The time series enters 2023, and the wave of layoffs in the technology industry has not yet shown signs of easing up. Tech giants including Amazon (AMZN-US), Meta (META-US) and Alphabet (GOOGL-US) are not immune, but why is Apple (AAPL -US) except? CNBC compiled the following chart descriptions.
Following Alphabet, Meta and other peers, Microsoft (MSFT-US) announced on Wednesday (18th) that it will cut 5% of its workforce, equivalent to 10,000 people. Amazon has also begun to cut some positions, which is estimated to affect 18,000 employees worldwide.
Each company announced layoffs for different reasons, but most still attribute the reason to the poor economic environment in general or preparations for a recession. How fast is the annual expansion?
After the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, the demand for distance learning, online meetings and online shopping has brought huge business opportunities for technology companies. As sales and profits continue to grow in 2021, technology companies are recruiting aggressively in order to expand their business scale. Employees, however, fell into the predicament of over-expansion due to the subsequent weak economy.
But Apple is an exception. The company’s hiring rate has not increased significantly in the past two years. When its peers were forced to adjust manpower due to slowing growth, Apple has not announced any layoff plans so far. The recruitment data below is derived from review filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Microsoft
The latest data shows that as of the end of June 2022, Microsoft has a total of 221,000 employees, an increase of 40,000 or 22% over the same period in 2021, and 18,000 new employees in 2020, an increase of 11%.
Microsoft confirmed the news of layoffs on Wednesday, confirming that it will lay off 11,000 manpower, and it is estimated that the layoff plan will be completed before the end of March this year.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a report on Microsoft’s layoffs that during the epidemic, the technology industry had to spend money to meet demand growth. While the layoffs will cost Microsoft $1.2 billion, Ives sees it as a smart move and a positive to keep the company profitable.
amazon
Amazon’s situation is more complicated than Microsoft’s because Amazon employs a large number of warehouse clockers in addition to the employees in the office.
The company will add 310,000 new employees in 2021, and its manpower expansion will be even greater in 2020, with 500,000 new employees, an annual increase of more than 38%. Overall, as of the end of December 2021, Amazon had about 1.6 million employees, 300,000 of whom worked in offices.
In response to the news of layoffs, Doug Herrington, head of Amazon’s retail business, explained in an employee memo on Wednesday that the rapid expansion during the epidemic was one of the reasons for the layoffs.
Meta
Since going public in 2012, Meta has added thousands of employees each year, according to SEC filings.
Meta will add more than 13,000 employees in 2020, an annual increase of 30%, which is the year with the largest number of recruits in the company’s history. In 2021, it will add another 13,000 employees. Calculated by the total number of employees, this is the fastest expansion since Meta was founded. for two years.
Alphabet
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has not cut as many jobs as its peers, but in recent weeks it has cut 240 jobs in its life sciences business Verily and 40 jobs in its robotics business.
Even if the layoffs are relatively small, Alphabet’s expansion in the past two years has not been too much, recruiting 21,000 and 16,000 employees in 2021 and 2020, respectively, and the total number of employees as of 2021 will reach 156,500.
apple
Compared with the previous companies, Apple did not expand so fast during the epidemic.
As of September 2022, including headquarters and various stores, Apple has a total of 164,000 employees, an increase of only 6.5% over the same period in 2021, equivalent to 10,000 people. In addition, Apple will add fewer than 7,000 new employees in the year ending September 2021.
