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The recent wave of layoffs in the tech industry and beyond is exposing a harsh reality of the remote and hybrid working world.

Virtual layoffs add a layer of loneliness and stress distinct from in-person job cuts.

Driving the news: Some 58,000 tech workers have already been laid off this month, per Crunchbase News. And around 140,000 were let go in 2022.

Thousands of those workers are getting laid off in their home offices or living rooms — immediately losing access to email, Slack and their community of colleagues, The New York Times' Emma Goldberg writes.

The experience is especially jarring for younger workers, many of whom joined their jobs remotely.

Madeline Whitney, a 2022 college graduate, was working from home when she was laid off from Yext, a midsize tech company, this week. She joined a morning call that popped up on her calendar, and after a five-minute conversation, her job was gone. Within 15 minutes, her email was cut off.

"The hardest thing was that we didn't get to say goodbye," she says.

Her colleague Anna Karl, another new graduate, was laid off the same day. "When you're dealing with the hybrid environment, you don't have people there for you to talk about it or ask for recommendations for new jobs," she says. "There are so many people I loved working with that I'll probably never see again."

The big picture: Another anxiety for laid-off remote workers is finding their next job.

41% of office workers are confident in their ability to find a new job in a month if they’re let go, compared with 24% of remote workers, per a recent CNBC/Momentive Workforce Survey.

And remote workers who are let go may not be able to keep that flexibility and continue working from home. Per LinkedIn data, demand for remote jobs is outpacing supply, with two applications for every remote position.

What to watch: As remote firings become a part of our new reality, managers will have to figure out how to handle these conversations.

“No fire announcements should be made by e-mail or messenger, and certainly not during group calls,” Pavel Podkorytov, founder of San Francisco-based HR platform TalentService, told Axios' Javier David.

The bottom line: Layoffs spotlight one of the toughest parts of remote work — how isolating it can be, David notes. Some conversations are just better in person.

Lonely layoffs in the work-from-anywhere world

Layoffs expose a harsh reality of the remote world.

Illustration of a stack of pink slips with a pointing finger cursor holding them up

Remote work

Jobs

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Data: U.S. Department of Commerce; Chart: Axios Visuals

The U.S. economy grew at an annualized 2.9% rate in the final months of 2022, the Commerce Department said on Thursday.

 Why it matters: Economists are bracing for a significant slowdown in economic activity as the Federal Reserve's interest rates hikes take hold, but that certainly wasn't the case in the final months of last year. 

Economists expected the Gross Domestic Product figures to show the economy grew at a 2.6% annualized rate last quarter, after expanding at a 3.2% pace in the prior quarter.

Details: Consumer spending and businesses built up private inventories gave GDP the biggest boost. Among the biggest drags: fixed investment, a category that includes housing.

By the numbers: Over the calendar year, GDP grew by 2.1% in 2022 — a decent pace, especially considering the historically aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve that sought to restrain economic activity to contain inflation.

Those rate hikes hit the housing sector particularly hard, which dragged down overall growth earlier last year.

Catch up quick: The first half of 2022 was dogged by fears that the economy had entered a recession, after back-to-back quarters of contractions. But by the second half of the year, the economy had returned to growth mode.

The growth over 2022 was an expected slowdown from the 5.9% achieved in 2021, when the economy bounced back from the pandemic shock.

Editor's note: This story was updated with a new graphic. 

U.S. economy expands at 2.9% annual rate in fourth quarter

Over the calendar year, GDP grew by 2.1% in 2022.

Gross domestic product (GDP)

Stock market

Retail

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Friday the company is planning to lay off 12,000 people, becoming the latest tech company to slash jobs after rapid expansion during the pandemic.

The big picture: Tech layoffs started soaring late last year, becoming the new normal for an industry that is slowly losing its appeal.

Driving the news: Pichai said in a memo posted on Google’s blog Friday that an email had already been sent to U.S. employees who will be affected by the layoffs. The process for international employees "will take longer due to local laws and practices," he said.

“Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth," Pichai wrote on the Google blog. "To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today."

He said Google plans to eliminate jobs after a review "across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company."

Details: Pichai said Google will pay employees during their full notification period, with a minimum of 60 days along with a severance package, which will begin at 16 weeks salary with an additional two weeks of pay for every additional year worked at Google.

Zoom out: Google is the latest major company to make drastic job cuts. Microsoft said earlier this week it plans to lay off close to 10,000 workers. Amazon announced in early January it would cut 18,000 jobs and Salesforce said it plans to lay off 10% of its staff. 

More cuts are expected this year given the aggressive expansion by many tech companies during the pandemic, Axios Seattle’s Christine Clarridge writes. The threat of layoffs and instability have only lessened the appeal of these tech jobs, which once seemed immune to the broader economy.

Tech layoffs are a stock price problem, not an economic problem

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Alphabet plans to lay off 12,000 Google workers

Google is the latest tech company to slash jobs after rapid expansion during the pandemic.

A sign outside of Google's office in San Francisco, California.

A sign outside of Google's office in San Francisco, California. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Google

Some of the biggest tech companies in the country have laid off thousands of workers in recent months, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.

Why it matters: The continuous layoffs represent a massive fall from grace for Silicon Valley, which seemed on top of the world early last year, Axios’ Ina Fried writes.

The big picture: Layoffs have become tech’s new normal, Fried writes. The industry, which saw rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now feeling the impact of the broader economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the behaviors it cultivated, such as remote work and buying groceries online, prompted tech companies to hire rapidly and aggressively, Margaret O'Mara, a University of Washington professor, previously told Axios.

When inflation hit the U.S. hard, the Fed raised interest rates, which caused the economy to soften. Growth stalled from there.

That happened as people returned to pre-pandemic habits. The tech industry, had invested in the habits and behaviors it saw during the pandemic, suffered as a result.

The "war for talent" during the boom period led to companies hiring too fast and spent too much in doing so, showing “sloppy” behavior, one recruiter told Axios.

By the numbers: More than 1,000 tech companies have laid off over 150,000 people since 2022, per Layoffs.fyi. 

Those include cuts at tech giants — from Google to Meta to Twitter.

Flashback: The tech industry’s recent troubles call back to the turn of the millennium, when tech stocks plunged after reaching then-peaks, Axios’ Scott Rosenberg and Sara Fischer write. 

Companies then began laying off people and cutting payroll to deal with a looming recession.

Yes, but: Today's large tech companies are still making a lot of money. 

The layoffs are a stock problem and not a sign of economic trouble, Axios’ Matt Phillips writes. 

Layoffs will likely continue as companies restructure and cut back their payroll in an attempt to please investors and boost profits, Fried writes.

The bottom line: As Axios' Felix Salmon pointed out, tech companies plan for tomorrow, but when tomorrow doesn’t come, layoffs do.

Why the tech layoffs are happening and what's next

The rounds of layoffs represent a massive fall from grace for Silicon Valley.

Meta, formerly Facebook, corporate headquarters is seen in Menlo Park, California on November 9, 2022.

Meta corporate headquarters is seen in California on Nov. 9, 2022. Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

Big Tech

New York City is gearing up for a potential strike on Monday as roughly 10,000 nurses push for higher salaries and better working conditions, AP reports.

Why it matters: The onset of the pandemic exacerbated the health risks, staffing shortages and burnout that weigh on healthcare workers — to the point of threatening patient care. 

The conflict between New York City's major hospitals and their nurses is part of a nationwide movement that has seen a slew of healthcare workers launch strikes across the U.S.

Details: The New York State Nurses Association, comprised of roughly 42,000 union members, gave the hospitals 10 days' notice of an intended strike on Dec. 30. Their contracts expired on Dec. 31.  

The Flushing Hospital Medical Center reached a tentative agreement with nurses on Friday while negotiations continue with Montefiore Medical Center and the BronxCare Health System, AP reports.

But negotiations with Mount Sinai appeared to fall through on Friday. The union said management walked away from the bargaining table during a discussion on salary, per AP.

Union leaders have said they hope to avoid striking, which is set to start Monday if no agreement is reached.

What they're saying: "New York City hospitals have violated our trust through years of understaffing, and that understaffing has only gotten worse since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic," union President Nancy Hagans said at a press briefing Friday. "It’s time they ... deliver the safe staffing standards that nurses and our patients deserve."

"Striking is always a last resort. We’ve done everything we could to avoid a strike — and we will keep working toward a fair union contract," Matt Allen, the union's director at large and a nurse at Mount Sinai, wrote in an opinion for the New York Daily News.

"Management has pushed us to the breaking point by refusing to listen to the alarms we’ve been sounding about chronic understaffing that puts our patients at risk."

The other side: Mount Sinai said in a statement Friday that its offer included a wage increase totaling 19.1% compounded over three years and that it was comparable to the union's tentative agreement with the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

 "Unfortunately, we remain at an impasse over the union leadership’s demand for a significant wage increase beyond what was agreed to at other hospitals."

The hospital added that it has canceled some elective surgeries and is transferring some patients from its flagship hospital and two affiliates in anticipation of the strike.

The big picture: COVID-19 and its aftereffects have triggered a mass exodus of healthcare workers and led those who remain to organize and demand workplace changes. 

National Nurses United, a labor union comprised of more than 175,000 members across the country, organized several strikes in January to push the hospital industry to "invest in safe staffing."

NYC hospitals brace for potential nurse strike amid salary, staffing negotiations

Roughly 10,000 nurses are set to go on strike Monday if hospitals fail to reach an agreement over salaries and staffing.

Photo of a masked person holding a sign that says "Patients First" at a rally protesting staffing shortages

Nurses at Brooklyn VA Medical Center and veterans hold a rally to protest staffing shortages on Aug. 31, 2022. Photo: Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

New York City

Coronavirus

Public health

The U.S. faces a range of health care flashpoints — unaffordable drugs, opioids, vaping — as we debate whether to adopt universal care. For now, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, but Republicans want to issue it a final death blow.

Health

Change in U.S. nonfarm payrolls

Employers finished the year with a burst of hiring: The economy added 223,000 jobs in December, while the unemployment rate fell back to a half-century low of 3.5%, the Labor Department reported on Friday.  

Why it matters: The labor market is still chugging along with healthy demand for workers, the latest sign that the economy is holding up despite recession fears. 

December's payroll gains are slightly higher than the 200,000 that economists forecast for the month. 

Jobs growth moderated from November's gains, which were revised down to 256,000. In October, updated figures show the economy added 263,000 jobs, 21,000 fewer than initially estimated.

Details: Average hourly earnings, one measure of wage growth, rose by 0.3% in December or 4.6% over the past 12 months — a slightly slower pace than the 0.4% monthly rise in November (which was revised lower from 0.6%). 

The share of people employed or searching for work, known as the labor force participation rate, ticked up only slightly to 62.3%, compared to 62.1% in November. 

The big picture: In an attempt to crush inflation, the Federal Reserve has swiftly raised interest rates and signaled further increases ahead. While job growth has moderated, the labor market has stayed resilient — a welcome development for workers.

The Fed, however, is concerned that hot demand for too-few workers will cause employees to keep raising wages in a way they view as unsustainable, and stoke inflation. 

Where it stands: The December jobs data is one of the last major labor market indicators of 2022, a solid year of job gains that brought the nation back to pre-pandemic levels of employment, and then some. (It is still short of the level where it would have been had the pandemic not happened at all.)

The economy added more than 4.5 million jobs last year, with an average of roughly 375,000 jobs added each month.

But overall labor force participation rate remains stubbornly below its pre-pandemic level. Some of that shortfall is due to deaths from COVID-19, but other reasons include excess retirements and slower immigration. 

Editor's note: This is story has been updated with additional details and a chart.

U.S. adds 223,000 jobs in December, capping a strong year for the labor market

The labor market is still chugging along with healthy demand for workers.

Jobs report

President Biden has made the COVID-19 crisis and a post-Trump return to national unity and traditional democratic ideals his top priorities. From vaccinations to stimulus to schools, Biden is seeking bipartisan compromise while showing a willingness to use executive authority and bare Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to implement his policies. Republican leaders are navigating deep party divisions over if and how to move beyond former President Trump.

Politics & Policy

A measure of inflation watched closely by the Federal Reserve showed yet another month of cooling price increases, the Commerce Department said on Friday. 

Why it matters: It's the latest data to point to a slowing of still-high inflation — alongside moderating consumer spending — as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates aggressively to slow the economy in an effort to get inflation down to its 2% target. 

By the numbers: The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index rose 5.5% in the 12 months through November, down from 6.1% in the prior month.

Core PCE, which excludes food and fuel costs, rose 4.7%, slowing from the 5% in October.

