The job cuts in Big Tech might not be over just yet. That’s according to D.A. Davidson Analyst Tom Forte, who says that the recent spate of bank collapses, including the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, could point to more trouble ahead for the tech industry.
“To the extent that the bank turmoil has a greater chance of resulting either in a recession or more significant recession, I think you can see another round of layoffs in Big Tech,” Forte told Yahoo Finance Live.
On Monday, Amazon (AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy announced that the e-commerce giant will lay off 9,000 workers across its Amazon Web Services (AWS), People Experience and Technology Solutions (PTX), advertising, and Twitch teams. That’s in addition to the 18,000 jobs the company cut in January.
“Given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount,” Jassy wrote in an email to employees.
Amazon, which has experienced slowing sales in its e-commerce and AWS divisions over the last several quarters, reported a net loss of $2.7 billion for 2022.
According to Forte, the slowdown in AWS revenue is a result of the business’s sales structure, which allows customers to scale back on their usage as needed, thereby saving cash on their end while squeezing off the flow of revenue to Amazon.
“The fact that here we are on March 20, and they’re doing another round of layoffs suggests things are not going very well at Amazon, including the higher margin businesses: cloud computing and advertising,” he said.
It’s not just layoffs, either. Forte, who has a Buy rating on the stock and $143 price target, says that Amazon has also eliminated about 100,000 jobs across its e-commerce business via attrition during the March and June quarters last year.
And Amazon might not be done with cutting. If the economy takes a step down, which Forte says could happen, the company may end up having to eliminate more jobs down the line.
Amazon isn’t the only company doubling down on layoffs. On March 14, Meta (META) announced it will cut an additional 10,000 employees beyond the 11,000 it let go in Nov. 2022. CEO Mark Zuckerberg also announced that the company will close 5,000 open, unfilled positions.
In January, Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT) laid off 10,000 and 12,000, respectively.
The moves are part of a broader cost cutting effort across Silicon Valley, after firms hired new employees by the thousands during the pandemic thinking that consumers would continue to spend their lives inside and online, rather than out in the real world.
By Daniel Howley, tech editor at Yahoo Finance. Follow him @DanielHowley
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