Mumbai, November 22: Twitter is on a lay-off spree and then jumped many tech giants with Meta announcing it is going to cut off 13% of its staff, nearly 11,000 employees. Amazon is planning to lay off as many as 10,000 people in “corporate and technology” departments across the world. The other big company that has announced layoffs include many other like Uber, Airbnb, Zillow, Coinbase, Lyft, Netflix, Spotify, Peloton, Shopify, Stripe, and Robinhood.

The list also consists of several Indian names. Most layoffs were reported in edtech sector with Byju's, Unacademy, Vedantu, WhiteHat Jr, etc. Food delivery app Zomato also let go of its staffers. Ridesharing company Ola also reported 1,000 job cuts. According to date, at least 5,000 Indians were fired from their jobs in October 2022 alone. Other data states that over 16,000 Indians lost their jobs in start-ups. Meanwhile, the number of people who got fired touched an estimated 2,17,100 worldwide. Twitter Layoffs: Koo Offers To Hire Employees Terminated by Elon Musk.

Why is this happening?

The two prominent reasons that most companies who have given following the announcement of mass layoffs are that they hired many employees during the COVID-19 pandemic when people spent most of their time online, as opposed to now when the boom is starting to fade as they get back to their daily lives. Secondly, soaring inflation has made brands reluctant to spend money on advertising, and are now opting for cost-cutting.

According to experts, the companies may be looking to cost cutting before their fiscal years close. For example, if an employee is laid off now and given six weeks of severance, that reduces costs for the first quarter. Even if workers are given a longer severance, like three months, their salaries would be off the books before the end of the first quarter.

Amazon Layoffs: Tech Giant Begins Firing 10,000 Employees, Alexa and Cloud Gaming Worst Hit.

What's Next?

The tech industry has been through a tough few years with billions of dollars of value being wiped out, huge layoffs, and an overall loss of confidence in the industry- but it has the potential to make its way. However, several experts expect more layoffs over the next few months. The industry might even touch rock bottom but will rebound, experts said.

To improve its course, several companies might take it slow from here and correct their past mistakes - hiring frenzy during the pandemic etc.

 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 22, 2022 09:28 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).