Homegrown companies on hiring spree as Big Tech sheds talent

Last updated on March 9th, 2023 at 07:02 am

Startup layoffs declined last month after a large spike in January… but remain elevated compared to most of 2022.

In addition to startups with relatively few employees, layoffs.fyi also counts large, publicly traded companies, such as IBM, Salesforce, and Uber. Here’s the breakdown from May 2022 to the present:

Tech Startup Layoffs, May 2022 – Feb 2023

As a result of the inclusion of massive companies on the list, layoffs spiked in January before tumbling in February. A number of the nation’s biggest tech giants laid off tens of thousands of employees in the first four weeks of 2023. After Amazon laid off 8,000 employees, Salesforce announced a similar cut soon after; Microsoft, Google, Spotify, IBM, Philips, and SAP then made similar cuts.

By the time February rolled around, many of the companies with the most tech workers had already begun reducing headcount. Although some prominent brands also cut staff last month, the numbers were relatively small compared to January—Yahoo let 1,600 workers go, while Zoom let 1,300 goes.

Layoffs.fyi updates its numbers frequently, so there’s a possibility February’s total might still increase. Whether the major tech companies will continue with significant lay-offs during 2023 is unclear. CompTIA’s analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that the rate of tech unemployment dropped to 1.5 percent in January and many industries apart from tech reported strong demand for tech jobs at the start of 2021; insurance saw 30,576 postings and manufacturing 24,269 postings.

Despite layoffs being frightening, organizations across the economy are hungry for tech talent of all kinds.

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