The report also offered details about consumer spending, savings and income in November. After-tax incomes rose 0.4%, outpacing the 0.1% monthly rise in the PCE index (and the 0.2% monthly rise in core PCE). 

Still, consumer spending slowed notably from the prior month. It rose just 0.1% in November as consumers spent more on housing and less on new trucks. That is down from 0.9% in October, which was revised 0.1 percentage point higher.

The personal saving rate rose slightly to 2.4%, 0.2 percentage points higher than in October; though still among the lowest levels on record.

In recent months, consumers have saved a much smaller portion of their income relative to the early days of the pandemic, amid lockdowns and government stimulus payments.

Key inflation gauge shows price increases cooled again in November

It's the latest data to point to slowing of still-high inflation.

Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Inflation

The U.S. economy expanded at a 3.2% annual rate in the third quarter, according to the final revision of Gross Domestic Product released by the Commerce Department on Thursday. 

Why it matters: The latest revision shows the economy grew at a slightly faster pace last quarter than previously estimated, in large part due to stronger consumer spending.

The economy's return to growth last quarter followed two back-to-back contractions that raised fears the country had entered a recession. 

By the numbers: The final estimate is above the initial readings, which said the economy grew at a 2.6% and 2.9% annualized pace, respectively.

In the first quarter, the economy contracted at a 1.6% annual rate, while the economy shrank at a 0.6% annualized pace in the second quarter. 

Go deeper... The Nixon-era rule that muzzles the White House when economic data comes out

Third-quarter economic growth revised higher to 3.2%

There is more good news for an American consumer bedeviled by soaring prices, and policymakers racing to tame them: inflation slowed even further in November, the latest clue that the worst of it may be behind us.

The big picture: Similar optimism this summer was quickly crushed by subsequently higher inflation readings. But there are good reasons to believe this time really is different, with key inflation drivers — housing, goods and services — all pointing in a favorable direction.

Why it matters: The fate of the economy hangs largely on how inflation evolves. If it continues cooling without a drastic slowing of growth, a soft landing might be possible after all.

The Fed's policy meeting is likely to conclude with a half-percentage point rate hike announced Wednesday afternoon.

That's baked in, but the soft inflation data raises the odds that the central bank will conclude its rate-rising campaign at its next meeting seven weeks from now, perhaps with a mere quarter-point hike.

By the numbers: November's Consumer Price Index was up 7.1% over the last 12 months — the lowest since the end of 2021.

Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy, has risen at a 4.2% annual rate over the last three months. That's well below the recent peak of 7.9% registered in the spring.

Indeed, core prices rose only 0.2% in November, the lowest since August 2021. That works out to a 2.4% annual rate, which is consistent with the Fed's inflation target.

Details: Prices for physical goods are firmly in deflationary territory, a reversal of pandemic shortages.

Vehicles were a poster-child. Prices of used cars and trucks have declined for five consecutive months, and are down 3.3% in the 12 months that ended in November.

Goods with plunging prices also include furniture and bedding (-0.8% in November), laundry equipment (-2.7%) and tools and hardware (-0.8%).

There are positive trends in the services side of the economy, too — where consumers are increasingly shifting spending.

Shelter costs, a critical driver of inflation, slowed last month. Private-sector readings, however, show rent prices are falling, which will feed through to the official CPI reading in the coming months.

Price gains across other services, excluding shelter, were flat again. That's a sign that the strong labor market isn't yet causing prices to accelerate.

What they're saying: "Another downside inflation surprise not only validates a Fed decision to slow the pace of rate hikes, it also raises hopes that the inflation surge may actually be tamed within the next 12 months," Principal Asset Management's Seema Shah wrote in a note.

The bottom line: For the last 18 months, inflation has acted like the villain in a horror movie, re-appearing every time you think it might be dead. 

That could happen yet again — but November's CPI is the best evidence to date that the movie is finally near its end.

Why America's inflation cooldown might be here to stay

Key inflation drivers — housing, goods and services — are all pointing in a favorable direction.

Illustration of a stack of frozen dollar bills with snowcaps.

Year-over-year change in Consumer Price Index

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics; Chart: Axios Visuals

Following a cooler-than-expected inflation reading in October, consumer price gains slowed even further last month: the Consumer Price Index rose 7.1% in the year ending in November, down from 7.7% the prior month, the Labor Department said on Tuesday.

