 |
|
|
|||||
May has only just begun, but already, it has not been a good month for the tech industry in terms of layoffs. Since the month started, several prominent names in technology have announced layoffs, some involving a significant number of workers. Here are the companies involved in the latest round of tech layoffs Panasonic Holdings The iconic Japanese electronics giant, founded over a century ago, announced on May 9 that it would eliminate 10,000 jobs. That reduction equates to about 4% of Panasonics total workforce, reports Bloomberg. According to Panasonic CEO Yuki Kusumi, the cuts are to better prepare the electronics maker for the next few decades. The company will reportedly trim back operations in nongrowth areas such as televisions and industrial products in order to concentrate on other areas, including artificial intelligence (AI). On an earnings call, Kusumi addressed the cuts, saying he was truly sorry. He added: If we dont make drastic cuts to our fixed cost structure, we wont be able to chase growth again. Of the planned cuts, 5,000 jobs are expected to be lost in Japan, while the other 5,000 jobs will be cut overseas. It is unknown how many American jobs will be lost in the cuts. Match Group The owner of the worlds most popular dating apps, including Tinder and Hinge, has announced it will cut 13% of its staff. As noted by Bloomberg, in 2024, Match employed about 2,500 full-time workers, which means that the company will be cutting around 325 individuals. Match Groups new CEO, Spencer Rascoff, announced the cuts when reporting the companys Q1 2025 results yesterday, May 8. In recent years, younger generations, particularly Gen Z, have begun to sour on dating apps, a trend that Rascoff addressed in March, a month after becoming Match Groups CEO. Too often, our apps have felt like a numbers game rather than a place to build real connections, leaving people with the false impression that we prioritize metrics over experience, he said in a letter to employees. That needs to change. Bloomberg says the cuts will see one out of every five managers be let go at Match and quotes Rascoff as saying the aim of the cuts is to help the company focus on product velocity to drive growth. Google Search giant Google is also reportedly seeing tech layoffs, letting go of 200 workers in its global business unit, reports The Information. The global business unit handles partnerships and sales at the company. A company spokesperson told Reuters that the cuts were being made as part of some changes across its teams that are designed “to drive greater collaboration and expand our ability to quickly and effectively serve our customers.” CrowdStrike The cybersecurity company CrowdStrike said on May 7 that it will cut about 500 jobs, equating to about 5% of its total workforce. The Austin, Texas-based company employed just over 10,000 people as of January 2025. CrowdStrikes CEO George Kurtz said the job cuts will position the company to move faster, operate more efficiently, and continue our cybersecurity leadership, according to The Wall Street Journal. CrowdStrike was a little-known name outside of the cybersecurity industry until last year, when a bug in its software temporarily made millions of Windows PCs worldwide unusable. Symbotic The warehouse automation company based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, announced that it will lay off 400 workers from the robotics unit it purchased from Walmart in January, reported The Boston Globe on May 3. While decisions like these are always difficult, we made them following a thorough post-close review of our operations to ensure we are best positioned for the future with an effective structure to continue executing our long-term growth strategy, the company said in a statement to The Globe. The layoffs at Symbotic will take place on June 27. Tech isn’t the only industry facing layoffs While not a tech company, its worth mentioning that accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers, better known as PwC, announced earlier this week that it was laying off about 1,500 employees in the United States. That represents about 2% of its 75,000-strong workforce in America. The move is reportedly being made to cut costs. Tech layoffs mount in 2025 With these latest May tech layoffs, the total number of tech industry layoffs in 2025 has now reached 52,340, according to data compiled by the tracker Layoffs.fyi. Those layoffs have occurred at 123 companies. However, those layoff numbers are still well below the 152,922 people laid off in 2024, the 264,220 laid off in 2023, and the 165,269 laid off in 2022.
