A recession and inflation generally lead to corporations cutting payrolls.
We are not seeing much of that yet.
Twitter imploded, but that’s not driven by economic conditions. Facebook and Amazon have announced layoffs in the thousands, but during the pandemic they hired in the thousands and demands have changed. Corporate consultant Garrison Wynn says so far, the layoffs grabbing headlines have been in the tech sector. “If you’re in the tech field, there is a chance that you’re going to have more layoffs than you have in the past, but if you’re not in a heavily-tech field, not something social media based, it’s not going to be any different than in the past five years.” Wynn qualifies that by saying no one has a crystal ball and there is no assurance that down the road there won’t be more.
So far, layoffs remain at historic lows. “2.1 million per year in the last five years. That’s one percent of the workforce, so we’re not seeing those numbers now,” Wynn tells KTRH News. He says the biggest problem is still filling the positions, and because they had invested so heavily in the cost of hiring the C-Suite folks are reluctant to pedal backwards yet.
That’s not much comfort for the people on the payroll watching the headlines scroll past.