Infographic – Tech Layoffs Jump This Year

Click on image for full-size view (Statista)

11 Mar. 2023. Since the start of 2023, layoffs in technology industries worldwide rose markedly, continuing a trend that began in the fall of 2022. And since Jan. 2022, a large majority of those layoffs are being felt by workers at U.S. technology companies.

Last week, the business research company Statista published a month-by-month chart of global tech industry layoffs, with data compiled by the web site Layoffs.fyi. Those data show in Jan. 2023, nearly 85,000 tech industry workers lost their jobs at 269 companies, with some 36,500 more jobs lost at 171 companies in Feb. 2023.

Statista’s analysts totaled all layoffs recorded since the start of 2022, and found some 283,400 tech industry workers lost their jobs, with two-thirds of that total at U.S. companies. Amazon experienced the most layoffs since Jan. 2022, with about 18,000 workers losing their jobs — many, however, not in technology work — and Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft each letting go 10,000 to 12,000 of their employees.

Layoffs at large tech companies making headlines are not yet reflected in the overall industry employment numbers, at least in the U.S. Yesterday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported its monthly survey of business establishments that shows employment in professional and business services, private companies likely to hire technology workers, added 45,000 jobs in Feb. 2023, with 12,000 of those jobs in management, scientific, and technical consulting services. Likewise, government employers in the U.S. added 46,000 jobs last month, with 37,000 of those jobs in local government.

Complicating this picture, however, is the abrupt closure yesterday of Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, California. by state banking regulators. The bank called itself a “partner for the innovation economy,” providing loans and other financial services to many tech start-ups. Yesterday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took Silicon Valley Bank into receivership and created a new bank, Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara, to hold FDIC-insured deposits, those up to $250,000.

More from Science & Enterprise:

• Infographic – U.S. Tech Layoffs This Year
• Exec. Order Aims to Boost U.S. Biotech, Manufacturing
• Infographic – US Workers Returning to Work

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