What’s going on:
In a sudden and unexpected turn of events, the US economy added over 500,000 jobs in January, boosting the number of open roles to 11 million and driving the unemployment rate down to an impressive 3.4%.
But many companies are still conducting massive layoffs, including Yahoo, Disney, GoDaddy, and GitLab.
Why it matters:
GoDaddy is slashing 530 jobs, which equals 8% of their personnel, due to a slump in customer spending and the need to unify its multiple brands.
On the other hand, 1,000 people are to be dismissed by Yahoo on Thursday to restructure its digital ad department, according to Axios. This adds up to a 12% job reduction, with an extra 8% set to leave in the coming months.
Many other large companies (which can be seen here on this LinkedIn list) are letting go of a significant number of employees.
How it’ll impact the future:
Although unemployment in the U.S. is the lowest it’s been in about 15 years, there’s a currently a surge of company layoffs. The pandemic created many odd economic trends; first employees were laid off in droves at the start, then when it subsided, companies hired huge numbers of employees as the economy recovered.
Now, many are realizing that they overhired, and that it isn’t sustainable for the future of their businesses.
