Massive IT Layoffs 2023

We all have heard -and getting concerned with- the news lately, telling us about the massive layoffs happening all across the IT sector, affecting MANG companies (Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix) to smaller IT companies in various countries.

Where this started is something that can be argued. A popular view is that this originated with Elon Musk takeover of Twitter, at a time when the finances of the company were not doing well and was pushed to do massive layouts to turn Twitter into a profitable company.

That was a hard mission, since at the time Twitter was at odds with some of its customers (advertisers). Losing revenue in the middle of a crisis pushed Musk to cut even further the number of staff in order to tackle these losses.

Investors of other large IT american firms were watching closely and as Twitter continued to run with no visible impact (at least, not to outsiders until now) to its operations, service and functionality, we can take for granted that they pushed their CEOs into also decreasing the number of staff in their organizations.

This was of course not the only fact, it is well known that strategic projects of some of the major IT players in Silicon Valley have lagged behind or been cancelled altogether, such as Meta's VR world, or Google's Fuchsia. Furthermore, all this happenned at a time when companies were exhausted of having to cope with shrinking economies due to the impact of Coronavirus government responses and large inflation rates in most of the OECD countries.

In any case, whatever the reason is, the facts are that thousands of people lost their jobs. By now we have read hundreds of articles in the media covering the personal situations of some of the individuals who suffered the layoffs. Despite all economic downturns are leading to sad situations, that we all deeply regret, and we show solidarity to all people impacted on these recent staff cuts, we would like to bring a bit cheerier message than usual, which is actually brought by macro-data (as opposed as the traditional press zooming on individual hand-picked cases, with the goal of generating views):

The total layoffs in the IT industry world-wide are less than 1.5% of all total IT workforce. After weeks of reading fear-inducing articles, knowing this figure should sound as a relief for most. Less than 2% of people is a relatively easy number of people to accommodate in other jobs. Traditionally, companies plan for their budget figures late in the year, as most companies initiate their fiscal year in January or March of the next year. This means that Managers and Directors all around the world come up with all the ideas and wish-letters to their CEOs and investors to execute their plans, many of which get green-lighted and require means (people, tools and investment) to be completed.

he fact that the sad news about the massive layoffs came some time in December 2022, with no doubt must have been reason enough for many CEOs and investors to freeze any investments until further notice. But the plans and the wishes to keep implementing ideas are not gone, just that the snooze button has been pushed up to the moment when bad news cease to flow, which might be sooner than we expect. This may actually be a good time to hire employees, as those who know best take economic downturns as the best chances to reinforce themselves.

In fact, those companies that are not quick enough, may lose the chance since, after a little less than two months, most of those IT professionals have already found other jobs! These are happy news, that we regret not to see in news as often as the bad ones.

Logically speaking, it does make a lot of sense as good IT professionals are always highly sought after. We are sure that if the number (of relocations) is not even higher, is not because of lack of offer, but because some of those professionals have worked very hard for long years, and are taking a chance to have a little time off before starting a new project with more energy than ever.

Certainly, there are also some cases who were paid very high salaries in large IT Silicon Valley firms, and now are struggling to find the same offering. Whereas it is a hard knock to go one step back, some of those professionals eventually will have to face that some of the large Silicon Valley companies had very large budgets that other firms cannot compete with, and reach agreements with smaller firms who will be happy to sign them with a variable income agreement, tying the income of their professionals to the success of those companies.

In fact, we know for a fact that some smaller IT firms see this time as a true blessing. These companies were struggling to compete to find good staff as some TOP tech firms were hiring so many good staff on IT, that even if they did tremendous efforts to try and offer similar salary packages, professionals turned down their offerings in hopes of getting more recognition in large firms.

So for many companies who are wise enough to find the right candidate, this will be a time of opportunities, and we will see their success stories after some time from now. Good results always come to those who are passionate about their mission, and the wise ones always manage to make the most of all situations, especially the bad ones !

So, many projects are being dormant but will wake up soon!
Do you want to be on the lead to get opportunities that the IT job market may have today for you? Contact us!
Make the most of the current situation and be the one who can show their success stories in the near future, after having hired the necessary new colleagues to make their plans come true.