Looking back at 2023, the global economy was shaken by widespread layoffs in several industries, especially the tech industry. Anxieties grew globally as a result of declining revenue, job uncertainty, and increased stress. But it doesn't seem like this dread will go away anytime soon. Even though 2024 has arrived, the practice of layoffs has not stopped.

In actuality, there were more layoffs in January, which suggests that widespread layoffs may be in the works for the upcoming months of 2024. According to a recent study by Bloomberg, which was cited by Layoffs.fyi, 32,000 tech workers have lost their jobs in 2024 thus far. This comes after leading digital firms and startups, like Google, Amazon, Meta, and others, recently announced layoffs as part of reorganization and cost-cutting initiatives.

The parent company of Snapchat, Snap, has joined the list. On Monday, it revealed that it would be reducing its global employment by 10%, affecting 540 people across several divisions. Prior to the epidemic, e-commerce giant eBay declared that it would be laying off a thousand workers due to a surge in hiring. The tech behemoths like Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce, Google, and others are included in this list.

The creator of Layoffs.fyi, Roger Lee, claims that the "interest rate hike" in recent months and the over-hiring following the epidemic are two of the main factors forcing even large corporations to make difficult decisions. "Tech companies are still trying to correct for their over-hiring during the pandemic surge, given that the high interest-rate environment and tech downturn have both lasted longer than initially expected. Compared to last year, layoffs this year are usually more focused and smaller in nature," his email stated.

The race of artificial intelligence is another major factor in the layoffs. Lee points out that businesses such as Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI are vying with one another for the lead in artificial intelligence and are reallocating resources to concentrate on AI expertise. An analysis conducted by CompTIA recently revealed that "jobs involving artificial intelligence or requiring AI skills increased by about 2,000 from December to January, to 17,479."

Despite this development, more people are being hired in the tech sector even though tech organizations are restructuring and firing employees to refocus. This is because of developments in AI. More and more qualified workers with experience in AI and machine learning are being hired by the companies. According to CompTIA, there were 33,727 active job advertisements in the relevant industry in January alone. This is reported to be the biggest gain in a year over month.

The majority of in-demand AI-related jobs are reportedly available for the following positions: machine learning software engineer, robotics algorithms engineer, generative AI quality engineer, AI data scientist, machine learning engineer, senior applied scientist, software development engineer, AI technical solutions lead, and others.