It’s starting to feel a lot like Groundhog Day around Ringle. While we try to publish packets that reflect topical developments in the labor market, we always seem to be playing catch up with the latest trend, whose name is often a play on words [1]. We’ve covered the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, and quiet promotions in the fall. Now, just before winter ends, there’s another trend worth exploring: loud layoffs.

Recently, some of the biggest tech companies in the world—such as Meta (11,000), Amazon (20,000), and Twitter (3,700)—have initiated mass layoffs. In all, around 50,000 tech employees lost their jobs in November 2022, up nearly 40,000 from those reported in October. These layoffs come after a period of significant expansion in the tech industry; for instance, Amazon doubled its workforce during the pandemic, from 789,000 to 1.6 million employees, and Meta invested heavily in its metaverse. Twitter has also famously changed hands [2] to Elon Musk.

Given the pedigree [3] of these tech companies, it could feel like layoffs are all around us, in every industry. However, economists say that the recent trend of layoffs isn’t really a trend at all—the monthly layoff rate throughout 2022 has remained steady at around 1% of the workforce, a rate lower than before the pandemic. What’s more, recent layoffs are concentrated in tech and related industries.

So, why have these layoffs been so loud, meaning they’ve received a lot of press coverage? For one, following the Great Resignation and quiet quitting, workers everywhere have become somewhat conditioned to major shakeups in the labor market. Plus, Meta, Twitter, Amazon, and other tech companies experiencing layoffs are household names, so when they announce surprise layoffs, it may feel like a sign of things to come.

Some economists also think that many of us are itching to get into the tech industry if we’re not there already; indeed, ZipRecruiter finds that at least 20% of jobseekers want to get into tech. The recent layoffs, then, pull strongly at our professional aspirations and inflame [4] our negativity bias.

Luckily, economists and market analysts agree that mass layoffs across the labor market are unlikely. So, while these layoffs have been loud, they’re not actually making much noise.