Layoffs 2024 grabbed the global headlines yet again on Friday when Intel announced that it was firing at least 15,000 employees. Intel Layoffs 2024 came at a time when people around the world were thinking that the worst layoffs were already over and they could finally believe in the term 'job security'. Talking about Intel's Mass Firing in detail, the American chipmaker company announced layoffs in a memo to its employees saying that it is laying off 15 percent of its huge workforce which amounts to 15,000 working professionals. Talking about Intel's Mass Firing Reason, Intel Corp. CEO Pat Gelsinger said Thursday the company plans to save $10 billion in 2025, and hence due to cost-cutting the company has taken such a decision. Now, the question arises what are the layoff trends of 2024, and is the worst mass firing yet to come? Below is what we know so far-
Is a worse layoff yet to come?
To understand this, let's understand some data in detail. As per reports, As per ET, Indian startups fired lesser in the first half of 2024 as compared to 2023. It indicated that the worst layoffs may be over especially when it comes to the Indian context. Reports suggest that startups laid off about 11,250 employees during January-June 2024, compared with 21,000 in the first half of the previous year and 15,000 in the second. Reports suggest that the situation is much better than in 2023. The year-wise data suggests that more than 36,000 people in India lost their jobs last year, compared to 20,000 in 2022 and 4,000 plus in 2021.
Major layoffs in 2024
Apart from Intel firing its 15,000 employees, in the early week of July 2024, it was reported that 8,383 professionals have been laid off from across 34 companies in the technology sector. As per layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks layoffs from around the world in real-time, in 2024, as of July 30, as many as 1,90,049 people have been laid off from 380 companies worldwide.
The month of July was off to a rough start when US software company UKG laid off 14 percent––around 2,200 employees––of its workforce. The company employed 15,882 people. UKG is implementing organisational changes that allow it to aggressively focus on critical areas of growth to support its long-term strategy. Hence they decided to lay off its employees.
Thereafter, on July 10, 2024, the second biggest layoff was announced by Intuit Inc. Intuit Inc is a financial management software firm based in California. It laid off 1,800 people––about 10 percent––of its staff. On the other hand, software companies like Open Text and Redbox cut 1,200 and 100 jobs respectively.
Tech giant Microsoft laid off its internal team dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). A team leader stated in an email to thousands of employees that “true systems-change work associated with DEI programmes everywhere are no longer business critical or smart as they were in 2020".
Talking more about Intel layoffs, the memo reads, " Simply put, we must align our cost structure with our new operating model and fundamentally change the way we operate...Our revenues have not grown as expected - and we've yet to fully benefit from powerful trends, like AI. Our costs are too high, our margins are too low."
Concludingly, numbers suggest that there is a downfall in mass firing but the scenes are not merry at all.