Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Google – the sky is falling on American technology. Stock market crashes and billing declines follow one another. Industry setbacks give rise to numerous layoff plans. Since the beginning of the year, 134,000 job cuts have already been announced.
Amazon got going earlier this year by announcing plans to cut 18,000 jobs, followed the same day by Salesforce. The computer giant cuts 10% of its workforce, or 8,000 employees.
In recent days the plans have multiplied: 12,000 cuts at Alphabet, the Google parent company (6% of its teams), 10,000 at Microsoft (5% of its payroll) or even Meta, which has reduced its staff by 13% to eliminate 11,000 jobs.
The only exception to the table: Apple, the only one that does not fire. 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 since the beginning of 2022
These are just the latest announcements in a wave of sweeping layoff plans. In 2022, more than 80,000 job cuts were announced in the sector. To which must be added the 134,000 announced since the beginning of the year in the sector in the United States, that is, 214,000 since the beginning of 2022.
Two explanations emerge: investors fear first of all the slowness of the American economy, caught between inflation and the rise in interest rates, and above all the suffocation of the pandemic boom from which the entire sector has benefited.
Video conferencing, on-demand movies and home shopping skyrocketed, generating massive hires to meet demand. Announcements after the stock market crash of almost the entire sector last year.
The Nasdaq, on which the majority are listed, has lost almost a third of its value in one year.
Source: BFM TV
