Wednesday 23 November 2022 07:35 PM Internal memes show Google staff fearing widespread job cuts after Meta ... trends now

In recent weeks, a slew of tech companies have announced cost-cutting measures, with Amazon, Apple and Google-parent Alphabet all announcing hiring slowdowns or freezes.

For the tech sector, the pandemic boom has turned to a post-pandemic bust, as rising interest rates batter share prices and inflation cuts into profits.

The sector shed 9,587 jobs in October, the highest monthly total since November 2020, according to data from consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas cited by Bloomberg. 

Total job cuts announced by US-based employers jumped 13 percent to 33,843 in October, the highest since February 2021, a report said. 

The Facebook-parent said in November it would cut 13 percent of its workforce, or more than 11,000 employees, in one of the biggest tech layoffs this year as it grapples with a weak advertising market and mounting costs.

Like its peers, Meta aggressively hired during the pandemic to meet a surge in social media usage by stuck-at-home consumers. 

But but the pandemic boom-times have petered out as advertisers and consumers pull the plug on spending in the face of soaring costs and rapidly rising interest rates.

After plunging billions into CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse vision with little to show for it, Meta has been faced with rising costs and shrinking profits.

Meta, once worth more than $1 trillion, is now valued at $256 billion after losing more than 70 percent of its value this year alone. 

'Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I'd expected,' Zuckerberg said in a message to employees, according to Reuters.

'I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.'

On a short call on Wednesday, a red-eyed Zuckerberg addressed employees but took no questions. 

He stuck to a script that closely followed the wording in the morning's blogpost and called the increased investments in e-commerce a 'big mistake in planning.'

Twitter laid off half its workforce across teams ranging from communications and content curation to product and engineering following Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover.

The cutbacks affected roughly 3,700 employees, who learned their fate by email last week. 

However, Bloomberg on Sunday reported Twitter was reaching out to dozens of employees who lost their jobs, asking them to return.

On Monday, cloud-based software company Salesforce quietly laid off hundreds of employees.

The exact number of jobs cut was unclear, but it was less than 1,000 according to CNBC.

'Our sales performance process drives accountability. Unfortunately, that can lead to some leaving the business, and we support them through their transition,' a Salesforce spokesperson told CNBC in a statement.

Salesforce had 73,541 employees as of the end of January. 

The company said in an August filing that headcount rose 36 percent in the past year 'to meet the higher demand for services from our customers.' 

Amazon executives are said to be planning to layoff 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs as early as this week in what would be the largest job cuts in the company's history.

The cuts would focus primarily on Amazon's devices, including voice-assistant Alexa, sources familiar with the discussions told the New York Times, as well as its retail division and human resources.

The move comes as the company reportedly lost $1trillion over the year after its stock plummeted from a high during the pandemic.