, which tracks layoffs in the tech industry. The numbers are grim. More than grim, actually. Over 200,000 in the US in the last year alone, including eye-watering numbers at Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce and the other longtime stalwarts of the tech-fueled growth sector. What’s going on? Is tech dying?
But the whole thing has left some commentators scratching their heads a bit. No one really gets it. These companies have mountains of cash, hundreds of billions in some cases. They are wildly profitable. And more importantly, their revenues and profits absolutely rocketed during the pandemic when the rest of us sat grumpily in our lockdown hovels buying and using their digital products.
FIRE EVERYBODY! you scream, looking anxiously at the window where you might have to make your escape when quarterly results come out.Why are so many tech companies laying people off right now? Anyway, whither tech? Of course, no tech company is immune from trouble. Microsoft’s Bing is now positioning to whump Google upside the head by integrating the AI-of-the-moment, ChatGPT. TikTok ate everyone’s “short-video” lunch in only a few years. Meta has egg on its face, for now, about its shaky $10-billion metaverse bet.