Although the tech industry has seen a shocking number of job cuts last year, 2023 has been much worse….reports Asian Lite News
Tech companies have laid off 226,000 employees so far this year, almost 40 per cent more than in 2022, a report showed on Tuesday.
Although the tech industry has seen a shocking number of job cuts last year, 2023 has been much worse.
The massive wave of layoffs has shut down hundreds of thousands of workplaces, turning 2023 into the worst year the tech industry has ever seen, according to data by AltIndex.com.
Between January and December 2022, tech companies laid off 164,744 employees, almost eleven times more than 15,000 reported a year before, as per data from Layoffs.fyi.
A shocking 75,912 people lost their jobs in January alone, almost half of all layoffs reported in 2022.
February saw a decline with roughly 40,000 job cuts. Although the number of layoffs continued falling in the next three months, tech companies still reported almost 73,000 job cuts in this period.
Since then, they have let go nearly 24,000 staff members, pushing the total number of layoffs to 226,117 as of last week, said the report.
Facing an uncertain global economy, inflation, ongoing supply chain issues, and slowing revenue growth, the tech companies picked up the pace of layoffs in 2023, led by giants like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon.
“But hundreds of other smaller tech companies, from retail and crypto to the transportation market, have also been forced to make painful cost-cutting measures, resulting in the highest number of layoffs the tech industry has ever seen,” the report noted.
The layoff figures for the last three years are even worse. Statistics show that tech companies laid off more than 405,000 people since the beginning of 2021.
US tech giants had a massive role in the 2023 wave of layoffs. In fact, statistics show US companies made eight out of the ten largest job cuts reported this year, the report noted.
CoinDesk to slash workforce
Cryptocurrency news company CoinDesk is reportedly slashing its workforce, as a group of investors was likely in the final stages to acquire it for about $125 million, the media reported on Monday.
According to an internal email seen by TechCrunch, Kevin Worth, CEO of CoinDesk, wrote that “several roles, predominantly in our media team, were impacted by a reduction in force”.
“This was a required step to ensure a financially sound business moving forward and to set us on the path to close the deal to sell CoinDesk,” Worth added.
CoinDesk was yet to comment on the development.
Last week, reports surfaced that a group of investors is reportedly in final stages to acquire cryptocurrency news company CoinDesk.
CoinDesk is currently owned by crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG), which acquired it in 2016.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a group led by blockchain investors Matthew Roszak of Tally Capital and Peter Vessenes of Capital6 were “nearing a $125 million deal for CoinDesk”.
CoinDesk is a news site specialising in bitcoin and digital currencies. It also provides guides to bitcoin for those new to digital currencies.
Founded by entrepreneur Shakil Khan in 2013, the site was subsequently acquired by DCG for an estimated $500,000-$600,000.
In 2017, the company acquired blockchain data and research platform Lawnmower. In 2021, it acquired cryptocurrency data analytics firm TradeBlock.
According to reports, the acquisition of CoinDesk, if it happens, will help strengthen DCG’s financial condition.
Investors closes in on acquiring CoinDesk for $125 mn: Report
SecureWorks joins layoff club
Cyber-security company SecureWorks has announced to lay off 15 per cent of its workforce, in its second round of job cuts this year.
In a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SecureWorks said that it would incur about $14.2 million in expenses due to the layoffs.
These expenses are anticipated to consist primarily of severance and other termination benefits, as well as real estate-related expenses.
“SecureWorks announced to employees a plan to reduce the company’s workforce by approximately 15 per cent and to implement certain real estate‑related cost optimisation actions,” it said in the filing.
The company’s CEO Wendy Thomas said there is the need to “simplify and scale our business and to deliver profitable growth”.
In February this year, SecureWorks, backed by Dell Technologies, had laid off about 9 per cent of the workforce globally as part of its restructuring
plans.
The company last disclosed its workforce in a regulatory filing in March 2022 to 2,351 employees.
“Our business is evolving with our partners and customers in support of their security needs,” Thomas had said.
Last week, another US-based cybersecurity firm Rapid7 laid off around 470 employees, or 18 per cent of its workforce.
The Boston-based company expects that the majority of the restructuring charges will be incurred in the third and fourth quarter of 2023.
The company had over 2,600 full-time employees and over 700 employees in Massachusetts.