As we kick off week two of 2023, I noticed a pattern of coverage that brought me pause. It was broad reporting on the rightsizing movement.
Current Rightsizing Scoreboard:
Amazon: -18,000 jobs
Vimeo: -11% of headcount
Salesforce: -10% of headcount (8,000)
Goldman Sachs: -3,200 bankers
Twitter: Reported -50% of 7,500 headcount
Meta: -13% of headcount (11,000)
Coinbase: -20% of headcount (950)
ScaleAI: -20% of headcount
BlackRock: - 500 bankers
CNN: -75 jobs
Direc-TV: -10% of management headcount
Microsoft: -11,000 jobs
Unity: -284 jobs
Wayfair: - 1,000 jobs
Alphabet: -12,000 jobs
Vox Media: -133 Jobs (7% of 1,900 headcount)
Spotify: -6% of headcount (600)
Hasbro: -15 of headcount (1,000)
Paypal: -2,000 jobs
The CFOs have to be mercenaries not missionaries with their balance sheets and the markets rallied 700 points on Friday, so expect more as Wall Street rewards this movement. Here is Cramer's take:
This layoff trend happening across corporate America has many workers rethinking their risk vs. reward profile. TechCrunch had some great coverage here: Burned by layoffs, tech workers are rethinking risk | TechCrunch
What Happens Next?
Great excerpt from the TechCrunch article: "So where does tech’s talent go from here? The answer is complicated, and it’s too early to have definitive labor data. VCs want to fund the newest tech mafia startups before banks do, top MBA programs want laid-off workers to join so badly that they’re waiving standardized test score requirements, and the tech companies that are in a position to hire really want you to know it."
I feel bad for the 50+ pre-retirement community that has to retrain for a new world. One thing is for sure, when the Fed's release the digital dollar on the back of Russia flooding our economy with counterfeit money, there will be another wave of accountants, IRS agents, bankers, etc. that will be back in the job hunt as SaaS companies automate their roles...who needs human error anyways?
My recommendation is to start teaching our youth to take a portfolio approach to their paycheck. In laymen's terms, to have multiple sources of income from a steady job, side hustles, investment income, tax benefits, etc. And like Guru said: "It's not how much money you make, it's how much money you spend."
Continued Reading: