Total number of tech layoffs reaches over 200,000 in last year as Google adds to Silicon Valley bloodbath
The total number of tech layoffs has reached over 200,000 in the past year as Google added to the Silicon Valley bloodbath.
Since the start of 2022, around 210,000 positions have been slashed, with around 55,000 in the last two weeks alone, according to jobs data firm Layoffs.fyi.
Google parent firm Alphabet’s cuts yesterday swelled the already spiraling numbers, adding 12,000 jobs, or roughly 6 percent of the global workforce, to that layoff list.
Layoffs: Google parent firm Alphabet’s cuts swelled the already spiraling numbers
‘Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth,’ Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai told employees.
‘To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today. I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.’
Pichai’s fellow tech bosses have also made hefty cuts to their workforce in recent months.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter all made major reductions to their workforce at the end of last year, citing squeezed advertising spend and revenue slowdowns as the key drivers.
This month alone, Amazon, Microsoft and software giant Salesforce have significantly culled their global headcount, showing how this trend shows no signs of slowing down.
Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: ‘Silicon Valley’s sense of invincibility spurred a period of overzealous expansion during the era of rock-bottom interest rates.
‘But the tech sector was swiftly brought back down to earth in 2022 on the back of rising inflation and interest rates, the fading technological boom during the pandemic-era when most of us were glued to our devices, and a slowing global economic backdrop. ‘
IPhone maker Apple is the one tech outlier that has yet to announce any major job cuts.
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