Tech Sector Job Bloodbath Continues

 The head economist at Moody's was recently quoted in a Washington Post article as saying, roughly, "The American form of capitalism is ruthless in how it reallocates resources."

That means layoffs. Means lives destroyed so shareholder value can be maximized.

Since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to battle inflation the business calculation to invest in tech and speculate has shifted and now the companies who employed those workers have to adjust to meet the numbers Wall Street expects of them. Executives, heavily incentivized to meet Wall Street demands, are culling the work force at these companies to cut costs--the only avenue remaining when growth options are limited. The U.S. lags behind other western democracies in protecting workers--read, people who don't hold enormous loads of capital, money--so these kinds of wave layoffs are only possible in this country.

The bloodbath started early in 2023 and continue.

Here is an article detailing how ex-Googlers are handling it:

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/tech-workers-layoffs-job-cuts-careers-rcna141735

Here is a snippet from that piece:

“There was a time when working in tech seemed like the most stable career you could have,” said Ayomi Samaraweera, who was laid off as chief of staff at the content creator platform Jellysmack in December 2022. After about 10 years in the industry, she said, “tech does not seem safe and secure.”

Here is an article announcing yet another round of layoffs at Google:

https://siliconangle.com/2024/04/17/google-announces-second-major-round-layoffs-year/ 

Here is an article tracking the major layoffs in tech:

https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/07/tech-layoffs-2023-list/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether.

If you are fortunate enough to have a chair during this gigantic game of musical chairs, where more than a half a million are outside looking in trying to survive, please consider others.

The society we live in is a choice. We can choose to stay on the current path, or deviate. The evidence strongly suggests the current path only benefits a very small portion of society and is creating waves of destruction for the majority of society. We should consider the alternatives.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant