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[Durien]

Microsoft to Lay Off 10,000 Workers as It Looks to Trim Costs

The job cuts, which amount to less than 5 percent of the company’s work force, are its largest in roughly eight years.

www.nytimes.com

Tech sector is gonna be pretty interesting the next couple of years. With the layoffs and kids graduating from colleges with CS degrees, things are going to be interesting around here (redmond, bellevue, kirkland)

 

[Hip Hop]

Aren't tech jobs one of the most secure or is that not the case anymore?

 

[Lasha]

CS and actual tech workers are going to be fine. Amazon announced a similar round of layoffs while also doubling it's maximum possible salary for corporate workers. Tech companies are still experiencing a shortage of actual technical labour.

 

[feynoob]

This is happening accross the world.
My company closed down 30+ stores, and reduced our workload.
The times are changing, plus the economy is in turmoil (High price for everything).

People should worry about their job too. Its matter of time, before your company starts cuts down their numbers. Nothing is safe these days.

 

[feynoob]

Aren't tech jobs one of the most secure or is that not the case anymore?

They arent anymore after AI become a thing.
Tons of jobs are being done from home these days. Companies are undercutting other department in order to maximize the effieciency of their work.

 

[jakinov]

Aren't tech jobs one of the most secure or is that not the case anymore?

Tech is broad and mostly private. So I wouldn’t say that. Tech gets disrupted so if you are doing some that no longer popular or efficient you are going to lose a job. Working at a company that fails or doesn’t adapt to the times? Economy goes bad people spend less on tech so they cut back.

Companies were in crazy growth mode the last few years and people were fighting hard for tech workers paying tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands more than they would in normal conditions because every company want to grow. The economy is bad and debt is expensive so nobody wants to spend so much anymore. Microsoft added 77K employees since end of 2019. Now they are cutting back because everything is riskier now.

 

[AJUMP23]

Going to be a tough economy the next few years. Some places have $8 eggs.

 

[daffyduck]

Aren't tech jobs one of the most secure or is that not the case anymore?

Meh. When have tech jobs ever been secure? Tech workers have been a dime a dozen since the 90s.

 

[daffyduck]

CS and actual tech workers are going to be fine. Amazon announced a similar round of layoffs while also doubling it's maximum possible salary for corporate workers. Tech companies are still experiencing a shortage of actual technical labour.

No, they’re still pretending there is a shortage of actual technical labour.

 

[Lasha]

No, they’re still pretending there is a shortage of actual technical labour.

What makes you come to that conclusion?

 

[daffyduck]

Experience.

 

[Lasha]

Experience.

Personal experience in light of an entire industry of research? You've sold me.

 

[daffyduck]

And what are you selling?

 

[just_some_nut]

And what are you selling?

we're having trouble filling positions where I work fwiw (also a large company). too many were hired in some areas and they're now trimming the fat is all

 

[Tams]

Tech is broad and mostly private. So I wouldn’t say that. Tech gets disrupted so if you are doing some that no longer popular or efficient you are going to lose a job. Working at a company that fails or doesn’t adapt to the times? Economy goes bad people spend less on tech so they cut back.

Companies were in crazy growth mode the last few years and people were fighting hard for tech workers paying tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands more than they would in normal conditions because every company want to grow. The economy is bad and debt is expensive so nobody wants to spend so much anymore. Microsoft added 77K employees since end of 2019. Now they are cutting back because everything is riskier now.

This. Loads of tech companies grossly overexpanded. They have far more workers than they actually need.

Ironically, although many overexpanded, many also didn't hire in some key areas (as they weren't the major areas of growth), so now find themselves short of employees there. That number of badly needed employees is far lower than the excess they have in other areas though.

 

[diffusionx]

Personal experience in light of an entire industry of research? You've sold me.

They’re lying. the “entire industry” has a vested interest in selling a labor shortage so they can get H1Bs and hire people at a lower salary. The US can and does churn out tons of people with technical degrees every year. The companies can of course train as many people as they want to do the job. There is plenty of labor. The companies just don’t want to hire Americans at American salaries.

 

[Mesousa]

The notion that there is a shortage of tech workers in America is the biggest meme out there.

The truth of the matter is there is a shortage of indentured servants, stuck on H1Bs, who will work all kinds of hours and conditions for less.

 

[Lasha]

They’re lying. the “entire industry” has a vested interest in selling a labor shortage so they can get H1Bs and hire people at a lower salary. The US can and does churn out tons of people with technical degrees every year. The companies can of course train as many people as they want to do the job. There is plenty of labor. The companies just don’t want to hire Americans at American salaries.

Why is the talent crunch present in all economies including those which have strict wage requirements? Every economy on the planet is suffering from a lack of highly skilled labor from trades to tech. Half of the adult population of the US reads at a sixth grade level or below. Nine in ten Americans lack the numeracy to interpret graphs. No amount of training is going to turn people like that into technical workers.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Tech companies have been hiring like crazy the past bunch of years, so what happened is they all over-hired. So just like the stock market things come back down. But for successful companies over time have an upswing trend. It's just not a perfect line that only goes up every year.