By Daniele Colecchia
In 2023, more than 250,000 workers have been laid off in the US tech sector. This trend continues, with companies such as Salesforce, Microsoft, eBay, PayPal, and Google currently restructuring their workforce. An average layoff rate of 780 workers per day has been recorded in the past few months. According to Danielle DiMartino, CEO of QI Research, this trend signifies the beginning of a new long-term strategy pursued by many companies, not only in the tech sector, aimed at boosting profitability rather than focusing on expansion.
This strategy is incentivized by the current high interest rates, which necessitate compensating for increased financing costs by reducing operating expenses. Has AI replaced the engineers and developers at these companies? Fortunately, that’s not the case.
However, tech companies need to raise cash to invest in the IT hardware infrastructure that powers AI models (parallel computing IT infrastructures). Some analysts point their fingers at past excesses: indeed, many US tech companies have been recruiting more workforce than needed for years, with the aim of artificially boosting their valuation and positioning themselves as poised for growth. This era has ended.
Sources: CNBC, TechCrunch.com
