Why Google, Microsoft, Amazon are Cutting Jobs?

By Starrys Obazei | January 28, 2023
starrys@ddnewsonline.com

Tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon are firing employees this January, 2023, and IndiaToday gives plausible causes …

Most tech CEOs have said that business spiked at an all-time high during the pandemic – which is around 2020 and 2021 – and for that reason they hired thousands of new employees.

Considering the demand of that time most tech companies overhired people.

The CEOs of these tech companies have accepted full responsibility for layoffs, and rightly so, as the fault was theirs. Now, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella or Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, have hinted at “overhiring” at some point in time as the key reason behind layoffs.

One of the CEOs also blamed global recession which has already started in some parts of the world.

Most them have said that business spiked at an all-time high during the pandemic – which is around 2020 and 2021 – and for that reason they hired thousands of new employees. Now, it is because of employees working at firms are paying for the mistakes that the tech giant CEOs have made.

The CEOs also blamed the macro-economic conditions as another reason behind so many people losing jobs.

At the time of announcing layoffs, one of the CEOs, Pichai clearly said: “Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”

Though Pichai didn’t clearly state that Google overhired, he tacitly mentioned that the company hired to “fuel” the growing demand which didn’t match the target of the company.

Already, Google has announced firing 12,000 employees worldwide, starting with the United States.

Similarly, Nadella of Microsoft, also hinted that they overhired employees during the pandemic and that has led to some roles being redundant.

“We’re living through times of significant change, and as I meet with customers and partners, a few things are clear.

“First, as we saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, we’re now seeing them optimize their digital spend to do more with less. We’re also seeing organizations in every industry and geography exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one.

At the same time, the next major wave of computing is being born with advances in artificial intelligence, AI, as we’re turning the world’s most advanced models into a new computing platform,” Nadella wrote in a letter to employees. Microsoft fired 10,000 employees globally.

Amazon CEO firstly blamed the “uncertain economy” and then said that the company overhired people.

“This year’s review has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years,” Jassy wrote in the official blogpost. The tech giant announced to cut over 18,000 employees.

The tech industry is going through a tough time with thousands of people losing jobs. Alongside Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, many other tech companies, including Twitter, Meta, Salesforce, among others, have fired hundreds and thousands of employees globally.