Close Menu
Technology Mag

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    HoverAir’s new floating Aqua drone can take off and land on water

    August 21, 2025

    Do Large Language Models Dream of AI Agents?

    August 21, 2025

    Microsoft’s Xbox handheld is a good first step towards a Windows gaming OS

    August 21, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Subscribe
    Technology Mag
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    • Home
    • News
    • Business
    • Games
    • Gear
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Security
    • Trending
    • Press Release
    Technology Mag
    Home » No, the Great Tech Layoffs of 2023 Aren’t Happening Again
    Business

    No, the Great Tech Layoffs of 2023 Aren’t Happening Again

    News RoomBy News RoomJanuary 15, 20243 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Email

    So far, 2024 is off to a start that looks a lot like 2023—with a week full of job cuts from tech companies.

    Duolingo cut 10 percent of its contractors earlier this week, citing artificial intelligence as part of the reason. Twitch announced a cut of 500 people, and its parent company, Amazon, also made moves to lay off hundreds of employees across Prime Video and MGM Studios on Wednesday.

    Google followed, also laying off hundreds of employees working on its Google Voice assistant, with additional reorganization affecting its hardware teams working on augmented reality, the Pixel phone, Fitbit watches, and the Nest thermostat. On Thursday, Discord said it would lay off 17 percent of its staff after hiring too quickly in recent years.

    It’s a flurry of announcements that feels all too familiar, but experts say these layoffs don’t necessarily mean 2024 will prove as brutal as recent years. The job cuts are smaller than those made in late 2022 and 2023, when companies like Google, Amazon, and Meta laid off thousands of workers after years of rapid growth. And with a steady labor market in place, they don’t necessarily point to an ongoing slide in tech jobs, but instead to shifting priorities within companies.

    The tech sector is looking healthy overall since consumer habits have stabilized after rapid changes during the Covid-19 pandemic, says Rachel Sederberg, senior economist with labor analytics firm Lightcast. Some of these latest cuts target specific departments and products, and may be just a part of doing business.

    “Businesses make choices about what they want to focus on all the time, and sometimes they come as job cuts,” Sederberg says. Companies may continue to make these smaller, targeted cuts in coming months, but she says she doesn’t expect to see layoff “contagion” across tech companies or other industries.

    This isn’t sweeping rightsizing, as tech firms did in 2022 and 2023, says Daniel Keum, associate professor of management at Columbia Business School. As companies look for ways to utilize and monetize automation and generative AI, “there’s rebalancing that’s taking place” with jobs and priorities, Keum says. Last year, generative-AI-related job posts increased quickly, even as the tech industry grappled with many job losses.

    Google made changes throughout the second half of 2023 “to become more efficient and work better” and to realign with product priorities, company spokesperson Courtenay Mencini tells WIRED. “We’re responsibly investing in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead.” Some of Duolingo’s cuts came because a “contractor’s work was no longer needed due to changes in how we generate and share content,” says Sam Dalsimer, a company spokesperson, while others ended as projects concluded.

    Layoffs.fyi, which tracks job cuts in the tech industry, estimates that 4,500 jobs have been lost so far in 2024. Throughout 2022 and 2023, layoffs affected more than 400,000 roles.

    Across the board, the job market is steady. The unemployment rate in the US was 3.7 percent in December. And tech job unemployment is lower, at just 2.3 percent, according to an analysis from CompTIA, a nonprofit trade association for the US IT industry. Still, some tech workers struggled to find new gigs in late 2023.

    Although big tech firms have made large cuts, going against years of growth and stability, tech workers could find jobs in other sectors, like government, manufacturing, and agriculture. Some laid-off workers have chosen these paths, and others have approached layoffs as opportunities to found their own startups.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleThe Big Problem With the Giant Stanley Cup
    Next Article Microsoft unlocks Copilot AI inside Office apps for all businesses

    Related Posts

    Do Large Language Models Dream of AI Agents?

    August 21, 2025

    Chinese ‘Virtual Human’ Salespeople Are Outperforming Their Real Human Counterparts

    August 21, 2025

    Government Staffing Cuts Have Fueled an Ant-Smuggling Boom

    August 21, 2025

    AI Isn’t Coming for Hollywood. It’s Already Arrived

    August 20, 2025

    Sam Altman Says ChatGPT Is on Track to Out-Talk Humanity

    August 20, 2025

    OpenAI Is Poised to Become the Most Valuable Startup Ever. Should It Be?

    August 20, 2025
    Our Picks

    Do Large Language Models Dream of AI Agents?

    August 21, 2025

    Microsoft’s Xbox handheld is a good first step towards a Windows gaming OS

    August 21, 2025

    How Google’s new Pixel 10 compares to the last-gen Pixel 9

    August 21, 2025

    LG’s massive 77-inch C5 OLED TV is more than $1,000 off

    August 21, 2025
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Vimeo
    Don't Miss
    Business

    Chinese ‘Virtual Human’ Salespeople Are Outperforming Their Real Human Counterparts

    By News RoomAugust 21, 2025

    The salesperson hawking Brother printers on Taobao works hard—like, really hard. At any time of…

    Why the US Is Racing to Build a Nuclear Reactor on the Moon

    August 21, 2025

    How Burning Man VR rebuilt after Microsoft shut it down

    August 21, 2025

    Amazon is betting on agents to win the AI race

    August 21, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of use
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    © 2025 Technology Mag. All Rights Reserved.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.