US companies have seen a fourfold increase in layoffs this year, with the technology industry being the most aggressive

Source: Business Times

    Concerns about potential economic recession have led American employers to slash their workforce. The latest data shows that since 2023, American companies have cut over 270000 employees, almost five times the same period in 2022.

    According to the latest report from human resources agency Challenger Gray&Christmas, as of early April this year, US employers have cut a total of 270416 jobs, setting the highest quarterly record since the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020. This is about 4.9 times the number of 55696 jobs in the same period last year, with an annual increase of approximately 396%.

    In March alone, employers in the United States laid off 89700 employees, with an annual growth rate of 319% and a monthly growth rate of 15%, reflecting the accelerated streamlining of workforce by enterprises. This year, the technology industry has seen the most severe layoffs, with a cumulative reduction of 102391 employees, a surge of 38487% compared to 267 in the same period a year ago, and accounting for 38% of the overall layoffs this year.

    The report shows that just after the first quarter of this year, the number of layoffs in the technology industry has exceeded the level of last year, and may even rewrite the record of 2001, when the number of layoffs caused by the network foam hit the worst record in history.

    The industry with the second highest number of layoffs is the finance industry, with a total of 30635 layoffs, a 419% increase compared to the same period last year. The healthcare and retail industries are closely following in terms of layoffs.

    Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President of Challenger, stated that although the US economy continues to create job opportunities, entering the new year, companies are becoming more cautious and cautious. Due to the continuous interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve of the United States, forcing companies to strive to reduce costs, it is expected that the large-scale layoff wave in the United States may continue.

    As for the main reason for layoffs in enterprises, which is due to poor market and economic conditions, cost reduction is also another important consideration for employers. The technology giants that announced layoffs this year include Google‘s parent company Alphabet, Facebook‘s parent company Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, Cisco, Yahoo, Spotify, and Lyft.