Tag: layoff

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Business USA

US firms slash over 21K tech jobs in February

The sector has announced 35 per cent of all job cuts in 2023….reports Asian Lite News

Companies in the US cut 77,770 jobs in February, compared to 1,02,943 in January, with technology companies continuing to lead the layoff race, cutting 21,387 jobs last month, accounting for 28 per cent of all cuts, a new report has shown.

According to executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the tech industry has cut a total of 63,216, up 33,705 per cent from the 187 cuts announced in the same period last year.

This sector has announced 35 per cent of all job cuts in 2023.

“Certainly, employers are paying attention to rate increase plans from the Fed. Many have been planning for a downturn for months, cutting costs elsewhere. If things continue to cool, layoffs are typically the last piece in company cost-cutting strategies,” said Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

“Right now, the overwhelming bulk of cuts are occurring in Technology. Retail and Financial are also cutting right now, as consumer spending matches economic conditions,” he added.

Moreover, the report said that the Health Care/Products space, which includes hospitals and health care products manufacturers, announced the second-most cuts in February with 9,749, for a total of 16,482 this year — an 85 per cent increase from the 8,928 cuts announced during the same time last year.

Retailers have announced 17,456 cuts so far in 2023, up 2,194 per cent from the 761 job cuts announced in the sector during the same period in 2022.

Financial firms have cut 17,235, 1,401 per cent higher than the 1,148 cuts announced in January and February last year.

In the first two months of the year, Fintech has announced 4,675 cuts, 45 per cent of the 10,476 the industry cut in all of 2022, the report mentioned.

So far in 2023, the media industry has announced plans to cut 9,738 jobs, a 158 per cent increase from the 3,774 cuts announced in the sector all of last year.

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Business Economy Education

Job cuts to hit education sector

Rejoicing Maths Day.(photo:https://pixabay.com/)

Edtech companies laid off most employees, with 18 edtech startups firing more than 8,200 workers…reports Asian Lite News

Top chief financial officers (CFOs) have warned about job cuts across the board in the education market over the next six months, as tech and media sectors bear the brunt of global economic slowdown.

According to a a survey of 600 CFOs by Coupa, a Cloud-based platform, 100 per cent of CFOs in the education sector responded with “reduce workforce” for actions they need to take in the next six to 12 months to drive growth in the event of a recession, reports Fox Business.

Data compiled by Zippia showed the educational services in the US lost 136,000 employees from June 2021 to June 2022.

Coupa CFO Tony Tiscornia was quoted as saying that the education industry’s “workforce declines in the next half year to year will offset potential challenges in the event of a recession”.

E-learning company Udemy cut 10 per cent of its workforce and Seattle Public Schools prepare for layoffs under a $131 million budget deficit, the report noted.

In India, nearly 23,000 employees have been laid off by 78 startups, including unicorns like BYJU’S, Ola, OYO, Meesho, MPL, Innovaccer, Udaan, Unacademy, Vedantu, Chargebee, Cars24, LEAD and others, according to leading startup news website Inc42.

Edtech companies laid off most employees, with 18 edtech startups firing more than 8,200 workers.

The US survey noted that other sectors most impacted include Communications with 60 per cent of the sector’s CFOs pointing to layoffs as a solution.

According to the survey, only 20 per cent of CFOs in healthcare and accounting think layoffs are on the table over the next six to 12 months.

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Business Europe

Thales steps up hiring amid layoff season

Thales to hire over 12K people globally in 2023, around 550 in India

In 2022, women accounted for 25 per cent of new hires in India, and represented 22 per cent of the Group’s India workforce…reports Asian Lite News

In the deepening layoff season, French major Thales on Monday said it plans to hire more than 12,000 new employees, including 550 in India, to support its strong growth trajectory in its three core markets — aerospace, defence and security, and digital identity and security.

The Group will hire 5,500 new employees in France, 1,050 in the UK, 600 in Australia and 540 in the US, apart from 550 in India.

For its engineering centres in Noida and Bengaluru, Thales said it is recruiting people on permanent or fixed-term contracts as well as providing several internal mobility opportunities in Thales in India and across the globe.

“Through our engineering competence centres and supply chains, we enable our employees in India to work in cross-functional and inter-geographical teams on technologies that drive the sustainable development of our societies,” said Ashish Saraf, VP and Country Director for India, Thales.

“As we ramp up our recruitment programme for the country, we are excited to welcome new colleagues to Thales in India,” Saraf added.

At India sites, Thales is mainly seeking hardware engineers, software engineers, systems architects, experts in digital technologies and project managers, offering them the opportunity to help to build a safer, greener, more inclusive world.

Thales is also working to improve the gender balance in its workforce.

In 2022, women accounted for 25 per cent of new hires in India, and represented 22 per cent of the Group’s India workforce.

In India, 80 students joined the company as interns this month.

