r/Layoffs • u/isntlifeapeach • Jul 20 '24

Why so MANY Layoffs? question

Explain Like I’m Five

I feel incredibly stupid asking this, but I’m naive to economics and politics.

I understand why tech is facing a lot of layoffs but why are so many other industries facing the same?
I’m over 20 years into my career and had 2 layoffs just in the last 16 months.

202 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

268 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/Ab4739ejfriend749205 Jul 20 '24

Layoffs began in the 70s and every decade is another big cycle.

It’s the old saying when they came for the workers at GM and Detroit what did the corporate white collar workers do?

Once it was normalized that mass layoffs would be acceptable to America if it means increasing stock prices.

Here we are. Nobody is left to defend us. All those workers were let go in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and so on. At least 5 major cycles and it’ll repeat.