Here's a new buzz term: copycat layoffs. This is what the article says:
Unless you’ve been living under a rock this year, you might have noticed that lots of companies – including Google, TikTok and Spotify – are laying off employees. The term “copycat layoffs” represents some people’s suspicions that many companies are only choosing to cut employees after seeing their rivals do the same. "
That was in 2023. There was no dot-com crash, no market crash - 8.7 million Americans lost their jobs between December 2007 and early 2010.
Executives justified the mass layoffs by citing a pandemic hiring binge, high inflation and weak consumer demand. With the upturn in 2024 and all of those items addressed, there have been significant numbers of layoffs in the tech industry. Here's what the analysts say is really happening:
"One of the more interesting concepts we see play out here is the herding effect. Larger tech companies, even those sitting on substantial cash reserves and enjoying profitability, are engaging in rounds of layoffs to get a piece of a boost in their stock prices. Some suggest that this trend has become the “new normal,” with companies getting away with it because others follow suit."
An update article in June said that there were 50,000 job cuts across 254 companies in 2024. It lists the layoffs by month. I took a list of the list in Canada HERE. It is a long, long list. This is definitely the age of copycat layoffs.
The NPR article gave this analysis: Layoffs are an instance of "social contagion" in which companies imitate what others are doing. They are contagious and a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Shulman adds: "They're getting away with it because everybody is doing it. And they're getting away with it because now it's the new normal," he said. "Workers are more comfortable with it, stock investors are appreciating it, and so I think we'll see it continue for some time."
And what about the people being laid-off. Some have been rehired. But others? I haven't found the stories on them. I wonder if the current cohort of the "laid-off" workers will have the legacy of past ones. Studies find that they earned 20 percent less than their peers years later, and that they live with the stigma of "laid-off" throughout their work careers.
Here's a beautiful Longwood display from a few years ago.
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