Mass Layoffs Amid Global Slowdown Sparks Fears | Unbreak the News with Prema Sridevi | Ep: 102

This year has been a year of layoffs. Across the world, many companies are resorting to mass layoffs. Employees working in multinational companies are in the grip of fear and insecurity amid global job cuts. From Twitter to Meta, from Apple to Amazon, companies are gearing up for recession. While the Indian government has said that the evolving global economic downturn will not impact us, are the ground realities indicating this? Prema Sridevi UnBreaks this News for you!

(Produced below are the abridged version of the transcripts of the video explainer from Episode: 102 | UnBreak the News with Prema Sridevi | Title: Mass Layoffs Amid Global Slowdown Sparks Fears?)

This year has been a year of layoffs. Across the world, many companies are resorting to mass layoffs. Employees working in multinational companies are in the grip of fear and insecurity amid global job cuts. From Twitter to Meta, from Apple to Amazon, companies are gearing up for recession. While the Indian government has said that the evolving global economic downturn will not impact us, are the ground realities indicating this? Let’s UnBreak this News!

The Chief Economist of the IMF, Pierre Olivier Gourinchas, said in an interview with a media channel that the world would witness a painful 2023. He was speaking about the devastating impact of the global economic downturn. Many companies worldwide have already started laying off their employees to prepare for the unforeseen. Amazon’s CEO recently said that the mass layoffs would continue into the following year. Apart from Amazon, even companies like Twitter and Meta have started trimming down their workforce.

It has been reported that Facebook, Amazon and Twitter alone have fired more than 38000 people globally in just a matter of a few days. These massive job cuts are an indication of an economic slowdown. The head of the World Trade Organisation warned recently that several major economies face a real risk of sliding into recession as the war in Ukraine rages, and the world is in the grip of rising food and fuel prices and soaring inflation. Russia is already in recession, and so is the UK, and the US is staring at a possible recession. Japan’s economy has shrunk unexpectedly because of inflation and the aftereffects of the global slowdown. Brazil is facing severe inflation and recession risks, and so are many other countries worldwide. So, can India be immune to this?

As far as India is concerned, tens of thousands of Indians are staring at an uncertain future. Several tech companies, media and entertainment companies, ed tech firms have already resorted to job cuts. Twitter has shunted out more than half of its staff in India. News reports state that Amazon India’s layoffs are expected to be higher than layoffs of other tech majors. Many IT companies have frozen their hiring. Numerous companies across the board have said there will be no increments this year.

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data showed that the unemployment rate in the country in October rose to 7.77 per cent compared to 6.43 per cent in September. A recent World Bank report has stated that an additional 5.6 crore Indians slipped into poverty in the pandemic year of 2020. India is yet to recover from the pangs of the pandemic.

Many economists have already forecasted a partial recession for India in the coming quarters. Further layoffs are expected in several key markets, and India has already started feeling the pinch in its job markets. In such a scenario, it is very unlikely for India to remain completely insulated from a global slowdown.