Retrenchment in big IT companies broke the youth’s dream of working and settling in Silicon Valley

Big IT companies are always in news. Usually you must have seen that an IT company is bringing its new gadget or a software with great features or a company is bringing such a miraculous thing about which the news remains in headlines for a long time. Consumers are also very keen to get the upcoming products of big IT companies. Apart from this, a lot of eagerness is also seen among the youth to work in global IT companies because the salary is very good in tech companies as well as many other facilities are also available. Not only this, often working hours in tech companies are also very short and there is an opportunity to travel abroad, so youth are attracted towards these companies. Going to work in Silicon Valley is the first wish of the youth.

But the phase of layoffs going on in the IT sector for some time has reduced the trend of youth towards tech companies. Jobs are being cut in big companies like Microsoft, Google, Meta etc. as well as many such small and medium level IT companies have also cut jobs in large numbers whose business has decreased considerably. After buying Twitter, Elon Musk showed the way out to more than half of the staff. According to a report, in the last year alone, more than one lakh people have been laid off globally by big tech companies. Furthermore, since the end of the pandemic, a large number of layoffs have occurred from major tech companies including Alphabet (12,000 employees), Amazon (18,000), Meta (11,000), Twitter (4,000), Microsoft (10,000) and Salesforce (8,000). Employees have been laid off. Apart from this, the names of several domestic IT companies including Tesla, Netflix, Robin Hood, Snap, Coinbase and Spotify are also included in the list of companies laying off employees. It is being told that in the coming days, this process of retrenchment by IT companies can be further increased.

One of the main reasons why IT companies were forced to lay off is being attributed to the large number of recruitments done during the lockdown in most of the countries during the Corona pandemic. For example, during the lockdown, people started using Google’s Google Meet or Meta’s WhatsApp video conferencing product or Zoom meeting etc. in abundance. In such a situation, these companies needed a large number of labor force overnight. A large number of product managers, developers and designers etc. were recruited overnight but after the end of the pandemic, these products became useless as the world started running as before. In such a situation, it had a direct impact on the revenue of IT companies. Apart from this, pressure was also being put on the management from the side of the investors of IT companies to stop the decline in growth and revenue loss of the company immediately. In such a situation, news started coming that sometimes Sundar Pichai himself is writing a letter to Google employees telling them about the compulsion to remove them from the job, and sometimes the CEO of another tech company is sharing his compulsions on a social media platform.

Discussing other reasons for layoffs in tech companies, it can be said that many tech companies get maximum money through advertisements. So, as long as this easy route to money was open before the pandemic hit, spending on employees was rampant. Advertisement revenue declined last year due to fears of a global recession triggered by the pandemic. That’s why retrenchment was necessary. However, the question also arose that such big companies are doing layoffs due to lack of revenue, but why Apple did not do any layoffs. The answer is that Apple has avoided increasing its workforce in recent years and as a result has not had to downsize.

The people who have lost their jobs in this phase of retrenchment are being told that in most of the cases, the people who have lost their jobs include highly educated and highly qualified people. Using the services of artificial intelligence, many tech companies have laid off technical staff but retained the bottom line. However, those who have lost their jobs have employment and self-employment opportunities in different countries as their resumes mention the experience of working in large companies.

If we look at what industries will be hurt by layoffs, one thing clearly emerges that big tech companies are still big employers and people’s dependence on their popular products in the market has increased. In such a situation, as the revenue increases, these companies can start hiring experienced people back to further the technological development. The need is that experienced people keep themselves updated with the changing nature of technology. The Indians whose jobs have gone to America have even been offered to come and work here by indigenous firms. However, it should be hoped that this global cloud of recession will soon clear and jobs will spring up in the world as before.

-Neeraj Kumar Dubey