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Tech Layoffs More Than Double In Bay Area (mercurynews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the it's-alarming,-but-don't-panic-yet dept.

An anonymous reader shares an article on Mercury News: In yet another sign of a slowdown in the booming Bay Area economy, tech layoffs more than doubled in the first four months of this year compared to the same period last year (could be paywalled, here's an alternate source). Yahoo's 279 workers let go this year contributed to the 3,135 tech jobs lost in the four-county region of Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda and San Francisco counties from January through April, as did the 50 workers axed at Toshiba America in Livermore and the 71 at Autodesk in San Francisco. In the first four months of last year, just 1,515 Bay Area tech workers were laid off, according to mandatory filings under California's WARN Act. For that period in 2014, the region's tech layoffs numbered 1,330. The jump comes amid a litany of other signs that the tech economy may be taking a breather: disappointing earning reports from stalwarts like Apple, an IPO market that has come to a near standstill, a volatile stock exchange and uncertainty in China.

6 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Is it a slowdown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Just looking at layoffs only shows half the equation. How many jobs were added during the same period?

    From TFA:
    "Today the Bay Area's total employment of 3,353,600 as of the end of March still reflects job growth, with102,600 workers added from March 2015 through March 2016."

  2. The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 5, Informative
    In other news from TFA, big companies are still adding workers while other companies are laying off workers:

    The Bay Area's skyrocketing tech layoffs reflect a transformation in the sector, said Stephen Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.

    "We are being increasingly driven by the growth of the large companies," Levy said. "What you did not see on the list is layoffs from Apple or Google or Facebook or LinkedIn ... which are all expanding. This is the era of the large companies."

    In short, it's not all doom-and-gloom in the Valley.

    1. Re:The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling! by swb · · Score: 5, Informative

      its a wonder tech ceo's have not been targets of violence. just give it time, though. to create local 'terrorists' all you need is to push people to the edge where they think they have nothing left.

      If you look at the history of labor conflict in the US, it's often staggering how much violence there was. And not just sticks and stones conflict between police and pickets, but armed conflict waged more like a militia battle where it took Federal troops to impose order.

      And the ugly side of it was sometimes racially motivated, with groups killing Chinese or other ethnic groups wholesale, believing their lower wages were stealing jobs.

      It's hard to see that happening these days, but I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe we're better people, maybe because the economics of it aren't as dire as being an unemployed miner in Montana in 1880.

  3. Net number of tech jobs actually increased by JoeyRox · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the article:

    "Today the Bay Area's total employment of 3,353,600 as of the end of March still reflects job growth, with102,600 workers added from March 2015 through March 2016."

    In other words, the tech job market is healthy as ever, which includes a natural migration of jobs away from unproductive and unsuccessful companies to those which are better managed.

  4. Re:Number H1B requests to go up as well. by rockmuelle · · Score: 3, Informative

    Huh? H1-Bs aren't citizens and can't vote. It's only when you get citizenship that you can vote. The number of new citizens nationally is only in the mid hundreds of thousands each year, so not enough to impact elections. (source: https://www.uscis.gov/archive/...)

    Liberal Democrats (at least all that I know, and I live in Austin, so that's pretty much everyone I know) tend to support immigration for humanitarian, not selfish reasons.

    -Chris

  5. Re:Number H1B requests to go up as well. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here is a secret kid. There are no grown ups. We are all faking it. We dress up in grown up cloths, drive grown up cars, and live in grown up houses. But its all an act.