Around 1,00,000 employees have fired by 344 Tech firms globally in 2024
According to Layoffs.fyi, a platform which maintains records of tech firms layoffs stated that around 1,00,000 employees got fired from 344 tech firms in the first half of the year.
Amid the global recession, there has been a significant layoff wave seen in 344 tech firms in 2024, following Apple, Google, Microsoft, Paytm and ReshaMandi and nearly 1,00,000 employees have been fired. Even small start-ups are cutting down their employees and in a few cases, they have to take tough decisions by shutting them altogether.
On a global scale, the trend of layoffs has continued to grow this year. It is noteworthy here that in the previous year, approximately 2,62,595 employees have been laid off by 1189 tech companies like Meta, X ( formerly known as Twitter), and Cisco due to recession in the market.
Layout wave in Global Tech industry
In April, Google had already announced the layoff for nearly 200 employees from its core teams, CNBC claimed. Nearly, 50 positions related to the engineering department have been eliminated in California.
Another tech giant, Apple, terminated 600 employees, made substantial job cuts and reports indicate that it’s the first major layoffs after the pandemic hit the global world. Alphabet (12,000 employees), Amazon (18,000), Meta (11,000) and Microsoft have also joined the list.
Running Tide, a carbon removal company founded in 2017 has completely shut down its operations this month due to high competition in the market.
Layoffs in Indian tech Industry
The Indian startup ecosystem has witnessed silent layoffs. According to the IT employee union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NTES), India’s Top IT companies have cut 2,000-3,000 professionals. Meanwhile, Wipro made a statement that it will eliminate hundreds of mid level employees in 2024 to gain more profit.
Infosys laid over 67,000 employees, while Wipro fired 21,875 employees. On the other side, Tech Mahindra, founded in 1945 and recognized as one of the largest multinational federation of companies operating in 90 countries had let go 10,669 employees while TCS cut 10,818 employees.
Another joining the list, ReshaMandi, specialized in silk yarns based in Bengaluru has terminated 80% of its workforce due to funding issues. 300 employees battling for their pending salaries.
Why are the tech companies firing their employees?
The tech companies are firing their employees abruptly indicates the complexities and competitive nature of the global market.
1. Market dynamics
Market dynamics have been changing with each passing day, in terms of technology advancements and regulatory shifts, and if your organization is not able to adapt and up-skill their work, they might have to shut down their operations. For instance, Kodak, a well known brand for camera films has not paid any attention to the proposal about launching digital cameras and kept on manufacturing camera films has lost its relevance today.
2. Funding issue
Sometimes, the investors put pressure on the tech companies to minimize their expenses as revenue growth slows down. And if we talk about startups, they heavily rely on external funding to function. Changes in investor’s attitudes, economic shifts and replacing existing market conditions creates funding issues.
3. Emerging AI technology
Many tech companies believe that AI will take over humans in the near future, so, investing in AI tools and engineers that can help with AI tools and machine learning algorithms would be a great deal.
4. Over-hiring
Over-hiring could be one of the major reasons for layoffs. Sometimes, companies hire more employees to meet the immediate demand of the market and when the market demand changes, they have to terminate their employees to reduce their financial strain.
5. Operational Efficiency
Operational efficiency is crucial for any firm to stand out in the market for long-term success by cost reduction methods, optimizing resources and improved quality control measures. Any inefficiencies in operations can result in additional burden.
6. Regulatory challenges
Regulatory environments have a significant impact on the tech-firms in terms of taxation, data privacy concerns and geopolitical risks and take difficult decisions of firing the employees involuntary.
The impact of layoffs
Layoffs might leave you in a frustrating and traumatic experience and you started doubting yourself whether you have the capability to work or not. Every company has one or the other reason for firing their employees and the list of reasons never ends from funding to inflation, competition to changing market dynamics and operational efficiency.
Firing the employees without any prior notice, resulted in economic instability. The senior level employees have been the most affected, as they are getting a hefty amount of package and support, and all of a sudden their income stops, it will disrupt their lives completely. Infosys has fired 600 employees who failed in the internal test without any proper procedure being followed.
Layoffs impacted the mental health of the employees. Sometimes, the situation might get worse. Studies reported that layoffs increase the odds of suicide to those who remain unemployed by two and a half times.
