According to a new survey, corporations in the United States slashed 77,770 employees in February, compared to 1,02,943 in January, with technology companies continuing to dominate the layoff race, losing 21,387 jobs last month, accounting for 28% of all losses.
According to executive search agency Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the tech industry has shed a total of 63,216 jobs, a 33,705 percent increase over the 187 job cutbacks revealed in the same period last year.
This industry has announced 35% of all job cutbacks in 2023.
“Certainly, employers are paying attention to rate increase plans from the Fed. Many have been planning for a downturn for months, cutting costs elsewhere. If things continue to cool, layoffs are typically the last piece in company cost-cutting strategies,” said Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
“Right now, the overwhelming bulk of cuts are occurring in Technology. Retail and Financial are also cutting right now, as consumer spending matches economic conditions,” he added.
Furthermore, the report stated that the Health Care/Products space, which includes hospitals and manufacturers of health care products, announced the second-most cuts in February with 9,749, for a total of 16,482 this year – an 85 percent increase from the 8,928 cuts announced at the same time last year.
So far in 2023, retailers have declared 17,456 job layoffs, a 2,194% increase over the 761 job cuts announced in the same period in 2022.
Financial institutions have slashed 17,235 jobs, which is 1,401 percent more than the 1,148 layoffs disclosed in January and February of last year.
According to the research, Fintech reported 4,675 layoffs in the first two months of the year, accounting for 45 percent of the industry’s total layoffs in 2022.
So far in 2023, the media industry has announced plans to shed 9,738 jobs, representing a 158% rise over the 3,774 job cuts planned in the sector all of last year.
