Tech companies kick off the new year with more layoffs | Clayton News The Street Partner Content

J.D. DURKIN: I’m J.D. Durkin, reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks were in the red to close out today’s session. The Dow closed down over 230 points, the Nasdaq closed down fractionally, and the S&P closed three-tenths of a percent lower. This comes as investors continue to pore through the latest batch of fourth-quarter earnings reports – so far, only 30 companies in the S&P 500 have released results.

Separately, investors are digesting comments from Fed Governor Christopher Waller, who said that the Fed will likely be able to lower rates this year as long as inflation doesn’t rebound.

In other news, after the tech industry saw sweeping job cuts in 2023, companies seem to be headed in the same direction in 2024. Just two weeks into the new year, 46 tech companies have laid off around 7,500 workers – that’s according to layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi.

And it’s not just small companies or startups that are slimming down. Google said it will be laying off roughly 1,000 employees across several departments. Amazon cut hundreds of workers in its audio, video, and streaming branches, and Apple – which largely avoided mass layoffs last year – said it will be shutting down a 121-person team that was focused on artificial intelligence.

Last year, tech companies laid off more than 260,000 employees. Google slashed 12,000 jobs, more than any other company, while both Microsoft and Meta both laid off 10,000 employees.

But the job cuts aren’t just coming from the tech world. The financial industry has also been hit hard, with Citigroup announcing its plans to let go of 10 percent of its workforce, roughly 20,000 people, over the next two years. And BlackRock has plans to slash 3 percent of its positions – which is about 600 employees.

That’ll do it for your daily briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m J.D. Durkin with TheStreet.