Technological giants have a new wave of layoffs – 01/12/2024 – Market

Technology giants, known as big techs, began 2024 with a new wave of mass layoffs across the world, just as occurred at the beginning of last year.

This week, Google, an Alphabet company, announced the cuts of hundreds of employees from different teams, including in its voice assistant and augmented reality unit.

At the same time, the search engine company also eliminated several roles on the hardware team, responsible for the Fitbit, Pixel and Nest brands.

The co-founders of health and fitness tracking company Fitbit, James Park and Eric Friedman, also ended up leaving the company. The company was acquired by Google for US$2.1 billion in 2021.

Hundreds of roles across Google’s core engineering team are also being affected.

“During the second half of 2023, several of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, and to align their resources with their biggest product priorities,” a Google spokesperson told international news agency Reuters in an announcement.

“Some teams continue to make these types of organizational changes, which include some role eliminations around the world,” the statement continues.

Amazon also announced this week that it will lay off hundreds of employees in operations in the Americas and other regions of the world in the streaming and studio areas of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios.

“We have identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investment in certain areas, while also increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the greatest impact,” said Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios Senior Vice President Mike Hopkins, to employees in a note also obtained by Reuters.

Just like its competitors, Instagram, owned by Meta, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, would also have started laying off employees, starting with management positions, according to the American news website Business Insider.

When questioned, Meta’s press office in Brazil told Sheet who will not comment on the matter. The companies did not report the number of employees laid off.

“Big techs go through numerous factors that impact their business and, consequently, layoffs. Some of these companies are still impacted by the major hires they made at the time of the pandemic, when a series of assumptions related to consumer behavior and also to the valuation of companies on the stock exchange”, says Arthur Igreja, specialist in technology and innovation.

Just as happened with retail, the technology sector expanded during the pandemic, as people and companies looked for technological solutions to continue producing, even with employees working remotely, from home.

After the opening of economies, however, and the cycle of rising interest rates due to inflationary pressure in several countries around the world, including the United States, which had the biggest price rise in 40 years, companies in the technology sector were affected negatively.

The technology giants then began a wave of layoffs and job eliminations between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 to cut costs and return to growth. But it was not enough and now we are once again seeing massive cuts in companies in the sector.

“Big techs became leaner with the layoffs, but there is still inflation that is not relenting,” says Igreja.

According to the expert, the still challenging macroeconomic scenario in the world generates an adaptation process, as the slower growth of economies reduces advertisements and sponsorships as a result of a smaller number of subscribers to applications and streaming platforms.

“Just when we imagined that the big tech market would calm down, a new wave of layoffs comes, reflecting the instability of the financial system, which directly affects the stock markets,” says Igreja.

In addition to the remnants of inflation and rising interest rates, a factor that has become central in these new layoffs in big tech, according to Igreja, is the widespread insertion of artificial intelligence in business.

With Reuters