At the beginning of 2024, the tech industry has set off another wave of layoffs. This time, though, the cuts were much smaller.
At the beginning of 2023, for many tech workers, 10 years of affluence came to an end. Within months, more than 200,000 jobs were cut as Amazon, Google, Meta and other tech giants aggressively cut costs.
In January 2023 alone, there are more than 1080,000 tech jobs disappeared. In contrast, January of this year looks like a piece of cake, with fewer than 4 jobs being laid off in January, according to Trueup's layoff tracker50,000.
Job postings in the software industry are also relatively healthy, suggesting that tech companies are still hiring while laying off employees.
Software job postings were slightly higher in January 2024 compared to the strong growth in December 2023. Data compiled by Matt Hedberg, a software analyst at RBC Capital Markets, shows that the performance was better than last year, when there were fewer job postings in January 2023 and weaker job postings in December 2022.
Ongoing layoffs in small companies
So why is the situation still so dire for the tech industry as a whole?
This year, many tech companies are continuing to make small layoffs, rather than one large. In 2023, the Band-Aid was ripped off all at once. So far, in 2024, it has been stripped extremely slowly.
Google is a good example of this. In January 2023, the company announced layoffs of 120,000 people. This year, Apple slashed a few hundred dollars on consumer hardware, a few hundred dollars on ad sales, and so on.
In January 2023, Amazon carried out the largest layoff in its history, laying off 180,000 people. More recently, the cuts have been smaller and more targeted. For example, according to some employees, hundreds of people in the company's One Medical and Pharmacy divisions were laid off this week, along with a strategy of "quiet layoffs." Last week, Amazon's chief financial officer declined to say that the layoffs were over.
At the end of 2022, Meta said it would lay off 10,000 employees. This year, the company is taking more targeted measures to improve efficiency, such as eliminating management. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said that this "leaner" approach will be "a permanent part of the way we operate in the future."
Start a startup company big**
Now there's a wave of startups going out of business. This failed tsunami has not yet begun at the beginning of 2023. Now, such bankruptcies are much more common. They don't involve massive unemployment, but they are still traumatic. For the founders who have struggled to persevere, and for the investors who have watched their money go up in smoke.
Hence the constant stream of relative bad news, as well as comments from executives suggesting that this may not be the end. It's not an environment where employees feel comfortable.