Layoffs in tech companies continue as AI technology steps in

New York: The tech industry is likely to continue job cuts this year as well suggesting no recovery in the industry after last year’s massive layoffs.

At least 32,000 employed in tech companies have lost their jobs in the early part of the 2024, according to a startup Layoffs.fyi. Bloomberg reported.

The startup tracks down job cuts in IT industry beginning with the Covid pandemic.

Thousands of people last year found their private worlds falling apart after IT companies began cutting down work force and stopped hiring.

Now the situation seems to be continuing grim with Snap Inc. announcing a 10 percent job cut on Monday, meaning showing the door to around 540 people.

Only earlier this month, software company Okta Inc. announced its plan to remove about 400 workers.

Giants like Amazon.com Inc., Salesforce Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. are reportedly among the companies likely to lay off workers.

Layoffs.fyi founder Roger Lee was quoted as saying: “Tech companies are still trying to correct for their over-hiring during the pandemic surge, given that the high interest-rate environment and tech downturn have both lasted longer than initially expected’.

Lee pointed out two major waves of job cuts over the recent years: the ‘early Covid’ breakout between the first and second quarters of 2020.

Subsequently the ‘interest rate hike’, which has been happening since the second quarter of 2022, according to the report.

‘This year's layoffs are typically smaller and more targeted than the layoffs a year ago,’ Lee was quoted as saying.

Although layoffs are largely linked to economic reasons, companies turning to artificial intelligence as part of cost cutting is a reason, as per the report.

According to CompTIA, which tracks employment trends in IT industry, reliance on AI or artificial intelligence has gone up by ‘2,000 from December to January, to 17,479.’