Some analysts believe that next, American technology companies as a whole will further lay off 5% to 10%. According to the data compiled by offsets. FYI, in the first few weeks of 2023, the global technology industry laid off more than 57,000 people.
Despite the wave of layoffs in the technology industry, the retail giant Wal-Mart recently announced a salary increase, and the average hourly salary of its American employees is expected to exceed $65,438 +07.50 (about RMB 1 19 yuan).
About 340,000 Wal-Mart employees will get a raise.
On Tuesday, Wal-Mart, one of the world's top 500 companies, said it would raise the minimum wage for American employees from 12 to 14 (the exchange rate at the time of publication was 95 yuan RMB). It is estimated that with the implementation of this plan, the average hourly wage of American employees of this company will exceed $65,438 +07.50 yuan (about RMB 1 19 yuan). Market analysis This is because the company is trying to retain shop and warehouse workers in the labor-intensive talent market.
According to documents disclosed by Wal-Mart, the company has 6,543,800+7,000 employees in the United States, 94% of whom are hourly workers. During the COVID-19 epidemic, the company hired hundreds of thousands of employees to meet the strong demand of consumers.
Wal-Mart said that from the beginning of March, the hourly wage of store employees will be increased to 14 to 19, and spokeswoman Anne hatfield said that their current hourly wage is between 12 and 18. And it is predicted that with the implementation of this plan, the average hourly wage of American employees is expected to exceed 17.50 USD (about RMB 1 19 yuan). Hatfield also said that about 340,000 employees, that is, more than 20% of employees, will receive a salary increase.
According to foreign media reports quoted by Reference News Network, in addition to salary increase, Wal-Mart also announced other benefits for employees, including providing new job training opportunities and expanding a project to help supply chain workers obtain commercial driver's licenses.
Wal-Mart announced that it would raise employees' hourly wages again, which shows that despite the wave of layoffs in the technology industry, the labor market of front-line employees continues to be tense.
Some analysts say that Wal-Mart's salary increase may have a chain reaction to the entire service industry, which implies the pressure on retail stores to compete for labor. Gregory Daco, chief economist of Ernst & Young, said that the retail industry tends to have a higher employee turnover rate than other industries. If too many employees are lost, the cost of hiring and training new employees will be high.
The data shows that although dozens of large companies in the United States have been laying off employees in recent months, the market demand gap for employees in the service industry still exists. Wal-Mart currently lists nearly 30,000 job requirements on its recruitment website.
According to the latest data from the US Department of Labor, the number of job vacancies in June 2022 was11050,000, which was at the highest level in history, and the number of retail job vacancies exceeded1000,000.
"The labor market is still fiercely competitive, especially the demand for odd jobs is still strong ... major companies continue to compete for them by raising wages." Re-employment company challenger, Gray &; Andy Challenger, senior vice president of Christmas, said in an email.
Some analysts said that Wal-Mart's move is also a signal of economic optimism. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's, said he was surprised that Wal-Mart raised wages "so dramatically" considering the risk of recession in the United States.
"This shows that Wal-Mart believes that the economy will not fall into recession soon; Or if it really falls into recession, it will be a short and moderate recession. " Zandi said in an email. He believes that this move reflects the long-term pressure on retailers to retain employees with the shrinking labor reserve.
The "wave of layoffs" swept the US technology industry
Half seawater, half flame. When retail giants try their best to retain employees or attract more employees, the technology industry has started a wave of layoffs after two years of triumph.
Behind the wave of layoffs is the global economic downturn caused by repeated epidemics, geopolitics, interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and the spread of global inflation. The technology industry is facing a huge impact and its income is weak.
IBM: About 3,900 people will be laid off.
According to shanghai securities news's 654381the Wall Street Journal reported on October 26th, IBM joined the ranks of layoffs and announced about 3,900 layoffs on Wednesday. A spokesman for the company said that the layoffs will come from the spin-off of Kyndryl and the divestiture of medical and health business, which will cost the company about $300 million.
According to the latest annual report of the company, the layoffs will reduce the total number of its 280,000 employees by 65,438+0.4%.
Apple: Retail channels began to lay off employees.
According to the Securities Times, on the afternoon of June 22, 65438+1Beijing time, it was reported that many people familiar with the matter revealed that Apple had started to lay off some non-seasonal employees in retail channels outside the Apple Store.
According to these sources, some employees of Apple's retail channels working in stores such as Best Buy have received notices about layoffs and informed these employees of their rights.
Usually, in order to meet the seasonal growth of consumer demand, for example, on Christmas Eve, Best Buy and Apple will recruit some temporary employees to serve the growing consumers. But now that the shopping season has passed, the contracts of these seasonal temporary workers have expired and left.
In fact, another media confirmed that the employees laid off by Apple this time are not these seasonal employees, and the number of layoffs has attracted enough attention.
Google: 1.2 million people will be laid off.
On October 20th, 654381Beijing time, Google announced that it would lay off about10.2 million people, accounting for about 6% of the total number of employees in the world. Sandahl Pichai, CEO of Google, sent an email to employees announcing the details of layoffs and compensation measures.
In his letter, Sandahl Pichai said that he was "fully responsible" for the decision that led to layoffs. He said, I have some bad news for you. We decided to lay off about 65438+200,000 people. We have sent separate emails to the affected American employees. In other countries, influenced by local legal practices, this process takes longer. This round of layoffs spans Alphabet (Google's parent company), product areas, functions, levels and regions.
The company disclosed that the compensation scheme in the United States includes that the laid-off employees will receive a severance payment equivalent to 65,438+06 weeks' salary within at least 60 days' notice period, and in addition, employees will receive an additional two weeks' salary compensation for each year of work.
Amazon: Expected layoffs 1.8 million.
At 65438+ 10/8 local time, Amazon executives sent an email to confirm the start of a new round of layoffs. It is estimated that the number of layoffs will reach18,000, making it the largest layoffs in Amazon history. The layoffs involved Amazon's e-commerce and human resources, experience and technology (PXT) departments.
Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, told all employees on14 October, "Amazon has gone through economic uncertainties and difficulties, and we will continue to do so."
Microsoft: 654.38 million people will be laid off.
Microsoft also officially announced on 18 that it will lay off 1000 employees before the end of March, accounting for about 5% of the company's total employees.
Earlier, Microsoft announced that by the end of the third fiscal year of fiscal year 2023, it would lay off 1 000 people, accounting for about 5% of the total number of employees. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, did not disclose the specific departments affected by layoffs in his letter to all Microsoft employees, but said that Microsoft would "continue to recruit employees in key areas".
Nadella also said that this is one of the most difficult choices made by Microsoft in 47 years.
It is not surprising that Microsoft laid off employees this time. According to Microsoft's financial report for the first fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2023, the revenue during the reporting period was $5,065,438+$22 million, a year-on-year increase of11%; The net profit was USD 654.38+RMB 07.556 billion, down 654.38+04% year-on-year. Some analysts said that this is the weakest revenue growth of Microsoft since 20 17, and it is also the most serious quarterly net profit decline in more than two years. Among them, the demand for personal computer business declined, advertising revenue decreased, the growth rate of Microsoft azure business slowed down, and Microsoft's performance fell far short of expectations.
Twitter: The number of employees may drop below 2,000.
According to people familiar with the matter, Chris Ritty, an executive of Twitter's advertising business, said at the staff meeting that Twitter's revenue in the fourth quarter was $654.38+$25 million, down about 35% year-on-year. Twitter will further lay off employees, and the total number of employees may soon fall below 2,000, the lowest level in 10 years.