Global technology firms speed up cost optimisation moves

Bengaluru, 20 August Technology companies across the world are taking up cost optimisation moves including hiring freeze, deferring bonus pay out along with reduction in headcount in some cases amid fears of an economic slowdown.

Social media firm Twitter becomes the latest technology firm to warn its employees that the bonus pay out this year may be half of what it used to be owing to economic uncertainty. The company reported a net loss with decline in revenue in its latest quarterly earnings. Companies are cutting advertisement spends, impacting revenues of many social media companies.

Many technology majors including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon have already halted new hiring as part of cost saving measures.

Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai said that Google would slow down hiring at the company through the rest of the year and next year, while also keeping a check on investments for the same period of time. "Because of the hiring progress achieved so far this year, we'll be slowing the pace of hiring for the rest of the year, while still supporting our most important opportunities," he has said. Google would be focussed more for hiring engineering, technical and other critical roles.

Elon Musk-owned Tesla Inc had laid off hundreds of employees working on the autopilot self-driving technology. Similarly, Amazon after aggressively hiring during the pandemic period, has shed 99,000 employees in the second quarter of ongoing financial year. Amazon also plans to become more cautious in its hiring at its headquarters and other offices.

"Amazon will continue to add headcount in a very targeted way, including engineering positions in Amazon Web Services and advertising, while being very mindful of economic conditions," the company has said.