Silicon Valley is ＂very cold＂! Google, Microsoft, Amazon … 10,000-person layoffs

　　Zhongxin. com, February 4th (reporter Xie Yiguan from Zhongxin Finance and Economics) "Capitalism is ruthless. When recruiting people, it is talent, and when layoffs are made, it is a data point in the database, which is selected by random procedures ‘ Lucky Goose ’ 。” The Google employee from Singapore recently received a notice of layoffs.

　　Since last year, a storm of layoffs in Silicon Valley, which spread from the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States, has left tens of thousands of employees of technology companies facing the fate of unemployment. Once "high salary" and "high welfare", now with a notice, all went up in smoke.

　　Google, Microsoft, Amazon … … 10,000-level layoffs!

　　On January 20, Google CEO Pichai announced in a letter to employees that he would lay off about 12,000 people worldwide. According to foreign media reports, the layoffs are the largest layoffs in the company’s history, accounting for about 6% of its total global employees.

　　Video: Google employees protest against mass layoffs and low wages Source: China News Network

　　When Google, known as the "Silicon Valley Nursing Home", joined the layoff team, many employees of technology companies felt the biting "cold".

　　Not only Google, but also American technology giants Microsoft and Amazon have also launched tens of thousands of layoffs.

　　Microsoft recently said that it will lay off 10,000 people before March 31; Amazon also recently mentioned that it will lay off more than 18,000 people, which is also the largest layoff in the company’s history.

　　When people are still in shock, PayPal, an electronic payment giant, announced at the end of January that it would lay off 2,000 full-time employees worldwide in the next few weeks.

　　If the timeline is lengthened, this wave of "layoffs" of technology companies began to ferment in the first half of last year and reached a peak in November last year. In that month, Twitter fired about 50% of its employees; Meta announced 11,000 layoffs; Amazon says it will lay off about 10,000 people … …

　　A Meta employee who saw the layoffs in Silicon Valley in November 2022 said, "The psychological shock is particularly strong, and I really experienced the recession and layoffs for the first time."

　　According to the data of Layoffs.fyi, which tracks the layoffs of technology companies, in 2022, 1,040 technology companies laid off employees and nearly 160,000 employees were fired. According to the data of Challenger, Gray&Christmas, an American employment consulting company, in November 2022 alone, the technology industry announced 52,771 layoffs, setting a record since the company began to count relevant data in 2000.

　　In 2023, the "storm" of layoffs is even more fierce. Layoffs.fyi website shows that in the first month of 2023, more than 200 technology companies laid off employees and more than 80,000 employees were dismissed.

　　"Although fortunately from layoffs ‘ Hunger Games ’ I survived, but it is still very thrilling to think about it. This wave of layoffs feels much harsher than the last wave. " A netizen working in the United States recently said.

　　The layoffs of technology companies have also caused the problem of foreign employees’ status in the United States.

　　Chen Chuanchang, a Chinese software engineer who has worked for a technology giant in Silicon Valley for more than 10 years, said that in this round of "layoffs", young people who have been laid off are under greater pressure. Because of their lack of qualifications, these people have no advantage in the labor market. Some of them work in the United States with H-1B visas. If they can’t find jobs within two months, they will leave the United States. Even if some companies are still recruiting, the scale is limited. Some young people find it difficult to find the right opportunity.

　　Why do technology giants choose to lay off employees?

　　In the early stage of COVID-19 epidemic, technology enterprises used to make great strides with their own advantages, and started large-scale recruitment activities. Why are these technology companies now on the road of layoffs?

　　"I was wrong, and I am responsible for it." Mark zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, told about the layoffs, "At the beginning of the epidemic, the world quickly turned online, and the surge in e-commerce brought huge income growth. Many people predict that this will be a permanent acceleration and will continue even after the epidemic is over. I think so, too, so I decided to increase my investment substantially. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as I expected. E-commerce has resumed its previous trend, and the macroeconomic downturn, intensified competition, and declining advertising business have led to far lower income expectations. "

　　Not only Meta, but also combing the reasons given by technology companies for layoffs, the economic downturn, over-employment, high inflation and high interest rates under the epidemic have become "high-frequency words".

　　"The early development of technology companies is a bit too fast, and there is a certain blindness. After excessive expansion, there may be an adjustment process; The strengthening of global control has also led to a decline in profits of multinational technology companies. " Chen Fengying, a researcher at China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told the China-Singapore Financial Reporter that the contraction of the world economy and the tension in international relations have also affected the development of multinational companies.

　　Xu Hongcai, deputy director of the Economic Policy Committee of the China Policy Science Research Association, also said, "Although there are internal reasons for layoffs, in general, because of the global economic downturn, the days of enterprises are not good."

　　The "locomotive" aura is no longer, and the US economy will enter a recession?

　　“‘ The wave of layoffs ’ Reminiscent of the Internet bubble at the beginning of this century. " Reuters reported that from 2000 to 2003, cheap funds, high investor expectations and abundant cash flow gave birth to a huge bubble in the technology industry.

　　Nowadays, the large-scale shrinkage of many technology companies means that the technology industry, which has experienced strong expansion for many years, will face recession?

　　"At present, the living environment of science and technology enterprises has undergone tremendous changes, and unlimited expansion has also been restricted. Under the new situation, how to break through new technologies and how to expand new markets has become a new problem." However, in Chen Fengying’s view, "this does not mean that the technology industry is going into recession, but that technological innovation has reached a bottleneck stage and there must be a breakthrough."

　　As the strongest "locomotive" of the American economy for many years, does this wave of layoffs initiated by technology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area also indicate that the American economy will decline?

　　According to CNBC (American Consumer News and Business Channel), economists believe that although these layoffs are sudden and undoubtedly destructive to the affected people, they do not indicate a wave of layoffs in the economic recession.

　　Nella Richardson, chief economist of ADP, said that a more important indicator of the impending economic recession is the decrease in the employment of temporary workers and the increase in layoffs, especially in manufacturing.

　　Nella Richardson said that at the end of 2022, an index measuring factory activity in the United States contracted for the first time since 2020, and "manufacturing is usually the place where the recession begins". (End)