Last year ended with major tech companies announcing layoffs, leaving thousands of employees jobless. The year 2023 has been no better as more tech giants, from Google to Microsoft to International Business Machines (IBM), have laid off their employees. Among the recent ones to shed staff to restructure their workforce are SAP and IBM.
SAP SE announced on Thursday that it was planning to cut about 3,000 jobs, 2.5 per cent of its staff, this year while exploring a sale of its remaining stake in Qualtrics International Inc. as the company looks for ways to boost profit. The software company said the job cuts were a strategic move and “not related to our business momentum.”
Following job cuts this month from Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and other tech giants, IBM, too, announced that it was shedding 3,900 jobs. The tech sector had announced 97,171 job cuts in 2022, up 649 per cent compared to the previous year.
A day ago, Prosus NV and its South African parent Naspers said they were laying off up to 30 per cent of jobs at their corporate offices.
In a statement, a Prosus spokesperson said, “We are adapting to a changing macro environment and have been working for some time to strengthen our cost structures. Today we are announcing a reduction of some roles as we realign our efforts on specific areas and reduce our cost base.”
Citing the economic downturn, 3M, too, has also said that it will lay off 2,500 workers in the manufacturing sector. In a statement, 3M said the job cuts are needed as the production volumes have declined, Bloomberg reported.
Salesforce, which had hired “too many people” as it said, announced it plans to cut jobs by 10 per cent and close some offices due to the looming economic slowdown. “As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that,” Salesforce co-Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff said.
Among the companies that have announced layoffs include Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter, Meta, and Spotify. While Google laid off 12,000 employees in response to the changing “economic reality”, Microsoft cut off 10,000 employees to “emerge from the situation”.
“We will align our cost structure with our revenue and where we see customer demand. Today, we are making changes that will result in the reduction of our overall workforce by 10,000 jobs through the end of FY23 Q3,” Satya Nadella said.
Amazon laid off 18,000 employees, and Meta announced 10,000 job cuts.
(With agency inputs)
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