The beginning of 2024 has been a difficult time for the tech industry, with over 122 tech companies and startups worldwide laying off more than 30,000 employees just in the month of January. The job cuts have continued since then, causing much concern among workers and industry experts alike.
According to the data compiled by Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks such data, 122 tech companies have shown the door to 31,751 employees as of February 3. In the years 2022 and 2023, global tech companies fired more than 425,000 employees, with India alone witnessing more than 36,000 job losses.
Several well-known companies are among those that have announced layoffs. Zoom, the popular video communication platform, is laying off almost 150 employees, which constitutes less than 2 per cent of its workforce. Cloud software vendor Okta is planning to let go of about 400 employees, or around 7 per cent of its workforce, while online payment gateway PayPal is cutting at least 9 per cent of its workforce, which amounts to around 2,500 employees.
iRobot, the maker of consumer robots, has announced that it will lay off about 350 employees, or around 31 per cent of its workforce. In addition to this, the company’s founder and CEO, Colin Angle, is stepping down. Salesforce, the major enterprise software company, has laid off around 700 employees.
Online food delivery platform Swiggy is cutting almost 7 per cent of its workforce, which amounts to around 350-400 jobs. E-commerce platform eBay is sacking around 1,000 employees, which constitutes 9 per cent of its full-time workforce, and will also lay off an unspecified number of contractors in the coming months.
Google-owned YouTube has laid off at least 100 employees from its creator management and operations teams. Google has reportedly laid off nearly 1,000 employees, and is also cutting “a few hundred” more jobs in its advertising sales team as part of an ongoing restructuring exercise. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has warned employees to expect more job cuts this year.
Veeam Software, the global data management solutions provider, has reportedly laid off 300 employees. Polygon Labs, the team focused on building the layer-2 blockchain Polygon, has laid off about 19 per cent of its workforce, or 60 employees.
The job cuts have caused much concern and anxiety among tech employees, with many fearing for their job security. The situation is likely to continue for some time, with many companies struggling to cope with the ongoing pandemic and its impact on the economy.
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