Thales expanded its India presence recently by opening its 1st Design Centre, which is an extension of Thales’ Engineering Competence Centre in Noida and will be a hub for innovation, research, and development in the country.

“Joining Thales is a ticket to some of technology’s great human adventures and a chance to be part of a learning organisation that places a premium on collective endeavour,” said Patrice Caine, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Thales.

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Categories
Business Technology World News

More bad news for global tech workers

More than 17,400 employees in the tech industry have lost jobs in the month of February globally to date…reports Asian Lite News

In more bad news for global workers, tech and biotech companies in the Silicon Valley in the US are preparing for multiple rounds of fresh job cuts, the media reported.

To date, Microsoft, Amazon, Intel, Twitter, Salesforce, PayPal, RingCentral and Zymergen have all filed WARN notices that reflect at least two distinct rounds of layoffs.

Six of the eight companies filed disclosures of planned job cuts this year, a review of the WARN notices showed.

“As of February 9, these were the 10 most recent WARN notices that tech or biotech companies filed to disclose job cuts in the Bay Area,” the report mentioned.

Tech and biotech companies have filed plans that cut at least 19,500 jobs in the Bay Area, “with no indication that the job losses have begun to abate”.

The unsettling news came to light after Microsoft reported it would cut 62 jobs in Mountain View a” the second time the tech titan filed layoff notices with the state’s labour agency, the report said.

Hiring in India up ahead of festive season, records 13% YOY growth

More than 17,400 employees in the tech industry have lost jobs in the month of February globally to date.

In 2023 so far, around 340 companies have laid off more than 1.10 lakh employees worldwide, and there appears to be no respite from job cuts.

In January, close to 1 lakh of them lost jobs in the month of January globally, dominated by companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and others, according to layoff.fyi, a website that tracks job cuts globally.

More job cuts are likely coming in days to come amid recession fears.

So far, more than 2.5 lakh tech employees have lost jobs.

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Categories
Business Economy Social Media

Meta plans more job cuts

Meta did not comment on the fresh layoffs….reports Asian Lite News

After firing 11,000 employees in November last year, Meta (formerly Facebook) is reportedly planning to reduce headcount further in its “year of efficiency”.

According to a report in the Financial Times, citing sources, there had been a “lack of clarity about budgets or future headcount in recent weeks”.

As a result, staff have complained that “zero work” is getting done as managers have been unable to plan their coming workloads, the report noted.

Certain budgets would typically get finalised by the end of the year at the company.

“Honestly, it’s still a mess. The year of efficiency is kicking off with a bunch of people getting paid to do nothing,” an employee was quoted as saying.

Meta did not comment on the fresh layoffs.

Earlier this month, Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he wants 2023 to be the “year of efficiency”.

In his quarterly earnings call with analysts, Zuckerberg said that “I just think we’ve entered somewhat of a phase change for the company”.

He said that global headcount steadily climbed for nearly two decades, making it “very hard to really crank on efficiency while you’re growing that quickly”.

After the layoffs, Zuckerberg said he is focused on “increasing the efficiency of how we make decisions”.

Zuckerberg has also reportedly put middle managers at the company on notice.

According to the newsletter Command Line by The Verge’s Alex Heath, Zuckerberg warned managers at a recent all-hands meeting.

“I don’t think you want a management structure that’s just managers managing managers, managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work,” the Meta CEO apparently told them.

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Business

‘This Too Shall Pass’

The industrial sources explain that the fresh talent fool is facing dearth of opportunities in the sector. The openings are few and college campus selections are put on hold… writes M.K. Ashoka

Not too long ago, skilled software professionals experienced a greater boom and demand. Startups offered attractive joining bonus and even facilitated moonlighting, which triggered a debate. But the scenario has now changed for the worst. The layoffs, salary cuts has hit the professionals in the industry hard.

The news of IT giant Wipro laying off more than 400 fresher employees for poor performance in internal assessment tests became a national news. Their termination letter maintained that the employees are liable to pay Rs 75,000 of training cost which the company has spent on them. But, the amount is being waived off.

Commenting on the development, Wipro stated officially that it takes pride in holding itself to the highest standards.

As per the standards the aim is set for all. From every entry level employee it is expected to have a certain level of proficiency in their designated area of work. The evaluation process includes to align employees with the requirements of clients and the business objectives of the organization.

“The recession has hit the industry. There is slow down,” says a founder of an IT startup in Bengaluru, which just completed the merger. Contradicting the point, Amrita Chandan, a senior software professional explained that the process is more of trimming down unnecessary expenditure.

“This phase has hit those seniors very hard, who enjoyed perks, benefits and huge salaries just by experience. The companies are identifying waste of resources and unwanted posts, taking action. Even today, there is no threat to proactive worker, who is delivering, manager or worker,” she explained.

