In recent weeks, a spate of tech companies have said they will pause hiring or cut jobs outright in the face of sluggish consumer spending, spiraling inflation and a strong dollar undercutting sales overseas. Leaders in the industry, a major driver of the global economy for the last decade, sense that they're in a higher-risk environment, making them less willing to spend to grow their businesses like in years past. Meta Platforms Inc.
With tech executives growing more pessimistic about the economy, the industry shed 9,587 jobs in October, the highest monthly total since November 2020, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a consulting firm. Challenger tallies job cuts announced or confirmed by companies across telecom, electronics, hardware manufacturing and software development.
In recent earnings reports, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft Corp. and others fell short of projections, sending shares plunging and shaving hundreds of millions to billions of dollars from their market valuations. Meta, for instance, has lost more than 71 per cent of its value so far this year, with investors uncomfortable with Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's invesments in an immersive digital world called the metaverse.