Job openings in the US are dipping and companies are laying off what seem like tens of thousands of employees. Is this the beginning of an oncoming job crisis?
It’s not, say experts.
“The labor market may be cooling off, but the temperature decline is far from a plunge,” said Nick Burner of Washington’s Indeed Hiring Lab. “The outlook for economic growth may not be as rosy as it was a few months ago, but there’s no sign of imminent danger in the labor market.”
Drop in jobs
Job openings—a measure of labor demand—fell to a still-high 10.7 million in June from 11.3 million in May, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The 605,000 decline in the number of jobs was the largest since April 2020 when the US was reeling from the first wave of COVID-19.
The Labor Department said the job market is still favorable, with at least 4.2 million workers voluntarily quitting their jobs in June amid declining layoffs.
Oracle layoff
But the story is different at the offices of US tech giant Oracle, which on Tuesday started letting go of thousands of workers, according to accounts of affected staff who took to social media to reveal the mass terminations.
The layoffs at Oracle, which employs over 140,000 people globally, are aimed at saving up to $1 billion in cost-cutting measures.
“Hearing overall layoff numbers are pushing 10,000. That would roughly make sense if they want to save $1 billion over all,” wrote one user on Thelayoff.
Not alone
It’s not just Oracle. Robinhood too is removing 23% of its full-time staff, making it the company’s second round of layoff this year. In April, Robinhood slashed almost 10% of its staff.
Slow growth and recession threats have made many companies rethink their trajectory. Netflix Inc., Twitter Inc. and Tesla Inc. are among the companies that recently laid off staff.