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Tell HN: Jan 2023 has already had 1/3 of the total yearly tech layoffs for 2022

17 points by anm89 ↗ HN
According to https://layoffs.fyi/ we have now had 55,324 tech layoffs in 2023 vs 155,126 in 2022.

Given that we are 2/3s of the way through January, at this pace we would eclipse 2022 layoffs around the beginning of march

5 comments

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Johnbot
Does anyone have historic data on this to tell whether it is common to front-load layoffs at the start of the year? It looks like January of last year had the fewest layoffs, which surprises me. I would have expected having many layoffs towards the start of the year with new budgets would be more common.
jen20
> towards the start of the year with new budgets

A lot of companies do not align their financial year with the calendar year, I'm not sure much can be drawn from this.

pcthrowaway
It's probably just a reflection of budgets, needs, and forecasts.

During January of last year, companies were still in a hiring crunch because the pandemic restrictions hadn't yet been lifted in most places, and online sales were booming as a result. Rate hikes hadn't started, or even been announced yet. I'm not even sure if inflation data from the previous year had been announced yet

birdymcbird
opportune time to do beginning of year before new projects..goal measurement and execution get underway.

also remember part of this to help share price. executive leadership teams sending message to market they ready to focus on “value” and cut the excess. earning season getting underway and most company have big miss against estimate, so need data to provide example of what cost cutting happening in earnings call.