​Never in the past two decades have so many tech companies, from giants to startups, announced layoffs or hiring freezes. Stocks tumbled and optimism waned sharply after the technology sector performed brilliantly during the pandemic while other sectors struggled.

Amazon has announced that it will freeze hiring in the “corporate” sphere for several months, Elon Musk may lay off half of Twitter’s employees, and Apple, wanting to save money, will freeze hiring outside of the research and development sector.

Lyft, one of Uber’s main rivals, will cut 700 jobs, and payments company Stripe will cut its workforce by 14%. Even Google and Microsoft, which have been hiring thousands of people, have announced they will grow their workforces as little as possible.

Why is he here? The war in Ukraine is playing its part, inflation is rising, so are interest rates, and in the US more and more people are talking about the approach of a recession.

The statements of the heads of companies that want to save money refer to a “cautious approach” to the situation and the need to “carefully monitor the situation”, but everything is serious, because the companies that were increasing their number and with tens of thousands of people in one year. There is an urgent need to save.

Things are also bad for startups, with data showing a 53% drop in investment by small companies between July and September compared to the same period in 2021. This year, more than 700 companies laid off 83,000 people.

Many investors were too optimistic and believed that the boom would last for many years. Others have consistently warned that a prolonged downturn is coming even in technology, an industry that has almost always succeeded.

Sources: New York Times, Washington Post

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