As Alphabet, Google's parent company, announced that it would cut 12,000 employees, the global tech industry's job cuts exceeded 200,000 in one year.



According to the US Times, Bloomberg Communications, and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), on the 20th (local time), Google's announcement of large-scale job cuts has increased the number of layoffs at global tech companies over the past year.



According to the tech company layoff accumulation site 'Layoff', the scale of tech company job cuts last year was 155,126 people from 1,032 companies, and this year's scale is 55,324 people from 154 companies, including Google.



This is equivalent to a new job cut of 210,000 in just over a year.



Google Alphabet's CEO, Sundar Pichai, said in an email to employees that day, "I take full responsibility for the decision that led to this situation." He said he plans to lay off.



WSJ explained that this scale of job cuts is the largest since the founding of Alphabet.



Previously, e-commerce company Amazon (18,000), Facebook parent company Meta (11,000), Microsoft (10,000), and customer relationship management (CRM) software company Salesforce (8,000) were massively eliminated. I made a choice.



After being acquired by Elon Musk last year, Twitter laid off 3,700 people, half of its workforce.



The winds of layoffs are blowing across the tech industry, regardless of the size of the company.



More than 50,000 people have been laid off from the so-called 'Big 4 tech companies': Amazon, Meta and Microsoft.



It's only tech giant Apple that hasn't announced massive layoff plans.



Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, announced on the 18th that it would cut 950 people, or 20% of its 4,700 employees, after cutting 18% of its total workforce in June last year.



Blockchain.com also laid off 28% (110) of its workforce earlier this month, while Crypto.com and ConsenSys also announced job cuts of 20% and 11%, respectively.



The large-scale layoffs show that tech companies, which have significantly increased their workforce in response to the surge in digital demand following the COVID-19 pandemic, are preparing for the prospect of a severe economic recession following a 10-year boom in the tech industry.



Just as Alphabet CEO Pichai held himself responsible for the current situation, tech executives are admitting that they incorrectly predicted that sectors ranging from advertising to remote work would continue to grow post-pandemic.



However, some economic analysts point out that the scale of layoffs at tech companies is rather insufficient.



Chris Horn, CEO of TCI, an activist investment firm that demanded massive cost cuts from Alphabet last year, told the Financial Times (FT) that Pichai would cut the number of employees to 120,000, 20% less than in September last year, and reduce salaries. They demanded that costs be further reduced by drastic cuts.



In the midst of this, the New York Times (NYT) of the United States said that while winds of layoffs have a great impact on the younger generation, it does not seem to be the case for the baby boomer generation and the X generation, who went through the dotcom bubble burst in the early 2000s. was said to be going.



Generation MZ, who were born after 1981 and started working when tech companies were booming for about 10 years and did not even think about layoffs; Gen X reacts distinctly differently to layoffs.



(Photo = Getty Image Korea)