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canyonwalkerThere was a small round of layoffs at my company today. No, I was not impacted. But ironically I was thinking about the prospect of layoffs over the weekend. While many stories in the news the past several months have been about record employment and rare leverage in hiring favoring job seekers, articles in just that past few days have begun talking about layoffs. Meta, for example, which has apparently never had a layoff, just announced one.
The fact the tide of the business cycle is turning to layoffs now is unsurprising. Just over two months ago it was announced the technical definition of a recession, two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, had started earlier this year. (One of the problems with this definition is it only recognizes a recession ~8 months after it starts.) Perhaps even more important than that is the practical definition: most people believe we are in a recession. Since I wrote that two months ago the stock market has dropped further. Friday it closed down 25% YTD. Furthermore, bears are in the majority. Investor sentiment is that it will get worse before it gets better.
Fortunately for my company and those remaining with it, this was a small layoff. Company-wide, fewer than 10% of the staff were let go. Within my department of ~30 people, only 2 were dismissed. Both were people who've been with the company about 6 months.
Update: with more perspective a day later the layoff decision looks worse. 😨
The fact the tide of the business cycle is turning to layoffs now is unsurprising. Just over two months ago it was announced the technical definition of a recession, two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, had started earlier this year. (One of the problems with this definition is it only recognizes a recession ~8 months after it starts.) Perhaps even more important than that is the practical definition: most people believe we are in a recession. Since I wrote that two months ago the stock market has dropped further. Friday it closed down 25% YTD. Furthermore, bears are in the majority. Investor sentiment is that it will get worse before it gets better.
Fortunately for my company and those remaining with it, this was a small layoff. Company-wide, fewer than 10% of the staff were let go. Within my department of ~30 people, only 2 were dismissed. Both were people who've been with the company about 6 months.
Update: with more perspective a day later the layoff decision looks worse. 😨
