RALEIGH – Layoffs are piling up in the U.S. economy, and are adding up in North Carolina, too.
Nationwide, just today, Yahoo! announced a 20% cut in its workforce, and earlier this week, well-known companies Disney, Boeing, eBay, and Dell announced job cuts totaling thousands of jobs.
And VinFast, which is building a $4 billion automotive assembly plant and electric battery manufacturing facility in Chatham County, also announced job cuts recently, alongside a consolidation of its North American operations.
And layoffs aren’t just limited to the technology sector, either, as layoffs have hit been announced at the Fayetteville Observer, as the publication will shutter its production plant and lay off 56 workers, WRAL TechWire reported earlier on Friday.
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Tech sector flooded with layoffs
But tech sector workers are feeling the impact of the layoffs that are sweeping across the industry. One report found that there were more than 40,000 tech sector job cuts from U.S.-based employers in January alone.
And while there have been more layoffs announced in January than in prior months, workers across the economy, including here in the Triangle, have been impacted by job cuts.
For instance, just about every day since early December, Patrick Pruitt has entered his home office to sit in front of his computer and fill out job applications.
“I’m on LinkedIn, of course,” said Pruitt in an interview with WRAL News. “I’m on Zip Recruiter. I’m on Indeed. I’m on what is it, you up, up load. I don’t know, there’s so many now I’ve lost track.”
Pruitt was laid off from his job in the technology sector on December 1, 2022. And he didn’t see it coming.
“A complete total surprise,” said Pruitt. “They kept it quiet from even my direct boss.”
But at the meeting where he learned his job had been cut didn’t last long.
“It was maybe ten minutes long,” said Pruitt. “You start questioning your worth as an employee. What am I doing? Am I in the right career path?”
Layoffs are sweeping across the economy
And Pruitt isn’t alone.
Since June of 2022, over 200 thousand people have been laid off in the tech industry… more than 100,000 in 2023 alone according to a layoff tracker maintained by Layoffs.FYI.
But while larger companies slash jobs at record pace, demand for the skills these workers have remains steady. In some instances, it’s even increasing.
That’s according to economists, including Dr. Gerald Cohen, the chief economist at the Kenan Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Maybe not in the tech sector but outside of the tech sector, people are saying, look we need these skills,” Cohen told WRAL News.
And the U.S. economy continued to add jobs in January, even with the rising number of layoffs.
In fact, the economy added far more jobs than economists, including Cohen, had expected.
How many? The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that 517,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in January.
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“The economy is not slowing,” said Cohen during a live presentation the morning the report was released. “A humdinger of a report.”
And the Triangle is similar, where the regional economy continues to grow. Eli Lilly has announced it will add 100 more jobs at an expansion in Research Triangle Park. And a manufacturer of electric vehicle charging stations announced it would bring 300 or more jobs to Durham County at a $41 million facility.
Further, firms who are already here are expanding, even without economic incentive packages that could land investment from companies.
“Despite the unpredictable nature of the past few years, we’ve been fortunate to consistently hire exceptionally talented people from the Research Triangle area,” said a spokesperson for IXL Learning. “In fact, our Morrisville office is now even larger than our California headquarters, which shows what a great fit the Triangle area is for our business.”
And the company is adding square footage at Perimeter Park in Morrisville to bring its total footprint to 67,780 square feet on the first, third, and fourth floor of the building. Already with 246 employees in the Triangle, with a growth of 41% in 2022, the company anticipates the additional space provides the firm opportunity to continue to recruit talented technology workers.
“The additional space will accommodate the pace of our company’s growth, and will serve as a convenient location for people to closely collaborate and do their finest work,” said Paul Mishkin, CEO of IXL Learning, in a statement shared with WRAL TechWire.
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Triangle remains resilient
Triangle-based recruitment professionals told WRAL TechWire and WRAL News this week that they’re observing a resilient regional economy where workers are still very much in demand.
And despite a recent decline in the number of job openings found by the WRAL TechWire Jobs Report, companies continue to hire workers, and expect to hire during at least the first half of 2023.
That’s especially the case for technology occupations in the Triangle.
“In that sector, we’re seeing the demand be just as high if into higher,” said Josh Haymond, managing partner at Triangle-based Vaco, a staffing and recruitment firm that also provides outsourced talent solutions and project consultations.
And that’s happening despite layoffs at large, publicly-traded companies including NetApp, N-able, Cisco, Credit Suisse, and others, said Haymond.
“Those companies that are trying to manage Wall Street’s expectations,” said Haymond. “But the dynamic that insulates Vaco, is that these aren’t the companies that we’re building teams for.”
Instead, the Triangle is full of companies that are still growing, and are resilient in today’s current macroeconomic climate, said Haymond.
“Those companies that are still growing, both organically, and through continued acquisition, they’ve got compliance things they need to figure out, special projects and integrations they’ve got to figure out,” said Haymond.
Which is why Haymond says if you are laid off, there are options.
“Many of those people who have been restructured out, our first question is are you open to project work? Are you open to consulting? Because that might allow us to drop them in at a company where they might get exposure to a new industry, a new system, and build their network,” said Haymond.
~ WRAL News reporter Brett Knese contributed to this report
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