, Twitter, Microsoft, Salesforce and others, tech layoffs are expected to worsen early next year due to ongoing global macroeconomic conditions.
In India, over 17000 tech workers have been laid off.
Amazon and PC and printer major HP Inc have joined the global layoff season with plans to lay off more than 20,000 and up to 6,000 employees respectively in the coming days.
Cisco has begun laying off nearly 4,000 people worldwide.
Google is reportedly preparing for massive layoffs early next year and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai has reportedly given no assurances to concerned Google employees that this will not occur.
In a companywide meeting with staff, Pichai said “it’s really tough to predict the future, so, unfortunately, I can’t honestly sit here and make forward-looking commitments”.
He told employees that what the company is trying hard to do “is to make important decisions, be disciplined, prioritise where we can, rationalise where we can, so that we are set up to better weather the storm, regardless of what’s ahead”.
“I think that’s what we should focus on and try and do our best there,” Pichai added.