New year, old layoff stories in the global tech ecosystem. After Amazon announced its layoff plans of 18,000 employees yesterday, another US-based start-up Vimeo has also said that it will cut down its employee numbers by 11 per cent to combat the global economic hardships. Consecutive layoff announcements in the first week of the new year have triggered a pertinent question, ‘Will 2023 bring more difficulties than the previous year?”

In a blog post on LinkedIn, Anjali Sud, the Indian-originated chief executive officer ( CEO) of Vimeo, wrote, "We are entering 2023 with a more focused strategy to simplify Vimeo, and ultimately, our team size and composition need to reflect that focus. This reduction enables us to achieve our growth and profitability goals in a way that is far less dependent on the broader market, putting us in full control of our destiny."

"I will be reaching out to each of them to offer my network to support them in their next career steps. If you know of an opportunity or are seeking great talent, let us know,” she added. 

Prior to this, Vimeo initiated layoffs in July last year. 

Last year was very difficult for global tech employees. Fearing recession, tech giants fired employees as essential cost-cutting measures. For instance, Meta was seen to cut down 13 per cent of its workforce. Twitter terminated nearly 7,500 staff and Google also announced plans to let 10,000 low-performing employees go. 

According to a Mint report, nearly 1,50,000 tech employees lost jobs in 2022 compared to 80,000, in March-December in 2020 and 15,000 in 2021.