Tech giants not immune to layoffs as IBM, Google and Amazon make cuts
By Dave Jeyes
This year the tech sector’s second quarter is landing with an audible thud as employees of top players kick employees out onto the street. What does it mean for the Internet industry as these companies continue to tighten their belts?
The largest cuts come at industry bellwether IBM, eliminating 5,000 jobs from its services division. That number represents 4 percent of the company’s workforce and employees were notified yesterday.
There’s no word on which offices were hit the hardest, but that many Big Blue employees could create a severely competitive job market if concentrated in one area. Let us know if you’ve heard which areas were hardest hit.
Google is also going in for a second round of cuts, this time in its Sales and Marketing area. While the 200 employees represent just 1 percent of the company’s total workforce, it’s never a good sign when Sales jobs get cut.
Amazon also announced that it is eliminating 210 jobs and closing distribution centers in Nevada, Indiana and Pennsylvania. While the company is offering some employees the chance to transfer to other centers, employees rarely accept these offers.
The workers in these distribution centers are likely to feel the impact of these cuts the most as the centers are generally located in areas with less jobs to absorb them. Amazon’s recent cuts ought to serve as a wake-up call for employees in its Seattle headquarters as well.
In addition, the New York Times plans to jettison 5 percent of its business operations staff or approximately 200 people. Newspapers have been hard hit in recent years as readers, and advertisers, shift their attention to the Web.
What’s especially striking about these announcements is that the run the gamut of revenue models in the tech industry. Here we have the top dogs in consulting service, online advertising and e-commerce tightening their belts at the same time.
The unfortunate message is that none of them are immune from the slumping economy and none of them have seen the light at the end of this tunnel quite yet. Our hearts go out to those that lost their jobs during these tough times.
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Stumble It!
March 29th, 2009
Yes, I’m getting more nervous as hear about friends loosing their jobs. These are no longer just statistics – our family, friends and colleagues are being affected. I hope Obama’s plans start kicking in real soon.