The beginning of 2023 has brought several mass layoffs across major companies and signals tough times for workers facing both vacancies and layoffs.
Firings at tech giants since the beginning of January have led to mass anxiety among employees for their sudden nature put workers in a lurch.
Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon have all laid off employees leading up to and in the first quarter of the year.These four companies have fired more than 50,000 employees as a whole in this process, while the total number of early tech layoffs are 2,00,000.
The India Perspective
Further the layoffs have caused online and offline protests due to the way in which employees were fired, with several long term employees being fired. Amazon India called back several employees from their remote positions only to fire them.
Another issue which came up was several of these companies posted profits in the last quarter and decided to immediately lay off employees. According to a survey by Kantar, 1 in 4 Indians are concerned about being laid off from their jobs. This is especially true for Indians working abroad whose residency depends on their jobs.
On the Indian domestic front as well, Zomato has posted 800 vacancies amid layoffs and has posted stringent requirements for hiring which pan out to more work for less pay.
Post pandemic, this instability is affecting workers far more than usual, especially with the state of global inflation as well. For Indian employees particularly, contract workers are being hired instead of salaried employees, only contributing to the existing high unemployment rate.
Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, has urged the central government to intervene in the situation as both Indian origin employees as well as somatic Indian employees face major risks.
This situation is not only tense for employees economically but has also added immense amounts of anxiety and stress as residencies, families and competencies lie on the lines. As a country with a large stake in tech development and a large fraction of the youth employed or looking to be employed in tech, India faces immense challenges in this regard.
In the wake of an upcoming recession, job security is at risk and so is hiring. It requires planning from HR teams to provide future employees with stability, unlike the disillusionment that employees are currently being met with.
We can only hope that companies plan better for their future and for the sake of workers globally.