The tech bloodbath continues, as Yahoo! will eliminate 20% of its workforce and Disney announces its own layoffs and cost-cutting measures. It’s just the latest in a series of high-profile downsizing as the likelihood of recession or at least economic stagnation becomes more and more difficult to ignore.
When it comes to tech businesses, the year didn’t start off with a bang but a whimper as Amazon, Microsoft and Google announced that they would be laying off staff members.
In his State of the Union speech, President Joe Biden said, “I ran for President to fundamentally change things to make sure the economy works for everyone so we can feel pride in what we do.”
Unfortunately, it’s not working for those in the tech industry, most of whom are facing life outside their cushy tech bubble.
The latest is Yahoo!, which is planning on laying off about 20% of its workforce and restructuring its remaining employees. That will impact more than 1,600 people, with the first staff group eliminated this week.
Though the company is remains profitable overall at this point, its ad platform struggles to compete with Google or Meta (Facebook).
In a statement, its spokesperson told the BBC: “These decisions are never easy, but we believe these changes will simplify and strengthen our advertising business for the long run, while enabling Yahoo to deliver better value to our customers and partners.”
Disney is also laying off 7,000 staff members, or 3% of its workforce, and scaling back funding on content. The company believes that this will save about $5.5 billion in costs. This is the after the company publicly fired short-lived CEO Bob Chapek and rehired former CEO Bob Iger. Though it has some of the biggest franchises in the world, even that can’t help the company, which has overly embraced wokeness in recent years and paying the price.
As Karol Markowicz stated in a recent opinion piece with Fox News, “On Wednesday, Disney announced it would be laying off 7,000 employees and going through its third restructuring in five years. This is not a healthy company. The parks, though, remain a bright spot in the Disney portfolio and are some of the few money-producers that Disney has.”
She also shared that in her recent park experience, rides experienced an inordinate number of technical issues, which is usually unheard of for Disney. A sign of one of the world’s most profitable businesses starting to crack.
Meta is also restructuring and has reportedly asked some managers to move to a different role or find another job.
Microsoft, which downsized its staff earlier this year already, has announced another round of 617 employees.
Beyond the layoffs, the general public is feeling the pinch. A recent Gallup Poll reported that 50% of respondents said they are “financially worse off” compared to a year ago. These results are on par with what people were saying during the Great Recession between 2008 to 2009.
There are some who optimistically believe that the country may avoid a recession entirely, though the economy will likely still contract. Regardless, there are still some severe worries within the tech industry and the country isn’t out of the woods yet.
