Nearly 25,000 tech workers were laid off in the first weeks of 2024.Why is that?

It’s not herd mentality. The covid over hiring layoffs were last year. This year has been mostly related to cash flow drying up and borrowing more being very expensive. Add to it the IRS rules changes re: R&D, companies are now looking to shut down any unprofitable ventures. Profitable companies are canning all experimental projects except the AI hype train. Unprofitable companies are trying to survive by downsizing until they can borrow more money again.

Interest rates go up. Layoffs are the inevitable result. This is the standard Fed cycle, isn’t it? It’s not extraordinary.<p>I was taught that generally the fed raises rates and markets go up, the Fed flattens and markets go up, then feds drop interest rates and markets drop and unemployment goes through the roof.<p>Is that not we expect?

&gt; &quot;these tech companies are almost being rewarded by Wall Street for their cost discipline&quot;<p>&gt; &quot;stock investors are appreciating it&quot;<p>&gt; &quot;All of the major tech companies conducting another wave of layoffs this year are sitting atop mountains of cash and are wildly profitable&quot;<p>stock goes up. shareholders happy. execs get fat bonuses.<p>not because of interest rates, loans or over-hiring.

Likely &quot;Return to Office&quot; is actually raising fixed costs(office space,devices,maintenance, electricity,etc) to pre-Covid levels, which means it much costlier to have tons of people on premises vs remote workers(which don&#x27;t require all these things)<p>That and IRS rule changes that removed tax writeoffs for &quot;research&quot;.

I prefer the original headline, noted in the Correction section.

laid off in September- 20 years in tech and I have never seen as cold a job market as this one

The only <i>safe</i> job is one you create for yourself.

[dupe]<p>With a url fix, more discussion here:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=39165486">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=39165486</a>

Yeah definitely herd mentality and not fears of recession leading indicators