Tech Layoffs: How Post-Covid Bubble Burst Impacted Firms In 2022
Twitter, Amazon, Meta, Zomato, and many more companies laid off employees in 2022.
As the world locked itself up indoors during the Covid-induced lockdowns in 2020, tech was one of the few sectors that saw an unprecedented boom thanks to increased demand. Be it social media giants such as Facebook or Twitter, or be it delivery aggregators such as Zomato, tech firms reaped the benefits of the sudden boom. This, in turn, led to an increased rate of hiring in these companies.
Now, let’s fast forward a couple of years. The covid bubble has burst long back, as people are venturing outdoors in droves, slowly settling back into pre-Covid routines. Add to this an ongoing Russia-Ukraine war that has severely impacted macroeconomic factors across the globe. As a result, tech firms had to resort to severe cost-cutting moves, which included laying off employees hundreds to be able to cope with the ongoing inflation and global economic meltdown.
While there are several tech firms that laid off employees, take a look at some layoffs that made the headlines.
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk took over Twitter in a hostile $44-billion bid in October. He’d go on to fire the entire directorial board of the company, including former CEO Parag Agrawal. Following that, Musk tweeted that Twitter was losing $4 million per day and as a result, he had “no choice” but to lay off nearly half of the company’s global workforce in November.
To add to the woes of laid-off employees, some of them were called back by the company to care of a few loose ends, and then were laid off yet again, as per employee posts on LinkedIn and other social media platforms.
Xiaomi
China’s leading smartphone maker said that the company is implementing organisational restructuring and personnel optimisation that will affect less than 10 percent of its total workforce. Earlier reports claimed that Xiaomi may cut 15 percent of its workforce amid Covid lockdowns in China and rough global macroeconomic conditions.
"Xiaomi recently implemented routine personnel optimisation and organisational streamlining, with affected parties totalling less than 10 percent of total workforce," a company spokesperson reportedly said.
Meta
Facebook-parent Meta laid off nearly 13 percent of its total workforce, totalling over 11,000 employees. As per CEO Mark Zuckerberg, this was a result of a steep slide in digital ad revenue and profit.
Employees who lost their jobs are said to have been provided with at least four months of salary as a severance, as per media reports. The mass layoff is the first broad head-count reduction to occur in Meta's (earlier Facebook) 18-year history.
Amazon
The e-commerce giant, which announced a pause on its corporate hiring, was reportedly planning to lay off nearly 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs towards the end of this year.
It is still unclear whether the layoffs will be limited to only the US or affect other markets as well.
Intel
The US chipmaker Intel is reportedly planning a major reduction in headcount, likely numbering in the thousands.
As per media reports, the layoffs will happen in some of Intel’s divisions, including the sales and marketing group, which could see cuts affecting about 20 percent of staff.
Zomato
The food delivery aggregator in November confirmed that it has laid off under 3 percent of its staff. The company has said that these layoffs are based on regular performance.
“There has been a regular performance-based churn of under 3 percent of our workforce, there's nothing more to it,” a Zomato spokesperson reportedly said.
Swiggy
Along with Zomato, rival Swiggy was also reported to have laid off up to five percent of its workforce, totalling 250 employees in December.
"They want a very lean team structure across functions. Sensitisation workshops for employees are planned for later this month. They have appointed a consulting firm to advise them on the restructuring...Most of the layoffs are likely to happen in tech, engineering, product roles and operations," a person aware of the matter reportedly said.
OYO
IPO-bound travel tech firm OYO in December announced it will downsize about 10 percent of its 3,700-employee base by cutting 600 jobs in the technology and corporate verticals and hiring 250 members, primarily in the relationship management teams.
OYO said the move is part of implementing wide-ranging changes in its organisational structure. It is downsizing its product & engineering, corporate headquarters, and OYO Vacation Homes teams, while it adds people to the partner relationship management and business development teams.
Byju's
As per media reports, the edtech sector laid off nearly 15,000 employees in India. Byju's has reportedly laid off the highest number of employees among the lot, totalling at nearly 4,000.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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