BENGALURU: With the economic slowdown, many companies are taking cost-cutting measures by laying off hundreds of employees. From Amazon, Dunzo, and ShareChat to Ola and payments firm Cashfree, the layoffs continue in 2023 as well.
Amazon has laid off over 1,000 employees or 1% of its workforce in India. Though there is no official statement from the company about the number of layoffs, as per sources, it would have fired at least 1,500 employees, including those who opted for the voluntary separation programme (VSP). Amazon employs close to 1 lakh employees in India.
It is said the VSP, which the company announced in November last year, was not a hit among its employees and that the company started laying off after the deadline of the VSP - November 30. In the first week of January, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a note 18,000 employees will be impacted and that it will begin communicating with impacted employees starting January 18. In India, as per sources, job cuts have been informed to employees and the whole process has been completed on January 16, and that there are no other layoffs.
Meanwhile, social media platforms are flooded with layoff stories. An employee, joined Amazon three months ago, has received layoff notice. In one of the social media posts, an employee has highlighted the office scene saying people are crying after receiving layoff letters.
Apart from Amazon, social media platform ShareChat has fired 20% of its workforce or over 500 of the employees. ShareChat in a statement said, “As we continue to keep growing, there have been several external macro factors that impact cost and availability of capital...
As capital becomes expensive, firms need to prioritise their bets and invest in the highest-impact projects.” ShareChat said it aims to sail through uncertain global economic conditions over 2023 and come out stronger. Google-backed Dunzo fired 3% of its workforce. It didn’t reveal exact number, but it is said the sacked employees could be about 80.
“We are looking at our team structures and network design to build efficiency into our teams...Last week, we had to part ways with 3% of our team strength. Whatever the numbers, these are people who chose to build their careers with Dunzo, and it is sad to have talented colleagues leave us,” said Kabeer Biswas, CEO & co-founder, Dunzo.
Layoffs continue in 2023
Over 1,000 fired by Amazon in India
500 or 20% of workforce were let go by ShareChat
3% or about 80 people were fired by Dunzo
Ola, Cashfree Payments too fired 200 and 80 employees, respectively
Reports say over 3K bankers globally were laid off by Goldman Sachs including 700 in India
According to layoff tracking site Laysoff.fyi, 91 tech firms laid off 24,151 employees globally in 2023