Big Tech Binged on Workers During Covid. Now, the Purge.

27Jan

By adminNo Comments

Technology

Big Tech Binged on Workers During Covid. Now, the Purge.

The spate of layoffs is a reaction to a hiring wave during the pandemic that got out of hand. But will it be an overreaction? The layoff announcements coming lately from the chief executive officers of big technology companies all contain variations on the theme of “we hired too many people during the pandemic,” expressed with varying degrees of contrition. At one end of the spectrum are Seattleites Andy Jassy of Amazon.com Inc. and Satya Nadella of Microsoft Corp. Amazon's layoffs were simply an outgrowth of its annual review, Jassy wrote, although he did allow that “this year's review has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we've hired rapidly over the last several years.” Microsoft's Nadella opted for bland corporatespeak: “As we saw customers accelerate th...

Google Slashes Most Jobs at Area 120 Incubator as Part of Cuts

Alphabet Inc.’s Google has cut most of the jobs at Area 120, its in-house incubator for new projects, as part of a broad wave of layoffs across the company. Alphabet Inc.'s Google has cut most of the jobs at Area 120, its in-house incubator for new projects, as part of a broad wave of layoffs across the company. Three projects in the incubator will “graduate” later this year, meaning they will be folded into Google, a company spokesperson said Friday. “We have made the difficult decision to wind down the majority of the Area 120 team,” the spokesperson said. The managing partner of Area 120 remains with the company, the spokesperson said. Virtually all other workers who weren't involved in the three projects have lost their jobs, according to two people with knowledge of the m...

Google cuts 12,000 jobs as tech woes bite again

The layoffs come a day after Microsoft said it would reduce staff numbers by 10,000 in the coming months, following similar cuts by Facebook owner Meta, Amazon and Twitter as the tech sector girds for economic downturn. Google's parent company Alphabet announced Friday it will cut about 12,000 jobs globally, citing a changing economic reality as it became the latest US tech giant to enact large-scale restructuring. The layoffs come a day after Microsoft said it would reduce staff numbers by 10,000 in the coming months, following similar cuts by Facebook owner Meta, Amazon and Twitter as the tech sector girds for economic downturn. The cuts follow a major hiring spree during the height of the coronavirus pandemic when companies scrambled to meet demand as people went online for w...