Google, Meta lead Big Tech layoffs. All you need to know

Most of these firms have either halted fresh hiring or announced deep job cuts as they try hard to find a way to stay afloat and continue on their path to profitability. Google and Meta have announced the most significant layoffs among all the Big Tech firms at 10,000 and 11,000, respectively.

However, Amazon has time and again denied the layoffs, even calling some of the terminations voluntary separation. Here’s a look at what happened at both the internet giants.

Amazon
Last month, the world’s biggest etailer
Amazon started laying off employees in an effort to trim costs, increase operating margins and increase profits amid the tech winter and fears of an impending recession.

The company notified the regional authorities in California that it would lay off about 260 workers at various facilities employing data scientists, software engineers, and corporate workers. The job cuts would be effective from January 17.

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According to a New York Times report, the number of employees that could be sacked was about 10,000, starting with corporate and technology roles.

Interestingly, according to a widely-circulated media report from ComputerWorld, Amazon – which employs more than 1.6 million globally – may lay off around 20,000 employees, including corporate executives.

However, the firm has stood on its stance that it did not lay off employees but restructured its organisation in times of adversity.

Amazon chief executive officer
Andy Jassy has defended mass layoffs at the company, saying, “We just felt like we needed to streamline our costs.”

Speaking at the New York Times DealBook Summit, Jassy justified the firm’s decision to sack people en masse due to the rising economic uncertainty.

According to a Fortune report, Jassy said Amazon’s retail business grew quickly during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, which “forced us to make decisions at that time to spend a lot more money and to go much faster in building infrastructure than we ever imagined we would”.

In India, too, the firm has had a similar stance. It wrote to the labour ministry
playing down the layoffs in India, saying it was a 100% voluntary separation programme with a severance package.

“VSP is a completely voluntary program under which employees opt to receive a fair severance package. At no stage will Amazon India coax or direct its employees to opt for the VSP,” the ecommerce major replied to the labour ministry when asked about the reasons for the layoffs.

Also read |
Amazon India likely to axe jobs amid global layoffs

Meta

In November, Facebook-parent Meta said it had
laid off 11,000 employees, a little over a tenth of its global workforce, making it the second major announcement of job cuts by a global social media company after Twitter let go of nearly half its workforce.

In a statement shared with Meta employees, co-founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said that going ahead, the company would make further cuts on discretionary spending and extend the freeze on fresh hiring until March 2023.

Zuckerberg’s note said as more people stayed online during the Covid-19 pandemic, Meta expanded its investments since it hoped the trend would continue post-pandemic as well.

“Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,” he said.

However, the impact might not be significant for the employees in India, sources told ET.

Meta employs about 400 people in India across functions from engineering to products, sales and external communications.

In response to ET’s queries on the issue, a spokesperson for Meta India said that the company would not be “providing details on specific team impact”.

Last December, Meta India opened its first standalone office in Asia at Gurugram. The new facility, spread over 130,000 sq ft, houses all three platforms – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.