Total tech layoffs hit more than 200,000 last year as Google adds to Silicon Valley bloodbath
The total number of layoffs in the technology sector has reached more than 200,000 in the past year, as Google has contributed to the bloodbath in Silicon Valley.
Since the start of 2022, around 210,000 jobs have been cut, including around 55,000 in the past two weeks alone, according to jobs data firm Layoffs.fyi.
Cuts to Google’s parent company Alphabet yesterday inflated the already spiraling numbers, adding 12,000 jobs, or about 6% of the global workforce, to that layoff list.
Layoffs: Cuts from Google’s parent company Alphabet inflated already spiraling numbers
“Over the past two years, we’ve had periods of dramatic growth,” Alphabet’s chief executive Sundar Pichai told employees.
“To support and fuel this growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today. I take full responsibility for the decisions that brought us here.
Pichai’s other tech bosses have also made heavy cuts to their workforces in recent months.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, all made significant headcount reductions late last year, citing squeezing ad spend and slowing revenue as key drivers.
This month alone, Amazon, Microsoft and software giant Salesforce significantly reduced their global workforces, showing how this trend shows no signs of slowing down.
Victoria Scholar, chief investment officer at Interactive Investor, said: “Silicon Valley’s sense of invincibility spurred a period of overzealous expansion in an era of rock bottom interest rates.
“But the tech sector was quickly brought down to earth in 2022 due to rising inflation and rising interest rates, the tech boom fading in the time of the pandemic, when most of us were glued to our devices, and a global economic downturn. ‘
iPhone maker Apple is the only tech outlier that has yet to announce major job cuts.
