23 techies being sacked every hour for past 2 years, more layoffs in the offing

IANS

New Delhi, October 13

Tech companies, including startups, around the world have fired more than 400,000 employees in the last two years (till October 13), with more than 30,000 employees being sacked in India by over 110 Indian startups in the same time period.

Citing the global macroeconomic conditions, Big Tech firms and startups across the spectrum have fired employees, and layoffs continue to happen.

According to the latest data from ‘layoff.fyi’, a website that tracks tech sector job cuts, 2,120 tech companies have laid off 404,962 employees to date globally.

In 2022, 1,061 tech companies laid off 164,769 employees, while 1,059 companies have laid off 240,193 workers in 2023 till now (October 13).

On average, about 555 employees lost their jobs every day in the last two years – or 23 workers every hour. In January alone, 89,554 employees were laid off.

However, the count decreased but layoffs continued unabated.

Last month, 4,632 employees were let go, according to the data.

In terms of sector, retail tech and consumer tech were the ones which laid off the most employees in this year. Nearly 29,161 and 28,873 employees were let go from the retail and consumer tech industries, respectively, the data showed.

As 2023 is not over yet, more layoffs are set to happen in the remaining period.

Chip-maker Qualcomm has announced plans to eliminate nearly 1,258 jobs in two of its offices in the state of California in the US, according to a media report. Other US-based tech firms like Chainalysis, Plex, Cisco, Pie Insurance, and many more have laid off hundreds of employees in recent months. Last month, Fortnite game developer Epic Games announced plans to lay off 16 per cent of its employees, impacting nearly 870 people.

In the past couple of months alone, gaming companies including Ascendant Studios, Beamdog, Crystal Dynamics, Roblox, Blizzard, Team17, Naughty Dog, Niantic and Keywords have all fired varying numbers of staff.

In India, edtech major Byju’s has announced to lay off 4,000–5,000 employees in a “business restructuring exercise”. The startup has eliminated more than 10,000 positions in the past two years. Homegrown quick-grocery delivery provider Dunzo reportedly laid off at least “150-200” more employees amid severe cash crunch in September. The startup had already sacked nearly 400 employees so far this year in two job cut rounds.