After a decade of exuberance, Silicon Valley start-ups, venture capitalists and established tech companies alike are cutting investment and firing workers, prompting some in the tech world to openly predict a US recession is on the way.
Tech Layoffs And Hiring Freezes Appear To Accelerate
While earlier in the year, much of the talk in the tech sector focused on falling valuations, dropping stock prices and slower funding rounds, a lot of chatter the past two months has been around something that hits much closer to home for many people.
Many tech companies are slowing or outright freezing hiring, while others are going a step further and laying employees off—and the pace seems to be accelerating.
Just since April, companies ranging from personalized video platforms Cameo to Facebook parent meta are altering their employment plans. Cameo is reportedly cutting 80 employees—25 percent of its workforce–per The Informationwhile Meta is freezing hiring through the end of the year, according to Business Insiders.
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While the exact number of layoffs in the tech sector in recent months is hard to quantify, Crunchbase data shows more is being written about layoffs this month than since the pandemic in 2020. In the week of May 2, Crunchbase recorded 43 layoff signals—news sources and articles that mentioned layoffs—the highest figure since September 2020.
However, that number is well off the highs seen in the first several months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the fall and winter of 2020, when companies tried to conserve cash and layoff signals hovered mainly in the 70 to 80 range weekly, according to Crunch database.
The job market
None of this is to say the job