The "massive layoff wave" in the technology industry has cooled down! On the contrary, the three major industries suffered, and the number of layoffs in the primary industry increased by 2030%.

The wave of layoffs continues to spread in the United States. According to statistics from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an employment consulting and training organization, the total number of employees in 2024 through November has exceeded 700,000, the fourth highest record since 2008. Among them, the number of layoffs in November alone was 57,700, a 26.8% increase from the same period in 2023.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas analyzed that as of November 2024, the three major reasons for corporate layoffs include: cost reduction (about 147,000 people), market and economic conditions (about 132,000 people), store or unit closure (about 128,000 people). There are about 12,700 layoffs caused by artificial intelligence (AI), and most of them occur in the technology field.

The wave of layoffs in the technology industry has subsided! Three major industries are suffering

Further observation shows that the technology industry is still the industry with the largest number of layoffs, about 130,000 people as of November 2024, but this is a 20% decrease from the same period.

The growth rate of layoffs in government departments, public utilities, energy and other industries is relatively alarming. The government sector laid off 38,000 people, up to about 2,030% compared to the same period in 2023; followed by public utilities (electricity, natural gas, etc.), which laid off about 8,998 people, an increase of about 607% over the same period; the energy industry laid off 11,800 people people, an increase of 379% compared with the same period.

Image Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas

There are two schools of thought on whether companies will lay off employees due to AI.

The American business media "Business Insider" analyzed that although layoffs at technology companies are not as common as in recent years, the layoff rate is still high. This means that "white-collar" workers are still at risk, and the jobs being laid off due to AI are concentrated in the technology industry, and more similar situations may occur in the future.

The observations of Business Insider also coincide with the survey results of Swiss human resources company Adecco.

A survey of 2,000 executives around the world by Adecco and Oxford Economics found that as many as 41% of senior executives hope to reduce the number of employees they hire due to the development of technology; about 46% said that if employees' jobs Affected by AI, they will reallocate the number of employees. About 66% will plan to recruit AI technical personnel, and only about 33% will train existing technical personnel.

However, there are also voices from another faction. The World Economic Forum surveyed 800 companies around the world in 2023. The results showed that about 25% of companies expect AI to cause unemployment, and more than half of the companies believe that AI technology will create new job opportunities.

The 2024 Global CEO Foresight Survey recently released by KPMG also shows that 76% of CEOs believe that although AI technology is accelerating, it will not have a fundamental impact on the number of employees and in-demand positions in the company.

In addition to the number of layoffs, the number of new job openings is also worth observing! There are still few

In addition to the phenomenon of layoffs worth observing, the decreasing number of job openings is also a major problem for the overall job market.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in November that after the U.S. election, the uncertainty surrounding the potential regulatory and market environment that followed made every company seem to be in a wait-and-see mode. As of November 2024, the number of job openings in various industries in the United States is still about 16,000 fewer than in 2023.

Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Business Insider, CNN