The cuts at two of the industry’s largest and most profitable companies show that the tech world isn’t done with the waves of layoffs that began in 2022. After a massive hiring spree during the early years of the pandemic, startups and big tech companies alike have laid off dozens Thousands of workers because rising interest rates make investing in new projects more expensive, and companies seek to increase their profitability, rather than focus on growth.
At Google, the cuts were a continuation of layoffs that have hit teams including the navigation app Waze, new hires, and Google News.
“Over the course of the second half of 2023, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and perform better, and to align their resources with their biggest product priorities. Some teams continue to make these types of organizational changes,” said Chris Pappas, a Google spokesman. “Responsibly address our company’s top priorities and the big opportunities ahead.”
The cuts on Wednesday hit the company’s hardware division and included a reorganization of the teams that work on Fitbit, its Nest home appliance division and Pixel smartphones.
Google has invested billions of dollars over many years to build devices and compete with Apple in the smartphone and smartwatch markets and Amazon in home appliances, but the division is still small compared to its core business in advertising and search.
The cuts at Amazon and Google this week are small compared to the thousands of workers the companies have fired in 2022 and 2023. Amazon said it will lay off about 27,000 workers starting at the end of 2022 and continuing through 2023. Google cut 12,000 jobs in 2023. January 2023, about 6 percent of its workforce. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said that at the end of 2022, it will eliminate 11,000 jobs, or 13 percent of its workers.
Layoffs have rocked Silicon Valley, ending an era when tech workers were confident they could jump from high-paying job to high-paying job every few years. Startup funding has also declined. This gloom has only been alleviated by the AI revolution, as investors have poured money into AI startups, and major technology companies have postponed some spending cuts to buy more computer chips and hire AI researchers in order to capitalize on consumer interest. In new technology.
“Our industry continues to evolve rapidly and it is important that we prioritize our investments for the long-term success of our business,” Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said in a letter to employees on Wednesday.