A recent hiatus from work could not have prepared me for what I would call a ‘brutal’ November. The month ushered in an utterly haunting whiplash in the form of ‘layoffs,’ and shattered the stability of thousands of technology workers across the States. The most notable job cuts were in the Bay Area, home to tech titans like Amazon.com and Google-parent Alphabet, Inc., leading some to describe these tech layoffs as a sign of probable recession.

The monthly job openings and labor turnover, or JOLTs, report that Labor Department will release on Friday is bound to inspire headlines again. Wednesday’s report showed that a seasonally adjusted 1.39 million people were laid off or discharged from their jobs in October. This figure is marginally higher than September’s 1.33 million but is still remarkably low. (Note: In the two decades of available data before the pandemic, it never fell below 1.59 million.)

JOLTs figures for November will be no less than a tributary feeding into a much larger economic phenomenon across the nation. According to data from Layoffs.fyi, which tracks layoffs from companies using data compiled from public reports, there have been more than 45,000 tech layoffs in November 2022 alone. Wednesday’s report also showed that the laid off workforce’s claims for unemployment insurance have snowballed in recent weeks.

“Everyone’s getting slammed,” says Roger Lee, founder of Layoffs.fyi, told Yahoo Finance “Earlier in the year, layoffs in tech were concentrated within food, transportation, and finance startups — but at this point it’s hitting every sector within tech.”

According to CompTIA Chief Research Officer Tim Herbert, last month’s tech layoffs are related to the broader macroeconomic climate, which may worsen over time as the Fed continues to hike rates in an effort to swerve inflation.

In simpler words, the layoffs will only keep growing until the Fed is able to get a grip on the inflation.

What’s the score on tech layoffs?

Longtime Silicon Valley observers and experts say this downturn is unlike anything seen before. The dot-com bust of 2001 and 2002 isn’t exactly shrouded in secrecy, as many of the companies that failed back then weren’t “real” companies. Experts’ estimates of how long this bust will last vary, however, most agree that the impact will be astronomical and affect tech workers and others who run the industry.

This time around, the companies may need to push the reset button simply because they have grown too quickly or added too many employees during the pandemic.

“Silicon Valley has cycles,” says Russell Hancock, CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley. “We go up, we go down. It happens with regularity about every 10 years. The pandemic turned out to be bonanza for tech… but it just turned out to be a spike and didn’t lead us to a new plateau. Now, demand is tapering.”

The causative factors of these tech layoffs differ from case to case, with Meta and Snap’s most recent layoffs being assumed to be directly tied to how difficult it has been for advertisers to target and monitor iOS device users as a result of Apple’s latest wave of privacy overhauls. While Twitter is experiencing more root-and-branch, as well as chaotic, activity, advertisers are still avoiding that platform (even if it is just temporarily).

Amazon’s 10,000 layoffs that came under the chopping block hasn’t affected its advertising division. Microsoft, which recently trimmed its workforce, is also believed to have plans to develop its ads division. Google-parent Alphabet may also reduce workforce.

The layoffs at Big Tech largely affected the product management, engineering and sales teams. While engineering talent is always in demand, the skill sets developed while working for a Big Tech may not always be transferable to companies with limited resources.

All of this is going to badly affect not just highly paid tech employees but also the other workers who are a part of the Big Tech’s ecosystem.

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