We have heard that hundreds of tech companies have been laying off their employees since last year. According to NPR News, just in January this year, almost 100 tech companies are letting go of about 25,000 employees.
What are the reasons behind it? Is it because of a trend? Or the popular “copycat layoffs” are actually happening, where a competitor copies the other.
Here is a list of the reasons:
- Cost reduction
- Improve efficiency
- Optimize resources
- Investing in technologies (e.g. AI)
- Impressing investors
- Boost profits
- Growth
- Poor strategic planning
- Uncertain economy
- Fast and over-hiring
- Reorganization
- Sustainability
Google has let go of many employees from its engineering, hardware, and digital assistant teams to reduce costs. The company states that these layoffs are aimed at becoming more efficient and aligning resources with their main product goals. Google presents these job cuts as essential to redirecting resources towards investing in artificial intelligence, which is crucial for the company’s future. CEO Pichai emphasized that the layoffs are necessary to prioritize significant areas like AI.
Amazon
Amazon has let go of 18,000 employees, marking its largest job cut ever since January last year. The layoffs mostly impacted those in retail, devices, recruiting, and human resources. CEO Andy Jassy mentioned the “uncertain economy” and fast-paced hiring as reasons for the job cuts, as Amazon aims to streamline costs. In November 2023, Daniel Rausch, the vice president of Alexa and Fire TV, informed employees about the layoffs, attributing the decision to Amazon’s shift towards generative AI and the need to reallocate resources.
Microsoft
Microsoft has cut more than 10,000 jobs since March 31, 2023, as part of a plan to reorganize its workforce and focus on growing areas. The reasons for these layoffs include cost savings, adapting to slower PC and cloud sales, strategic realignment in response to evolving technology trends, reducing overlaps in functions, and adjusting to the current economic outlook. Also, Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees in January 2024. It represents about 9% of its gaming division, following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Meta
Meta is cutting jobs as part of its plan to become more efficient after facing challenges like declining revenue, competition, and worries about user growth. They are also assuring investors that they are working to control costs. Between November 2022 and May 2023, Meta let go of thousands of employees in four rounds of layoffs, totaling around 21,000 job cuts since November 2022.
TikTok
In January 2024, TikTok cut 60 jobs to save money. The layoffs mostly affected the sales and advertising teams in Los Angeles, New York, Austin, and other places worldwide. TikTok claims the layoffs are due to a reorganization, possibly linked to challenges as it introduces TikTok Shop, launched in the U.S. in September.
Spotify
In December 2023, the boss of Spotify, Daniel Ek, said they’re letting go of 17% (approximately 1,500 employees) of the people who work there. He explained it’s because the company wasn’t working as well as it should, and they had hired too many people in 2020 and 2021. He also mentioned that the economy has changed, making it harder for Spotify to grow and costing more money. According to The Times of India, the employees are not bringing added value and meaning to the company.
Twitch
In January 2024, Twitch (which Amazon owns) let go of around 35% of its workforce, totaling over 500 employees. This move was part of a broader strategy to make the company more appropriately sized for its current business needs. The CEO, Dan Clancy, mentioned that these layoffs are aimed at creating a more sustainable business, as Twitch’s staff size was considered larger than necessary. Prior to this, there were also executive departures in late 2023. Additionally, in December 2023, it was announced that Twitch would cease operations in South Korea in February 2024 due to high operating costs and network fees.
In summary, tech companies are laying off employees for common reasons such as cutting costs, being more efficient, optimizing resources, and investing in new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI).
