Agency data: us technology companies cut 9587 jobs in October, a two-year high

According to reports on the evening of November 8, Beijing time, US technology companies have stepped up layoffs in response to a potential economic recession, which is now close to the level at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Data show that in the past October, as technology executives became more pessimistic about the economic outlook, the number of layoffs in the US technology industry reached 9587, the largest number of layoffs since November 2020.

In recent weeks, a large number of technology companies have said they will suspend hiring or lay off staff directly. Among them, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet have all slowed or suspended hiring. Last week, Twitter cut about 3700 jobs by 50 per cent. There are reports that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, will also cut thousands of jobs this week.

Roger Lee, co-founder of Layoffs.fyi, a layoff tracker, said the second quarter of 2020 was still the worst quarter for layoffs since the COVID-19 outbreak. But the overall layoffs this year will be even more serious than in 2020. More than 104000 startups have lost their jobs so far this year, surpassing the layoff level of about 81000 for the whole of 2020, according to Roger Li.

Stephen Levy, director of the California Center for Economic continuing Research (CCSCE), a research firm, says the difficulties facing start-ups are more serious. Soaring interest rates have hampered their ability to raise money, and larger layoffs are likely to be made in the future. "this situation will not improve until interest rates and inflation return to normal levels," Levy said. "

What is certain, of course, is that the current layoffs are still a far cry from those after the dotcom bubble burst. Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. The data show that the technology industry cut 168395 jobs in 2001 and another 131294 in 2002.