Could tech jobs cull spread to rest of US economy? – DW – 01/27/2023

First a trickle, then a stream and now a torrent. US tech giants are cutting thousands of jobs almost every day. The darlings of COVID-19 lockdowns have seen their profits squeezed as lives returned to normal after months of staring at screens.

During the pandemic boom times, the headcounts of Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook parent Meta grew bloated due to overzealous hiring as demand for their products and services soared. But as decades-high inflation took hold and operating costs rocketed, Silicon Valley had no option but to trim the fat.

Tech firms have collectively cut more than 330,000 positions over the past 12 months, according to a tally by research platform TrueUp, including nearly 90,000 since the start of this year.

With inflation still stubbornly high, interest rates rising and slowing growth, the natural conclusion is that the tech sector’s woes will quickly spread to the wider US economy. But economists have cited several…

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