U.S. Layoffs Reach Two-Year High as Big Tech Cut Thousands of Jobs in January
American companies revealed last month that they had the largest number Layoffs In preparation for a possible ahref=”, tech companies have reduced their positions at the fastest pace since September 2020.https://www.theepochtimes.com/t-recession”>recession.
The layoffs included 102,943 workers in January, more than twice the amount in December and up 440 percent from the same month in 2022, according to employment analytics firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., February 2.
The report indicated that the tech sector was responsible for 41% of the planned layoffs. Retailers and financial firms saw their workforces increase from last year.
January’s layoffs were the largest since 2009. In 2009, 241,749 were reported. They were also the most since September 2020 when 118.804 job cuts were reported.
“We’re now on the other side of the hiring frenzy of the pandemic years,” Andrew Challenger, Challenger’s senior vice president, said in a statement.
“Companies are preparing for an economic slowdown, cutting workers and slowing hiring.”
Although layoffs across the economy are generally low, companies have been announcing job cuts in recent months.
White-Collar Positions: Layoffs begin to mount
The tech sector suffered the largest job losses in any industry, with 41,829 jobs being lost during the pandemic.
Amazon, Microsoft and PayPal are among the largest tech companies, along with Alphabet, Alphabet, Alphabet, and PayPal, that worry about an economic downturn. This is because of falling consumer and corporate spending due to rising inflation. Interest rates.
According to the report, technology companies have made 110,793 job reductions since November 2022.
Retail suffered the second highest number of layoffs, with 13,000 positions being eliminated in January. This is compared to virtually no layoffs in the previous year.
After a period of high growth, consumer spending has started to slow down in recent months.
Even financial giants such as Goldman Sachs Group have had to reduce their workforces. The financial sector lost 10,603 jobs last month, up 696 from a year ago.
This was followed by real estate, which lost 2,191 jobs over the same period. Construction companies, however, saw their jobs drop to around 1,100 in December.
Despite the fact that the Federal Reserve has reduced the amount of its interest-rate hikes after several rounds of huge increases, it is still expected to maintain its hawkish policy against inflation. Companies fear this will cause an economic slowdown as well as further layoffs.
A broader job market remains stable
Despite recent layoffs and other challenges, the wider workforce remains strong. Job market remains strong, with weekly jobless claims falling to their lowest level in nine months, to 183,000, the lowest figure since April, according To the Labor Department on January 26.
Last week’s report showed the unemployment rate remaining steady at near 50-year lows over the past two years, hitting 3.5 percent in December.
Economists project that the department’s latest jobs report, which will be released tomorrow, will show a gain of roughly 215,000 jobs in January.
The economy created 223,000 jobs in December, while unemployment rate is expected to rise from 3.5 percent in December to 3.6 percent, according to most estimates.
Meanwhile, the number of open jobs rose to 11 million in December, or 5.5 percent from the previous month, with 1.9 openings for every unemployed person..
Employers announced plans to hire 32,764 workers in January, primarily in the entertainment and leisure sectors, but the numbers of new hires are down 58 percent from the 77,630 during the same month last year and with a decline of 37 percent from the 51,693 from December, according to government data.
This report was compiled by Reuters
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