Facebook 11,000 layoffs. Amazon 10,000. Getir 4.480. Booking.com 4,375. Twitter 3,700, 50% of its employees. 2022 is arguably the toughest year ever for tech companies. 1,574 companies in every corner of the world have so far had to cut their staff to face the difficulties of the moment.
So many. Of a different nature. But they all revolve around some common denominators. From the impact of inflation to that of the end of the pandemic, which moved the hands of time back; overturned any predictions that wanted the definitive triumph of ecommerce; annihilated the online advertising market.
A long list of companies (and layoffs)
The list of companies that had to be fired goes on with important names and numbers. Uber 6,700. Peloton 2,800. Groupon 2,800. The data collected by Layoff currently register a partial of 121 thousand layoffs in the sector since the beginning of the year. 106,000 in the United States alone. But also in Europe, according to the data collected by the project, there have been 16,000 layoffs among technology companies. Italy is not among the countries on the Layoff map.
But there have also been layoffs here, in Italy. Gorillas, Getir’s main competitor on home spending, closed last July, leaving 540 people at home. Again, it was the reopening that caused a sharp slowdown in business. And still with Italy, Meta fired 22 people from its Milan office last week.
However, all partial data. The year is not over yet. And many analysts agree that layoffs will still be heard until the end of the year. Among the few companies to resist so far is Apple. But who nevertheless announced a slowdown in new hires. As well as Microsoft and Amazon.
The drama of the dismissal. But in a still lively job market
Behind every dismissal there is a drama. Personal. Working. This is witnessed by the phrases shared in recent months on social media by those who lost their jobs in San Francisco, Dublin, Austin or Berlin. On LinkedIn each one tells a story: there is the Meta employee who remembers through his own events those that his father lived decades before, thinking of himself as a child and his children today; there are those who narrowly escaped the layoff plan decided by Elon Musk from Twitter, with half of their employees left at home, and relief and concern pass through his messages.
But there is a phenomenon already underway. The correspondents in the Bay Area of the Financial Times tell it: the largest redistribution of talents in the history of the technology industry is underway. Maybe industry in general. Because the crisis of the technological giants does not seem to affect digital transformation by an inch. Which affects all sectors. From banks to shops, from payments to work organization, there are tens of thousands of open positions that are immediately attractive for those who have had to prepare boxes from Big Tech offices.
Work
Meta also fires in Italy. 22 employees risk the job
by Arcangelo Rociola
JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon makes clear what is at stake. He has confirmed that he has no intention of reducing the budget for the expenses foreseen for the digitization of the company. 14 billion dollars in 2022, out of 28 planned. In spite of the specters of the recession.
In the US, 194,000 jobs created in technology in 2022
In fact, net of layoffs, the number of people employed in the technology sector increased by 194,000 units in 2022 in the US alone. CompTIA’s data on employment in the United States tell it. Job advertisements for tech workers were nearly 317,000 in October, an increase of over 10,000 from September.
Not just large companies and banking giants. For several weeks the startups of the San Francisco Bay have been trying to grab the talents that have escaped from the giants of the sector. Professionalism already trained. Who know the tech industry well. A quantity of skills that until a few months ago were inaccessible to them, but which are now suddenly available on the job market.
The case
Gorillas closes in Italy. 540 employees fired
by Arcangelo Rociola
Chinese startups and tech giants at the window
Startups, despite the difficulties of the moment, continued to raise funding in 2022. The years of mega rounds of investment are far away, but the liquidity available is all aimed at creating the product. With almost nothing on the market yet, they have suffered less from the impact of inflation and bottlenecks on supply chains. They can offer a job in a company under construction (just like Facebook, Twitter and Lyft were a few years ago). And a return to the golden days for people who have worked in large companies in the last ten years.
But there is one more element. Several reports say that even large Chinese technology companies would be ready to take advantage of the moment. There are already offers on LinkedIn for TikTok and the Bytedance holding that owns it. While in Silicon Valley, industry sites report, as early as last March several Chinese companies would have approached and then hired Big Tech’s licensees. Who until last year at least had made their ability to hire the best their distinctive trait. And a source of pride in the world. And today they must surrender the primacy to their direct competitors. A redistribution of talent, it has been said, whose long-term effects are difficult to imagine at the moment.