While 2022 ended on a difficult note, 2023 began even more so. Widespread layoffs in various industries, particularly in technology, sent shock waves throughout the global economy. Reduced earnings, job uncertainty, and increased stress have increased anxiety around the world. But this fear shows no signs of ending anytime soon. The world has celebrated her new year of 2024, but the routine of employee reductions is not over.
In fact, January saw more layoffs, hinting at potentially large-scale layoffs in the coming months of 2024. In a recent report from Bloomberg citing Layoffs.fyi, the publication revealed that about 32,000 engineers have been laid off so far. This follows recent announcements of job cuts by top technology companies and startups, including Google, Amazon, Meta and others, as part of restructuring and cost-cutting measures.
New to the list is Snapchat’s parent company Snap. The company on Monday announced plans to reduce its workforce by 10 percent worldwide, affecting 540 employees across all divisions. Earlier, e-commerce site eBay announced it would lay off 1,000 employees in response to mass hiring due to the pandemic. The list is followed by major technology companies such as Amazon, Salesforce, Google, and Microsoft.
Roger Lee, founder of Layoffs.fyi, says two of the main reasons even big companies are having to make tough decisions are overemployment after the pandemic and “rising interest rates” over the past few months. . “Given the high interest rate environment and technology recession that lasted longer than originally expected, tech companies are still trying to correct overhiring during the pandemic surge,” he said in an email. “This year’s layoffs are typically smaller and more targeted than those from a year ago.”
Another prominent reason for layoffs is competition in artificial intelligence. Lee points out that companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google are competing to advance artificial intelligence and are shifting resources to focus on AI talent. In a recent analysis, CompTIA found that “jobs related to artificial intelligence or requiring AI skills increased by about 2,000 from his December to January to 17,479.”
Despite these advances, advances in AI are also driving increased hiring in the sector, as tech companies cut jobs and layoffs to shift focus. According to reports, both companies are willing to hire more employees skilled in AI and machine learning. CompTIA’s report revealed that there were 33,727 active job postings in related fields in January alone. This is noted as the largest month-over-month increase in the past 12 months.
According to the report, the most in-demand AI-related jobs include AI researcher, senior applied scientist, software development engineer, AI technical solution lead, machine learning software engineer, robotics algorithm engineer, generative AI quality engineer, and AI data scientist. , which includes Machine Learning Engineer jobs. others.