Even as more job cuts await, some analysts see the beginnings of a bull market in the coming season of earnings reports
Will 2024 be a boom or a bust for big tech? By one estimate, there have been more than 7,500 layoffs in the sector since the start of the year – a dispersal of pink slips that many hoped would have ceased after the deep job cuts of 2023.
However, as the US’s big tech earnings season gets under way this week, some analysts are predicting strong numbers. This batch of quarterly financial results may show that the industry has cleared out its pandemic-era overhiring and reorganised itself around cloud computing and AI – necessitating cuts in sectors with less rosy prospects. Analysts keen on AI say we are at the start of a tech bull market.
Since the start of the year, Google has laid off more than a thousand employees across hardware, ad sales, search, shopping, maps, policy, core engineering, Google Assistant and YouTube. The cuts are slight compared to last January, when the Google chief executive, Sundar Pichai, announced a 12,000-worker layoff, but Pichai has warned of more cuts to come.
In an internal memo last week, he told employees that Alphabet was “removing layers to simplify execution and drive velocity in some areas”.
“We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year,” Pichai said in the memo, obtained by the Verge. “The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices.
