In The Technology Industry: More Than 136000 Employees Were Fired In 8 Months The wave of employee cuts in the technology industry has not stopped even in 2024. In 2022 and 2023, many technology companies cut employees. This year too, large and small companies continue to lay off employees. According to layoffs. FYI (layoffs. fyi), 422 technology companies have laid off 136,782 employees by August 2024.
Launched during the Covid-19 pandemic, the website has been keeping records of technology sector layoffs around the world. According to the data given on the website, in 2023 alone, 1,933 technology companies fired 264,228 employees.
This trend of job cuts can be seen from startups to established companies. It is being analyzed which has exposed the serious situation of economic challenges in the technology sector. Big companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google have also continued to cut staff. Also, they plan to cut more employees.
Apple has announced that it will lay off about 100 employees working in the digital services sector. This includes employees working in the books and news teams of the company. Earlier in May, Apple shut down its long-running electric vehicle (EV) project in California, laying off 614 employees.
On the other hand, audio technology company Sonos is going to cut another 100 employees, i.e. six percent of its total workforce. Even in 2023, the company cut seven percent of its employees.
Similarly, the networking giant Cisco is planning to lay off thousands of employees this year. The company fired more than 4,000 employees last February alone.
On the other hand, Dell also plans to lay off old employees and create a new sales unit focused on AI products and services. However, the exact number of employees to be fired has not been disclosed.
Chip maker Intel has also announced layoffs of 15,000 employees, which is said to affect 15 percent of its total workforce.
Google’s parent company Alphabet has laid off 630 employees from various departments in 2024. Under this, Google’s voice assistant, hardware (Pixel, Nest, Fitbit), advertising sales, AR team, and other employees were fired.
Companies that over-hired during the COVID-19 pandemic are now pursuing downsizing options to balance costs and future growth opportunities. On the other hand, companies are changing their structure to focus on new technology areas such as artificial intelligence. In this process, their strategy is to eliminate the old departments and invest in new technology, so that the old employees have to leave.
The possibility of a global economic recession has also made technology companies cautious. Companies are reducing their workforce and making their operations flexible to prepare for possible future financial crises.
