A year earlier, in 2022, in the first two months of the year, around 34,300 jobs were eliminated in the United States, so it is a wave of layoffs that jumped more than five times.
In February of this year, the number of layoffs in the United States was 77,770, and this is more than five times the reduction of 15,245 registered a year earlier. Currently, the vast majority of layoffs are in the technology sector, but there are also significant layoffs in the retail and financial sectors. Companies are trying to cut costs amid an uncertain economic outlook.
According to the report, American companies announced the hiring of 28,830 workers in February, which is an 87 percent decrease compared to 215,127 a year earlier.
Downsizing is welcomed by investors, restructuring of cost structures and rationalization are rewarded in the market. Shares of Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon.com and Meta Platforms are up between 6 percent and 54 percent so far this year, after falling between 29 percent and 64 percent in 2022.
US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday reiterated his message of bigger and potentially faster rate hikes, which could force companies to cut more jobs.
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