Category:
E-Commerce
Planes at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport were briefly left flying blind overnight as the airport experienced another radar outagethe second incident in less than two weeks. The most recent radar outage, first reported by ABC News, occurred just before 4 a.m. ET on Friday and lasted for a minute and a half. There was a telecommunications outage that impacted communications and radar display at Philadelphia TRACON Area C, which guides aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport airspace, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson confirmed in a statement provided to Fast Company. Why New York area planes are getting their orders from Philadelphia A Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, is a facility that oversees arrivals and departures within a given airspace. Those facilities provide a critical link between traffic controllers based in airport towers who coordinate takeoffs and landings and the multistate area control centers that guide planes once they reach cruising altitudes. In the case of Newark Airport, that vital link in the chain of communication is newly operating out of Pennsylvania. The FAA relocated part of Newark Airports air traffic control operations to Philadelphia last year in an effort to add additional controllers and to reduce delays at one of the worlds busiest and most complex airspaces. But the move to Philadelphia appears to have caused more problems than it has solved, with short but potentially catastrophic outages sowing chaos for Newarks air traffic controllers. The most recent radar outage is not an isolated incident Fridays radar and communications outage at Newark Airport is just the latest in a string of recent safety lapses keeping frequent fliers up at night. A Newark air traffic controller told NBC News that radio contact has gone dark at least eight or nine times at the facility in the last few months. On April 28, Philadelphias TRACON Area C lost all contact with planes flying into Newark Airport for at least 30 seconds when communications and radar screens went offline. After the incident, a number of Newark air traffic controllers working that day took mental health leave due to the acute anxiety they experienced, worsening existing staffing shortages and snarling the airport in more than 1,000 cancellations and delays. In January, an American Airlines passenger plane collided midair with a U.S. Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport, killing everyone on board both aircraft. The tragedy prompted an intense public outcry over air travel safety in the U.S., which is plagued by outdated technology and hiring woes. The Department of Transportation has a planbut needs the cash Prior to Fridays outage, the FAA said that it planned immediate steps to improve the situation at Newark, with goals to staff up air traffic control and fast-track technology and logistics updates. Prior to the Trump administration, the Biden administration offered its own incremental updates to U.S. air travel, including millions for smaller airports to modernize their air traffic control towers. On Thursday, the FAA highlighted plans to update infrastructure including radar, software, and telecommunications systems. According to the detailed proposal by the Department of Transportation, legacy radios, some over 30 years old, rely on outdated analog technology, leading to frequent outages, high maintenance costs due to scarce parts, and incompatibility with modern digital standards like VoIP [Voice over Internet Protocol]. The three-year proposal would modernize existing technology, including an updated digital radio system that would make regular communication blackouts a thing of the past. The proposed upgrades would also add six new air traffic control centers. The Trump administration would need Congress to fund such a massive overhaul to Americas air traffic control systems. Trump has enthusiastically steered around Congress on most issues so far, but for a huge infrastructure project, that would not be possible. Concerns over American air travel could be one area of rare bipartisan overlap during Trumps second term. The proposal is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars, though $12.5 billion has already bubbled up in a House appropriations bill. We use radar from the 1970s, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Thursday. This technology is 50 years old that our controllers use to scan the skies and keep airplanes separated from one another.
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump on Friday floated cutting tariffs on China from 145% to 80% ahead of a weekend meeting among top U.S. and Chinese trade officials, as he looks to deescalate the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Top U.S. officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation in Switzerland in the first major talks between the nations since Trump sparked a trade war with stiff tariffs on imports. 80% Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B, Trump wrote on his social media account on Friday morning, referring to Scott Bessent, his Treasury chief, who has been a point person on trade. The Republican president also called on China to open its markets to the U.S., writing: WOULD BE SO GOOD FOR THEM!!! CLOSED MARKETS DONT WORK ANYMORE!!! Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Geneva in the most-senior known conversations between the two countries in months, according to announcements this week by the Trump administration and the Chinese commerce ministry. It comes amid growing U.S. market worry over the impact of the tariffs on the prices and supply of consumer goods. No country has been hit harder by Trumps trade war than China, the worlds biggest exporter and second-largest economy. When Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs on April 2, China retaliated with tariffs of its own, a move that Trump viewed as demonstrating a lack of respect. The tariffs on each others goods have been mounting since then, with the U.S. tariffs against China now at 145% and China tariffs on the U.S. at 125%. The U.S. tariff includes a 20% rate tied to Trump’s claim that Beijing has failed to stem the flow of chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, and this portion of the tariff is unlikely to be brought up in this weekend’s talks. While an 80% tariff level on Chinese goods would represent a significant reduction from the current 145%, it would still be an extremely high import duty that could create supply chain problems and push up prices. And even with the reduction, the tariff rate would still be higher than the combined 74% rate on China that Trump announced at his April 2 Liberation Day event. For China, experts say Beijing would insist that any agreement from the U.S. side would be credible and implemented. Trump had previously said that he wouldnt lower the tariffs against China to hold substantive talks. But he showed signs of softening during an Oval Office appearance on Thursday, when he said he could lower the 145% rate charged on Chinese goods if the weekend talks go well. Were going to see, Trump said. Right now, you cant get any higher. Its at 145, so we know its coming down. The president’s team has acknowledged that the 145% tariff was not sustainable, as taxes at that rate were effectively an embargo on any trade between the two countries. But it remains unclear how Trump can reconcile the contradictions in his stated goals. He wants large amounts of tariff revenues to offset his income tax cuts, but he also wants deals to increase market access for U.S. goods that would likely require lower tariffs. His aides have said he wants to isolate China, yet his tariffs on other trade partners make it difficult to create a durable alliance on trade. Trumps social media post was another sign that the president has essentially been publicly negotiating with himself on tariffs. Hes started, paused, tweaked, and then threatened more import taxes, constantly reversing himself while balancing his promises to address inflation with his claims that tariffs can tilt the global economy in Americas favor. Seung Min Kim and Josh Boak, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||