| If you read the layoff threads from the last 24 hours a few common reasons are theorized - Investors pressuring for profits, cut costs (too many people hired during Covid, total salary bill too big to justify right now). One company does it, other companies may be pressured to drive up stock prices - Money is expensive, <1% interest rates vs 5%+ now, investors can easily get 5%, so high growth (no profit) companies aren't attractive investment targets, price falls, see previous point - Section 174 possibly, companies can't write off entire salaries for engineers as easily to offset revenue, corporate tax bill increases. It was apparently an unexpected (people didn't expect it to pass) tax bill from 2017 that came into effect in 2022(or 23, idk) - The sudden increase in layoffs this week could be due to a backlog over past month+ as a layoff in January looks less bad vs a layoff in December (holidays) - Companies following the lead of other companies (CEOs not thinking for themselves, just looking at what others are doing) -- I don't think this holds, previous points make more sense Most companies never state real motive, besides (now considered meme responses on HN?) like "we/I take full responsibility", overly generic "we over hired", or "due to (macro)economic conditions". So as far as I've seen it's mainly people guessing at the reasons. |
Layoff usually negatively affects company's image. It makes sense to do it when everybody's attention is on someone else. Then it looks like nothing special.