The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the tech industry, with companies like Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft furloughing thousands of employees due to fears of an economic slowdown. However, the president of the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technologies (CUTI), Carlos Acle, sees this as an opportunity for the local industry.
According to Acle, these global layoffs have not negatively affected local companies and may even lead to opportunities for them and for Uruguayan talent. Acle argues that these layoffs are a cyclical phenomenon that will eventually lead to new hires. “The more prepared companies are to respond to this increased demand for talent, the more opportunities there will be for the industry,” says Acle.
In addition, the president of CUTI points out that as these companies begin to grow, they will also need their capacity to be “more elastic”, which could lead to a tendency to hire talent with a closer time difference, such as the one you have Uruguay.
CUTI is also gathering information from its more than 400 partners about how their performance was in the last six months and what they project for the first months of 2023 to prepare a sector report. With this study in hand, Acle hopes to have more tools to prepare for a new cycle in the technology industry.
Unsettled weather makes industries nervous
It’s no secret that the tech industry has been struggling for months. In 2022, hundreds of companies across the tech industry have implemented layoffs. The Meta layoffs were one of the most startling headlines, with more than 11,000 employees losing their jobs.
Globally, combined, Amazon and Microsoft alone are laying off some 28,000 employees globally, adding fuel to the fire of instability that is rocking tech industries.
Currently, the economic climate is highly unstable and fears of recession have affected economies such as the US, once extremely stable. According to the US National Bureau of Economic Research, a recession has yet to officially be reached. However, the massive layoffs in the technology industry have shown us that the economic situation is not positive at all.
For his part, on January 18, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced significant layoffs at the company. In a statement, Nadella said: “Today, we are making changes that will result in reducing our global headcount by 10,000 jobs through the end of FY23 Q3. This represents less than 5% of our total employee base, with some notifications happening today.”
