With fears of recession rising, some of the world's largest technology companies are laying off staff. These job cuts are coming after rapid expansion over the last few years.
On January 18, Microsoft announced it will lay off 10,000 employees, reducing its workforce by 5 percent, and Amazon began conducting layoffs that will eventually slash over 17,000 jobs.
Microsoft and Amazon are joining tech industry peers including Alphabet and Meta which have also cut staff in recent months.
Most companies going through layoffs are blaming macroeconomic conditions and the possibility of a future recession for their belt-tightening. However, one factor that has gone underappreciated is how quickly tech companies were hiring during their expansion phases.
Apple, on the other hand, is an exception. Over the past two years, it has not increased its hiring rate and has not announced any layoffs.
According to SEC filings, the other biggest tech companies grew rapidly during the pandemic.
Microsoft had 221,000 full time employees at the end of June 2022, the most recent official figure that’s available. That was a 40,000 employee jump from the same time in 2021, a 22 percent increase in staff. The year before that, Microsoft added 18,000 employees, an 11 percent increase.
Amazon added a record 310,000 jobs in 2021 as the company grew rapidly. As a result, it added half a million employees and grew by over 38 percent in 2020.
In 2020, Meta added over 13,000 employees, a 30 percent increase, and the biggest year of hiring in the company’s history. In 2021, it added another 13,000 workers. By total worker numbers, it was the two biggest years of expansion in Facebook’s short history.
In 2021, Alphabet added over 21,000 employees, or a 15 percent increase during the year to a total of 156,500 workers. In 2020, it added over 16,000 employees, or a nearly 14 percent increase.
Apple, however, grew much more slowly during the pandemic. In fact, Apple’s hiring over the past few years has followed the same general trend since 2016.
As of September 2022, Apple had 164,000 employees, which includes both corporate employees and retail staff for its stores. But that was only a rise of 6.5% from the same period in 2021, amounting to real growth of 10,000 employees. Apple also hired judiciously in 2020, adding less than 7,000 employees in the year before September 2021.
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