The Layoffs Will Continue Until Morale Improves ⇥ npr.org

Bobby Allyn, NPR:

Now in 2024, tech company workforces have largely returned to pre-pandemic levels, inflation is half of what it was this time last year and consumer confidence is rebounding.

Yet, in the first four weeks of this year, nearly 100 tech companies, including Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, TikTok and Salesforce have collectively let go of about 25,000 employees, according to layoffs.fyi, which tracks the technology sector.

Paul Farhi, the Atlantic, on Tuesday this week:

For a few hours last Tuesday, the entire news business seemed to be collapsing all at once. Journalists at Time magazine and National Geographic announced that they had been laid off. Unionized employees at magazines owned by Condé Nast staged a one-day strike to protest imminent cuts. By far the grimmest news was from the Los Angeles Times, the biggest newspaper west of the Washington, D.C., area. After weeks of rumors, the paper announced that it was cutting 115 people, more than 20 percent of its newsroom.

Sara Fischer, Axios, one day later:

The Messenger, a digital news startup that launched with $50 million in funding last May, plans to shut down operations, a source familiar with the situation told Axios Wednesday.

There is a huge roundup of coverage of the Messenger’s failure in today’s issue of Today in Tabs. While many layoffs have been conducted poorly, the Messenger shut down with another level of brutality, to the extent that former staff are suing.

There are an awful lot of tech workers and journalists whose jobs have been taken from them this year. It is only the first of February. The reasons behind the layoffs in each sector are different; Allyn notes how shareholders are rewarding the tech companies eliminating jobs. The pain, however, is the same.