According to a Forbes report, 2023 brought a firestorm of layoffs across industries, with nearly 194,000 American workers out of a job in more than 150 major layoffs. Affecting the technology, banking, media and manufacturing sectors, this worrying trend has caused many to fear an impending recession.
Tech companies have faced an onslaught of these big layoffs, and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, saw one of its biggest rounds of cuts when it cut 12,000 jobs in January. CEO Sundar Pichai called it a “tough choice” to take advantage of the “enormous” opportunities that lie ahead.
In January alone, there were major layoffs of more than 74,000 employees, including Salesforce (cutting 7,900 jobs), Goldman Sachs (3,200) and IBM (3,900). Despite its rapid growth during the pandemic, Amazon decided to cut 8,000 jobs due to the uncertain economy after earlier laying off 10,000 workers in November.
Microsoft also made a big splash in layoffs when it announced 10,000 job cuts in January. Microsoft-owned GitHub followed with 300 layoffs in February, and another 158 employees were let go from Microsoft headquarters in May.
The layoffs are spreading across industries
Manufacturing giant 3M also saw several rounds of layoffs in 2023, cutting 2,500 positions in January and another 6,000 in April. Other notable layoffs this year include Morgan Stanley (3,000 jobs cut), David’s Bridal (over 9,200) , Dell (6,650) and Disney (7,000).
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has faced significant downsizing, with a total of 10,000 employees laid off in separate rounds. This included 4,000 employees in April and another 6,000 in May. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attributed the cuts to a “macroeconomic downturn” and called them the most challenging changes in the company’s history. Notably, in 2022, Meta made its biggest layoff of the year, with 11,000 employees losing their jobs.
The media industry is feeling the impact
The media landscape was not spared from the wave of layoffs in 2023, with nearly 40 media companies downsizing. ESPN recently announced cuts involving 20 on-screen employees, including longtime analyst Jeff Van Gundy. Other media outlets that have cut staff include Bloomberg (10 employees), Warner Bros. Discovery (100), The Athletic (20), The Los Angeles Times (74), Spotify (200) and Vice Media (100).
