Recession concerns are growing after several of the biggest companies in the world, including Google, Amazon and Microsoft, all begin massive layoffs. It raises serious questions about the future of the economy, especially after the country hit the debt ceiling, but the Biden administration seems undisturbed.

“The good times seem to be over.” That’s what Megan Leonhardt of Yahoo! Finance is arguing when it comes to it being a workers’ market. 

During the pandemic, flexibility and work from home arrangements were king and workers had the opportunity to choose the environment that worked best suited for them and their lifestyle—but no more.

An unpredictable market and a looming recession meant that big tech companies, that were binge hiring at the height of the pandemic, are now cutting staff.

This month alone, Amazon, Google and Microsoft have laid off 51,000 employees.

Amazon laid off 18,000 of its staff members, with computers often wiped remotely to avoid potential sabotage. Given that Amazon is the largest company in the world with over a million employees, that only represents 1.5% of their staff members but it is still concerning.  

Microsoft, another company based in the Seattle area like Amazon, has also culled 10,000 of its staff, which represents 4.5% of its workforce. 

The final big company to downsize its team by 12,000 was Alphabet, which owns both Google and YouTube. Surprisingly, some of the positions were high-ranking or long-tenured employees, with “senior” and “director” in their titles.

According to some reports, a small number of employees we’re aware they had been laid off until they tried to go into work in the morning and their badge didn’t work. Another group working offsite realized, in the middle of their session, that two of their team members had been let go. 

Dan Ives, a tech analyst and managing director at Wedbush Securities, told The Los Angeles Times in regard to the hiring binges and now laying off of staff members: “Now, the clock’s struck midnight for hyper-growth, [and] you’re seeing tech CEOs rip the Band-Aid off.”

It appears that the Biden administration isn’t interested in doing the same. 

In a recent speech, Pres. Joe Biden told an audience in Virginia that the Republicans will ruin the economy if they get their way.

“We’re moving in the right direction. Now we’ve got to protect those gains … that our policies have generated, protect them from the MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives who are threatening to destroy our progress,” he said.

It’s likely that the CEOs and employees of these tech companies would strongly disagree. A strong and robust economy usually doesn’t mean massive layoffs. It appears like we’re going in the wrong direction, but apparently down is up and up is down in the Biden White House.

Now it’s unclear if the Republican plan would address the situation or make it worse, but stating we’re going in the “right direction” when there are clear alarm bells about the country’s economic future should give anyone pause.