Bengaluru-based Edtech giant BYJU’S, after making news for massive layoffs in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, faced allegations of threatening its employees to resign in the Karnataka state capital.

Sources explained that the employees are being asked to immediately resign or face terminations which would affect their career prospectus.

Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) has stated that BYJU’S is laying off employees in headquarter Bengaluru.

KITU Secretary Sooraj Nidiyanga said that BYJU’S employees are reluctant to resign but they are forced to do so. The HR department is indulged in getting resignations forcefully from employees.

While talking about the challenges of making Infosys flourish for at least 100 years, on the occasion the IT giant completing 40 years in the industry, Chairman and Co-founder Nandan Nilekani said that even 40 years later the company is still flourishing because of three ‘R’s’.

“Relevance, responsiveness and resilience. You need to be relevant in business and Infosys has ensured that it is relevant to customers by offering the latest services. Massive investments have been made for reskilling and there is no drama and no surprise,” he explained.

“In a short span of three years, we experienced the challenge of Covid, work from home was implemented, after that getting them back to work was a challenge. Later, faced with a high attrition rate and now its economic slowdown. How we respond to these situations is important. A structure has to be created and great leadership would ensure efficient management not only for the next generation but for the next 60 years.”

Nilekani further said: “Will I be able to earn the respect of all the stakeholders 20 to 30 years from now. When you think of respect everything falls in place. Happiness is a positive cash flow. If you are burning cash, you lose discipline.”

The industrial sources explain that the fresh talent fool is facing dearth of opportunities in the sector. The openings are few and college campus selections are put on hold.

However, all are hoping for the best and return to their halcyon days.

ALSO READ: India Inc bosses to get pay hike amid layoff season

Categories
Business USA

What’s behind tech giants’ mass layoffs?

This year’s review has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years,” says Amazon CEO Andy Jassy…reports Asian Lite News

As more and more Big Tech companies continue to sack employees, they have listed various reasons behind the move — over-hiring, uncertain global macroeconomic conditions, strong tailwinds from the Covid-19 pandemic and more. Here is what these top tech firms say about firing employees:

Meta (11,000 job cuts)

“At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online, and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth. Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments.

“Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,” says Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Google (12,000 layoffs)

“Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today. I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI. To fully capture it, we’ll need to make tough choices,” according to Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

Microsoft (10,000 job cuts)

“As we saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, we’re now seeing them optimise their digital spend to do more with less. We’re also seeing organisations in every industry and geography exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one,” says Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella.

Amazon (18,000 job cuts)

“As you know, we continue to face an unusual and uncertain macroeconomic environment. In light of this, we’ve been working over the last few months to further prioritize what matters most to our customers and the business. After a deep set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programmes.

“This year’s review has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years,” says Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

Salesforce (7,000 layoffs)

“As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that. The environment remains challenging and our customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions,” says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.

IBM (3,900 job cuts)

“We have taken a number of significant portfolio actions over the last couple of years, which has resulted in some stranded costs in our business. We expect to address these remaining stranded costs early in the year and anticipate a charge of about $300 million in the first quarter,” says IBM Chief Financial Officer James Kavanaugh

Spotify (600 job cuts)

“Like many other leaders, I hoped to sustain the strong tailwinds from the pandemic and believed that our broad global business and lower risk to the impact of a slowdown in ads would insulate us.

“In hindsight, I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth,” says Daniel Ek, Spotify’s CEO.

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Business COVID-19 India News

First Covid, now layoffs: Tech professionals undergo tremendous stress

About 3,000 tech professionals are losing their jobs on an average daily in the month of January, including thousands in India…reports Asian Lite News

Amid the growing layoffs, there has been a surge in the number of patients coming from various companies — both office-goers and those working from home — with panic anxiety attacks and depression as they fear losing control over their immediate future plans, mental health experts said on Monday.

About 3,000 tech professionals are losing their jobs on an average daily in the month of January, including thousands in India.

According to health experts, the last 2-3 years of Covid lockdowns, deaths, and fear of re-infection, and now massive layoffs, have resulted in extreme stress for Indian professionals.

Dr Saumya Mudgal, Senior Consultant, Psychiatry, Max Hospital in Gurugram, told IANS that there has been a drastic increase in the number of patients coming from MNCs.

“These patients are usually presented with the issues of panic anxiety and panic disorder with agoraphobia and there is quite an increase in such patients. Some of them are already taking medications and the requirement of medication has gone up and the severity of symptoms has gone up,” Dr Mudgal told IANS.

According to her, there are a lot of people coming with fresh or recent onset symptoms of anxiety and adjustment issues pertaining to anxiety or mixed anxiety.

Layoffs and loss of employment are very stressful experiences for most people. It is a time filled with uncertainties, economic challenges and loss of control over your future.

According to Dr Rishi Gautam, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, The GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC, this can lead to significant impact on a professional’s mental health and cause anxiety, depressed mood, shock and grief.

