Tech & Media Were Hit Hardest by Past Year’s Layoffs
Looking at layoff and discharge rates—which are measured together in government data and include all involuntary job separations from employers—by industry over the past year, one group stands out as the most adversely impacted: the information sector, also known as tech and media.
From May 2022 to 2023, the information sector is the only sector in the U.S. workforce that had a higher layoffs and discharge rate than its historical averages—1.3% in the previous year compared to 1.13% in the 20 years before the pandemic. Every other major sector in the U.S. economy had either similar or considerably lower rates of layoffs over the past year than the previous twenty.
The information sector includes major companies like Microsoft, Salesforce and Oracle, famous studios and entertainment companies like Universal, ABC, and Lionsgate, as well as well-known media firms like NBC Universal, Warner Media, and Sirius XM.In total, the information sector is mostly a combination of big technology, entertainment, and media companies.
After unprecedented spikes at the beginning of the COVID-19-induced recession, layoff and discharge rates in the U.S. have been at historically low levels since the beginning of 2021. Even factoring in increases that started around March of 2022—coinciding with the Federal Reserve raising interest rates—firms are still letting employees go at rates considerably below pre-pandemic averages, a sign of continued strength in the U.S. labor market.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, the rate of layoffs and discharges was at 1% of total employment in May 2023 for all non-farm U.S. workers. This made May 2023 the twenty-ninth straight month that the
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