Numerous tech startups failed in 2022 and disappeared from the scene completely. And on the heels of these developments, Amazon layoffs and Microsoft layoffs soon followed. The post-pandemic world has seemed to be unforgiving to early-stage startups, in addition to the plummeting path of the crypto firm.
According to Crunchbase, venture capital is down a whopping $90 billion from last year, and the downward trend only continues. Let’s examine the new layoffs planned by retail and tech giants to gain some insight into the future of the macroeconomic environment.
Microsoft Layoffs 2023
After January’s initial announcement, more employees from Microsoft have lost their jobs in the Seattle area following the Microsoft layoffs already planned for 2023.
158 jobs are set to be terminated in Seattle, Washington, and the company stated that, “organizational and workforce adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business,” shared by a Microsoft spokesperson. These new layoffs are not taking into account Microsoft’s 10,000 global layoffs requirements for the year, which were supposed to end in March.
As of March, GeekWire reports that Seattle region has seen upwards of 2,700 job cuts since the beginning of January.
Currently, the specifics of the departments and positions involved have not been disclosed. Additionally, Microsoft has decided not to provide salary increases this year.
This move echoes the recent trend taking place across the tech industry with numerous layoffs being made by the likes of Meta, Amazon, Salesforce, and various tech startups.
Amazon Layoffs 2023
Amazon is one of the world’s top 3 largest employers and has recently opened up a second headquarters in Northern Virginia. With that development, there has also been setbacks in the company regarding layoffs and a hiring freeze.
Andy Jasses, CEO of Amazon, shared another letter about more layoffs taking place as part of the company’s operating plan “OP2” which details plans to, “eliminate 9,000 more positions in the next few weeks—mostly in AWS, PXT, Advertising, and Twitch.”
The primary departments that were hit include their cloud computing and human resources departments, followed by Twitch, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and ads.
Additionally, there has been a corporate hiring freeze, and multiple experimental projects have been cancelled.
Techcrunch reports that, “senior vice president of People Experience and Technology, Beth Galetti, confirmed the move in a staff memo that has since been published on Amazon’s own blog. In the letter, Galetti notes that the company had already begun pausing or slowing hiring in various corporate departments…”
The Future of Tech Bubble Layoffs
Overall, the tech industry has seen more than its fair share off layoffs, once again bursting its bubble.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company has already laid off 12,000 of its employees after a surge of new-hires during the pandemic.
In a similar fashion, the retail industry has seen its fair share of business failures and stores closing all across the nation.
Although these trends do not signal a downfall of any of these top tech and retail companies, it is still alarming and negatively affects all of the workers who were laid off amidst a time of rising inflation.
For example, amidst the layoff fiasco of Microsoft, the company’s stock is still up 29% this year, and has increased in 15% over the past 12 months.
Amazon doesn’t show any signs of slowing down their growth in the retail sector along with sales that are predicted to possibly overtake Walmart by 2024.
With plenty of Amazon layoffs and Microsoft layoffs, is this to be expected. Is this a sign of things to come? Can these layoffs be attributed to the post-pandemic world adjusting to the “new normal?”
