In the recent weeks, over tens of thousands of tech employees have been laid off across the globe. As the world emerges from the pandemic era, over-hiring, cost pressures and funding challenges have posed fresh problems for companies. The layoffs which started last year has only increased since the beginning of 2023.
According to recent projections, about 20,000 job cuts are expected over the next six months with certain profiles more at risk. India too have been facing the brunt of these layoffs. In 2023, the layoff season in India started with Amazon India which laid off 1000 employees.
Recently, Twitter shut two of three of its Indian offices and also told its staff to work from home, underscoring Elon Musk’s mission to slash costs and get the struggling social media service in the black. Twitter, which fired more than 90 percent of its roughly 200-plus staff in India late last year, closed its Delhi Mumbai offices, people aware of the matter had told Bloomberg. However, the company is still operating its Bengaluru office.
Recently, Google India fired over 450 employees across various departments. The company had this year announced that the company would cut 12,000 jobs which is over 6 percent of its global workforce. It is not currently clear if the layoffs in Google India were part of the earlier announced cuts or a new round of layoffs.
Meanwhile, with layoff, some companies are also hiring in the country. companies like TCS, KPMG India, Zomato will not undergo layoff but are also hiring.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) chief Human Resources officer Milind Lakkad told PTI that the company is not considering to layoff eployees instead believes in grooming talent for longer careers once it hires them. He added that company believes that once staff member joins, it becomes the company's responsibility to make them productive and derive value.
KMPG said that the company is unlikely to feel the impact of global layoffs across the accounting firm. In a reply to Mint, Sinha, partner and head – People, Performance and Culture at KPMG said, “Our business outlook continues to remain very strong. Last year, our head count grew by 35% and this year we have hired freshers from over 100 campuses cutting across graduate, engineering and business schools. We at KPMG in India remain focused on growth opportunities in India and aligning our hiring to our growth strategy, engaging with potential talent and providing dynamic growth opportunities to all our people.” Two months after Zomato laid off around 3 percent of its workforce on the basis of regular performance, CEO urged people to apply for more than 800 vacant positions within the organisation.
With layoff going on in India, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar who interacted with the youth of St. Teresa's College in Kerala said that layoffs are happening in the tech companies in the US and not in India. Adding to it, he said that the country has added 18 lakh jobs in the tech and electronic sector since two years.
Not just the IT sector, since the start of 2023, India also saw layoff from startups trimming their headcount to cut costs. Food and grocery delivery platform Swiggy fired 380 employees of its 6,000-strong workforce as part of a "restructuring exercise", according to an internal e-mail shared by Sriharsha Majety, Swiggy’s chief executive and co-founder. The Google-backed delivery platform Dunzo laid off 3 percent of its workforce citing restructuring. As per LinkedIn, the company has a workforce of 3,000 employees which means it has laid off approximately 90 employees. The exact number of laid off employees was not disclosed. The company had initially planned for a public listing this year, but is now allowing for some more time for its quick commerce business to mature before going public. Cloud kitchen brand Rebel Foods, which operates brands such as Faasos, Behrouz Biryani and Oven Story, as well as edtech unicorn Lead School have also recently sacked employees. Bengaluru-based cab aggregator Ola Cabs also laid off employees from some of its verticals as part of a “restructuring exercise," though the exact number is not knowthis n.
In the ed-tech sector, Byju's laid off nearly 1,500 employees from the design, engineering and production verticals after 2500 laid off in October last year.
UpGrad-owned Harappa Education sacked 70 employees or 35 percent of its 200-strong workforce in 2023. More layoffs are likely at the company, the human resources department had told its parting employees. Unacademy-owned Relevel, too, fired 40 employees, or roughly 20 percent of its workforce so far in 2023, as it pivots to a test product app called NextLevel.
Other companies which sacked employees were B Capital-backed e-2wheeler maker Bounce, WestBridge Capital-backed voice automation startup Skit.ai, Tiger Global-backed industrial goods marketplace Moglix, and UpScalio, a Thrasio-style venture that finances e-commerce brands.
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