Big Tech Layoffs: Google and Meta lead Big Tech layoffs. All you need to know

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Big tech companies around the world are facing one of the toughest challenges in recent times, as macroeconomic headwinds continue to remain strong, leading to tightening of the purse strings with advertisers, rising inflation coupled with shortages of global logistics supplies and slower-than-expected economic growth.

Most of these companies have halted new hires or announced deep job cuts as they struggle to find a way to stay afloat and continue on their path to profitability. Google and Meta announced the most significant layoffs among all Big Tech companies at 10,000 and 11,000, respectively.

However, Amazon has repeatedly denied the layoffs, even calling some of the terminations voluntary separation. Here’s a look at what happened to both internet giants.

Amazon Last month, the world’s largest retailer, Amazon, began laying off employees in a bid to cut costs, boost operating margins and boost profits amid tech winter and fears of an impending recession.

The company notified California regional authorities that it would be laying off about 260 workers at various facilities that employ data scientists, software engineers and corporate workers. The job cuts would be effective from January 17.

Discover the stories that interest you According to a report from the New York Times, the number of employees who could be fired was approximately 10,000, starting with business and technology roles.

Interestingly, according to a widely circulated media report from ComputerWorld, Amazon – which employs more than 1.6 million globally – could lay off around 20,000 employees, including corporate executives.

However, the company has maintained the position of not laying off employees but restructuring its organization in times of adversity.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy defended the mass layoffs at the company, saying: “We just felt like we needed to streamline our costs.

Speaking at the New York Times DealBook Summit, Jassy justified the company’s decision to lay off people en masse due to growing economic uncertainty.

According to a Fortune report, Jassy said Amazon’s retail business grew rapidly during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced us to make decisions at the time to spend much more money and to go much faster in building infrastructure than we ever have before. imagined we would.

In India, the company also had a similar position. He wrote to the labor ministry downplaying the layoffs in India, saying it was a 100% voluntary separation program with a severance package.

“VSP is a completely voluntary program whereby employees opt to receive a fair severance package. At no time will Amazon India persuade or direct its employees to opt for VSP,” replied the e-commerce major to the labor ministry when asked about the reasons for the layoffs.

Read also | Amazon India likely to cut jobs due to global layoffs

Half

In November, Facebook parent company Meta said it had laid off 11,000 employees, just over a tenth of its global workforce, making it the second major job-cut announcement from a global social media company after Twitter has laid off nearly half of its workforce.

In a statement shared with Meta employees, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said moving forward, the company will make further cuts to discretionary spending and extend its hiring freeze through March 2023.

Zuckerberg’s memo says that as more people stayed online during the Covid-19 pandemic, Meta expanded its investments as it hoped the trend would continue even after the pandemic.

Unfortunately, this didn’t work out as I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to previous trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition and loss of advertising signal have meant that our revenues are much lower than expected. I was wrong and I take responsibility for it, she said.

However, the impact may not be significant for employees in India, sources told ET.

Meta employs approximately 400 people in India across all functions from engineering to products, sales and external communications.

In response to ET’s questions on the matter, a Meta India spokesperson said the company would not provide details on the team’s specific impact.

Last December, Meta India opened its first self-employed office in Asia at Gurugram. The new facility, spread over 130,000 square feet, hosts all three platforms: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

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