No, the great tech layoffs of 2023 aren’t happening again
Hello, and welcome to WIRED Start: your weekly roundup of the most important stories, landing in your inbox every Monday. Don’t forget, you can get the very latest from WIRED with our daily newsletter. Sign up to receive it for free here.
Amazon, Discord, Duolingo, and Google all started 2024 with job cuts. This week, WIRED Start takes a look at the tech job market and finds it isn’t facing the same trouble it did last year.
“This isn’t layoff contagion”
So far, 2024 is off to a start that looks a lot like 2023—with a week full of job cuts from tech companies.
Duolingo cut 10 percent of its contractors last week, citing artificial intelligence as part of the reason. Twitch announced a cut of 500 people, and its parent company, Amazon, also made moves to lay off hundreds of employees across Prime Video and MGM Studios on Wednesday.
Google followed, also laying off hundreds of employees working on its Google Voice assistant, with additional reorganization affecting its hardware teams working on augmented reality, the Pixel phone, Fitbit watches, and the Nest thermostat. On Thursday, Discord said it would lay off 17 percent of its staff after hiring too quickly in recent years.
It’s a flurry of announcements that feels all too familiar, but experts say these layoffs don’t necessarily mean 2024 will prove as brutal as recent years.?
Get ahead with these recommended reads
Rose-tinted predictions for artificial intelligence’s grand achievements will be swept aside by underwhelming performance and dangerous results, writes Daron Acemoglu.?
The glory days of venture capital are winding down, leaving in their wake a host of overstuffed tech firms and a bear market ready to maul, writes Edward Chancellor.?
领英推荐
The US approval of spot bitcoin ETFs, a new way to track the price of bitcoin, could trigger a gold rush for investors. But an exclusive cast of middlemen will earn big in the background, too, writes Joel Khalili .?
These are the products, prototypes, and ideas that most distinctly signaled the future at this year’s consumer tech showcase, writes WIRED’s Gear Team.?
Until next time
Join us for the 10th anniversary of WIRED Health on March 19 at Kings Place, London, where we highlight the most exciting and thought-provoking disruptors, scientists, and practitioners making a positive change in the way we provide and access healthcare.
Get early-bird tickets at health.wired.com
Thank you for reading! We'll be back next Monday with another WIRED Start.?
If you enjoyed reading this week’s edition, you can unlock unlimited access to WIRED’s content with a subscription.?
editor, writer, journalist, curator, content manager, communicator
10 个月Wired itself let something like 20 people go in December.