Hi HODLers,
Another day, another company announced layoffs. In the Western world, companies do not like to fire people before Christmas and year-end family time.
In just 21 days or about 2/3rd of the month of January, 100,000 people have been laid off in the US Tech Industry according to LayoffsTracker.
Most of these layoffs occured in the Bay or New York areas. The previous highest month was November 2022 with around 75,000 people being laid off. We are almost up 50% from this high with still 1/3 of the month left!
I do feel bad for people being fired but conditions are pretty advantageous. At Google for example, in addition to their 2 month notice, they are getting 16 weeks of wages and an extra 2 weeks per year they were at Google.
Big Tech is driving these high numbers
I am not going to lie, the recent announcement of cost cutting plans at Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta explain most of this very high and unusual situation. Nevertheless, we also see other Tech (Peloton, ByteDance) and mass market names (HP, Ford...) in that list.
Still DCAing and putting some cash back to work BUT...
I have been enjoying this bounce as my portfolio has been nicely increasing in $ value.
But I cannot say I am very confident in how long this relief phase will last. Unemployment is rising, inflation is still bad and savings are getting dangerous lower.
As we saw during the month of December, consumers have beem spending 1% less versus last year. Adusted for inflation, it means 10% less in "equivalent stuff" value. Scary if it continues...
Stay safe out there,