Are we secure in our jobs? More big tech lay off coming

Xidu

First FB announced hire freeze for any jobs under ICT7

then Twitter slow hiring

snap slow hiring

today Elon Musk announced 10% layoff n hire freeze

on the opposite side:

microsoft announced 15% salary increase

Apple still building another office building soon amid 1300 more hiring in future

now Microsoft n Apple bot have billions cash sitting in bank for recession

also yesterday Microsoft announced lower revenue budget expectation for next quarter

Apple already said in last ER that this quarter’ revenue will be hurt becoz of Russia/U, and supply chain challenge.

circadian

It's a huge sector, while it's a shame people are losing jobs it's also a plus seeing the likes of FB and Twitter reducing in size.

There are a handful of companies that basically own the internet through data collection and sales. They offer little by way of a product, we are the product and we get nothing but data manipulation in return.

DaSchmo

Profitable tech companies sitting on large cash piles (which there are a few of) and unprofitable debt laden tech companies companies (which there are a lot of) are probably two very different places to be. There is a day of reckoning coming for the latter now that the magic free money tree has been taken away in the era of rising inflation and interest rates, unless they make some major changes fast.

KildareP

Not necessarily anything that hasn't happened before - the modern day equivalent of the dotcom bubble.

Microsoft and Apple produce something tangible - software, hardware, services, strong brand buy-in.

Facebook, Twitter produce absolutely nothing tangible - they're nothing but an advertising platform that relies solely on being able to suck as much data about everyone, whether or not they're actual users, as possible and then selling it in the form of targeted ads at a premium. Regulatory changes, user pushback and privacy improvements are hitting their ability to do that as effectively so it's starting to hit their ability to advertise. If they can't advertise then their whole reason for existence becomes weakened.

Tesla being the other example - a large portion of their income to date (in the order of billions) has been in selling all of their unneeded carbon credits to other vehicle manufacturers to offset against their still primarily fuel based vehicles. Up until now, the other car manufacturers were in many ways Tesla's customers - now they're direct competitors, no longer needing to buy carbon credits whilst also trying to sell their own EV's against Tesla's. Musk's recent behaviour and accusations regarding his past is not doing much good for him or the company's image either.

divillybit

I got a really good OOM result for a civil service recruitment campaign lately and I'm expecting to get a job offer soon, but I'd have go in at the bottom of pay scale and would mean taking about 18k of a pay cut from my private sector job.. I'll have much better prospects of a pay rises and progression in the public service. I know my employer will impose a 10% pay cut at the first sign of a slowdown.

Not sure whether jumping to the Civil service and taking a hefty pay cut would be worth it even in uncertain times

seamus

Not saying that everything is hunky dory, but as KildareP points out there are many reasons why some companies will be cutting back as opposed to there being some generalised "big tech" slowdown. Tesla make cars, Facebook sells ads. They're two entirely separate industries in reality. They are grouped as "big tech" by lazy journalists, but it's an outdated model that thinks "Runs on computers" == "Technology company".

A slowdown at the big social media companies though is relatively good for many western economies, as they have been a significant driver of higher wages, which feeds into housing costs, inflation, etc. The world has seen a big post-covid surge, but these things always have to balance out in the longer term. So we're likely to see 2-3 years of instability. Some industries will struggle with costs and reduced demand, some others will continue to be increasing wages and hiring like billy-o.