‘If you’re in tech, buckle up—it’s gonna be a tough ride’: The analyst who says Big Tech’s layoffs show ‘a new reality’ sees ‘more cuts’ ahead – By Alena Botros (Fortune) / Dec 7, 2022
Silicon Valley’s wave of layoffs and hiring freezes amid a faltering economy reflect Big Tech “acknowledging a new reality,” investment bank Jefferies said in a Wednesday research note.
That’s frightening, but what does that mean?
“The new reality is that demand is fading,” Brent Thill, the lead analyst on the note, told Fortune. “And employee hirings have been so brisk that if we’re effectively headed into a recession, it’s only inevitable that we’re going to have more cuts.”
Around 210,000 tech employees have been laid off this year, with a whopping 40% of them coming in the fourth quarter, analysts wrote, citing data from TrueUp. Jefferies’s analysis found the average company in its internet and software coverage universe has 36% fewer job listings now than at the start of this year. Thill said it’s a signal of the “excess” that tech brought on during a “period of easy money.”