Why it matters: Inflation is still way too high, but the data offers some hope that it can ease alongside a still-healthy economy.

By the numbers: On a monthly basis, CPI rose 0.1%, slower than the 0.4% in October.

Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy costs, also continued to ease. On a monthly basis, it rose 0.2% — up 6% over the 12 months ending in November.

In October, those figures were 0.3% and 6.3%, respectively.

Where it stands: The Federal Reserve has raced to try to get inflation under control, raising interest rates at a historic clip — moves that risk throwing the economy into a recession. 

Officials will likely raise rates by a smaller (but still historically huge) amount following a two-day policy meeting that concludes on Wednesday.

That will come after surprisingly cooler inflation readings, though officials have warned that its war on inflation is far from over.

It’s a big week for markets with CPI and Fed on tap

Yellen says inflation will be "much lower" by end of 2023

Inflation cools in November for the second-straight month

Inflation is still way too high, but the data offers some hope that it can ease alongside a still-healthy economy.

The next U.S. jobs report could be a big market-moving event.

Why it matters: The Fed wants to know if the U.S. labor market has made “substantial further progress,” the vague threshold that would give the FOMC the confidence to dial back some of its emergency bond purchase program.

By the numbers: According to FactSet, economists estimate U.S. employers added 756,500 jobs in August, which would be a slowdown from the 943,000 added in July.

The unemployment rate is estimated to have fallen to 5.2% in August from 5.4% the month prior.

What they’re saying: “The softening in employment activity would be consistent with other economic data that have weakened since the surge in COVID case counts due to the Delta variant,” Bank of America U.S. economist Joseph Song says.

“Related to that,” Wells Fargo economists write, “the FOMC is likely to again consider deteriorating public health conditions as a detriment to ‘substantial further progress,’ which removes some heft from the August employment report when it comes to determining the timing of potential tapering.”

In other words, assuming job growth did decelerate significantly in August, then the FOMC may wait until after its Sept. 22 meeting to announce the timing of tapering.

What to watch: The August U.S. jobs report will be released at 8:30am ET on Friday.

Go deeper: The harm the Fed wants to avoid by tapering too early

What economists expect from the August jobs report

The Fed wants to know if the U.S. labor market has made “substantial further progress.”

A man walks by a "Now Hiring" sign outside a store in Arlington, Va.

A man walks by a "Now Hiring" sign outside a store in Arlington, Va. Photo: Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

Future

Axios Future

A survey of C-suite executives found more than a quarter are considering moving their operations to another state or country.

Why it matters: The forced march to remote work during the pandemic has shaken loose the bonds that tie large businesses to their home territory — and that could be bad news for high-cost cities and states.

By the numbers: In a poll of 150 C-suite executives released today and conducted by the consulting firm West Monroe, 29% of companies reported they were considering moving major operations or headquarters to another state or country.

The biggest reason was the cost of talent and living in their current location, followed by the burden of taxes.

Not surprisingly, the No. 1 destination under consideration was Texas, followed by Florida — two states with generally low costs of living and low tax burdens.  

Of note: West Monroe's chief strategy officer Tom Bolger tells Axios the West Coast "had by far more companies looking to relocate than any other geographical area in the survey."

That dovetails with recent reporting about tech companies and founders looking to relocate out of the Bay Area, which has some of the highest housing prices in the country.   

That includes Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who said in December that he was moving from California to Texas. 

Be smart: Companies complaining about the high cost of living and working in states like California or New York is hardly new, but the embrace of remote work — accelerated by the pandemic — has given workers and CEOs more options.

Nearly half of the executives polled by West Monroe said they had plans to split their workforces between remote and onsite, though only 1% said they would go fully remote.

"If I'm paying major city taxes in a place like New York City and it doesn't really matter for me if I'm in New York, why not go somewhere that's less expensive?"

New survey shows companies are open to moving to cheaper locales

Remote work — accelerated by the pandemic — has made it easier for companies to seek out less expensive regions

Jobs

The big picture

What economists expect from the August jobs report

New survey shows companies are open to moving to cheaper locales

How the pandemic will reshape the job market

Coronavirus could upend traditional workweeks

What offices might look like as America returns to work

A reckoning for small business

All Jobs stories