If you have not noticed yet, it looks like the economy might be slowing down. This seems like the perfect opportunity for companies to look at their expenses, overheads, inefficiencies, etc.
Some of these companies are now looking into understanding how labor heavy they are. They are wondering if by any chance they have hired way too many employees when the times were better.
The big hiring sprees seem to have paused and in so many cases, have halted to a full stop.
Recruiters of these big tech firms are officially announcing that they are slowing down.
It’s clear that the market is experiencing a seismic shift and we need to react accordingly.
Dara Khosrowshahi
How official is all of this? Well, many big tech companies have now made public announcements that they are scaling back their hiring and recruitment efforts, after going through many months of tech worker shortages not too long ago.
Meta’s CFO David Wehner spoke to employees last week about the fact that they will now reduce their hiring targets for 2022. This, he emphasized will affect nearly every department. This is based on a memo obtained by Insider.
At the same time, CNBC managed to get access to an email in which Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi addresses employees by saying any hiring ad recruitment efforts will now be treated as a “privilege”.
He further added – “It’s clear that the market is experiencing a seismic shift and we need to react accordingly.”
Finally, if you go by the information which the industry layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi is providing, you will see that this year 2022 there have been at least 66 tech companies with layoffs.
What’s causing all of these layoffs and hiring freezes?
As with most cases in this world, there isn’t just one cause behind all of this. First of all, as mentioned earlier: fast-growth phases have led many companies to hire more people than they actually needed or certainly more than they could sustain paying for if the economy slows down.
However, an underlying pattern right now seems to be also fears or at least caution of a possible recession.
After hitting a 40-Year High, inflation has cooled off. Of course, it has cooled nowhere near as much as it would need to in order to give us some confidence. For now, let’s hope for a soft landing with the much-dreaded recession.