“Layoffs near record low, economic growth stable”: White House

Washington:

As mass layoffs hit the US, particularly the IT sector, the White House said the economy is growing steadily and Washington understands the impact of the job cuts. In recent weeks, major IT companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon have laid off thousands of skilled workers. A significant number of them are either Indian Americans or Indian IT professionals.

“Our economy continues to grow steadily and steadily… And so, more broadly when it comes to the economy, layoffs remain near record lows, according to job vacancy data,” White House press secretary Karina Jean-Pierre said during a news briefing Tuesday .

She said President Joe Biden has said many times he will do whatever it takes to ensure the economy “works for everyone, bottom-up and middle.”

“The President understands firsthand the impact losing a job can have on a family. He takes that very personally. But I’m just not going to go into specifics,” she added.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced that Microsoft Corporation will lay off approximately 10,000 employees through the end of the third fiscal quarter of 2023 in response to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.

“On January 18, 2023, Microsoft Corporation announced to its employees a series of actions it is taking in response to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities. Changes to our hardware portfolio and rental consolidation to create higher density in our workspaces,” the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement.

“Collectively, these actions will result in an expense of $1.2 billion in the second quarter of our fiscal 2023, representing a negative impact of $0.12 on diluted earnings per share,” the statement added.

Earlier it was reported that Microsoft would lay off thousands of employees in order to cut 5% of its workforce. Thousands of job cuts are expected in human resources and engineering departments on Wednesday, Reuters reported, citing Sky News.

The layoffs would be the latest in the US technology sector, where companies including Amazon.com Inc and Meta Platforms Inc have announced cuts in response to slowing demand and a deteriorating global economic outlook.

(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by TOI.News staff and was published by a syndicated feed.)