“It affects sleep and appetite, increases risk of unhealthy consumption of drugs and alcohol, causes worsened irritability, loss of self-esteem, family discord etc,” Dr Gautam told IANS.

Dr Arti Anand, a senior clinical psychologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi, said that the pandemic and massive layoffs both knocked out the working class without any warning.

“This leads to fear and stress. The way to deal with it is to be able to use your available resources, not to panic and stop thinking negatively about the future,” she advised.

Health experts said that to cope in these uncertain times is by maintaining supportive relationships with friends and family, exercising regularly and practicing mindfulness.

Keep a positive attitude and outlook. Stay away from generalising negative thoughts like “I will never have a job again or I will never enjoy my work again etc,” said Dr Gautam.

Divya Mohindroo, Founder, Embrace Imperfections and a counselling psychologist, told IANS that those impacted in the current layoffs need to deal with it practically, rather than emotionally.

“Start making a list of potential employers, research about available opportunities and companies, look for avenues to upskill and even diversify into other sectors, if required,” she advised.

“Approach employers while being mentally prepared to describe their situation while pitching their candidature. It is also important to network – with friends, ex-bosses and colleagues,” she said.

All professionals should share their work responsibilities with colleagues at work and family members at home, which will help them not only be accountable but also feel light about their life and tasks in hand,” Mohindroo noted.

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Business

Layoffs begin at Ola

The layoffs, which were first announced in September last year, happened across the teams….reports Asian Lite News

Ride-hailing major Ola has started to lay off 200 employees from its Ola Cabs, Ola Electric and Ola Financial Services verticals as part of the “restructuring” exercise.

The layoffs, which were first announced in September last year, happened across the teams.

The company told IANS that it is “centralising operations and is undertaking a restructuring exercise to minimise redundancy and build a strong lateral structure that strengthens relevant roles and functions”.

The layoffs constitute 10 per cent of its 2,000-strong engineer workforce “as part of a larger restructuring exercise towards its electric dream”.

“Currently, the company has around 2,000 engineers and aims to increase its engineering talent pool to 5,000 over the next 18 months,” according to the ride-hailing company.

The Bhavish Aggarwal-run company has nearly 1,100 employees in its core ride-hailing business.

Earlier, restructuring exercises impacted employees across product, marketing, sales, supply, tech, business, and operations verticals at the company, affecting nearly 500 employees that “were a result of restructuring in the cars and dash businesses”.

The ride-hailing major last year shut down its used vehicle business Ola Cars, as well as its quick-commerce business, Ola Dash, as the company shifted focus on its electric two-wheeler and car verticals.

Ola said it plans to hire 5,000 engineers as it doubles down on new engineering verticals and strengthens capabilities across vehicle, cell, battery, manufacturing and autonomous streams.

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Categories
Business

More than half of Indian job seekers depressed over layoffs

More than half of the employees (57 per cent) are unenthusiastic or bored about their current jobs in India, with over 50 per cent of them preparing for new opportunities by reskilling/upskilling….reports Asian Lite News

65 per cent of jobseekers (more than 6 in 10) in India feel that the ongoing layoffs may hinder their willingness to go the extra mile in their jobs, a report showed on Thursday.

Given the market uncertainties and economic climate, jobseekers are hesitant in their current work, demotivated by layoffs and are not willing to fully commit to their current job as well, according to the survey by leading job portal Indeed.

More than half of the employees (57 per cent) are unenthusiastic or bored about their current jobs in India, with over 50 per cent of them preparing for new opportunities by reskilling/upskilling.

About 28 per cent of those looking for jobs said that they will prioritise happiness and flexibility and 19 per cent indicated that a good work life balance is a priority, the findings showed.

“Going into 2023, it is evident that employees are prioritising mental wellbeing and work life balance amidst the various fluctuations that are occurring in the world of work,” said Sashi Kumar, Head of Sales, Indeed India.

As organisations wait to see how global movements affect the Indian jobs landscape, it’ll be integral for them to also relook at workplace culture and the current sentiment at work, in order to retain talent,” Kumar added.

Employers are, however, optimistic about their hiring activity during 2023, with 45 per cent of them foreseeing up to a 20 per cent increase in hiring.

Inflation (18 per cent of employers) and ongoing layoffs (15 per cent of employers) are things to be on the lookout for in 2023, respectively.

In the coming year, employers will also be keen to step up their hiring practices.

About 35 per cent of employers look forward to adopting AI/digital/social media for talent acquisition and 26 per cent plan to explore hyper-local/niche job boards, the findings showed.

This year, about two out of every three employers (64 per cent of those surveyed) hired between October to December.

This marks a significant dip (down from 78 per cent) and reflects a slower pace of hiring activity compared to the previous two quarters, likely caused by global economic shifts, said the report.

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