APAC is joining the rest of the world in a slew of cost-saving cuts.
By Zee Johnson
Jobs cuts have been sweeping the globe and APAC is the latest region to be affected by mass layoffs.
Carousell, a consumer-to-consumer e-commerce platform, is laying off 10% of its staff to reduce company spending. Siu Rui Quek, co-founder and CEO of the company, which operates in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Australia among others, says he takes full responsibility for the route in which the company must take, extending empathy in a press release on the company’s official website. “Parting with teammates, whom we are grateful to for joining us on this mission, is a very difficult decision. We will be sure to treat everyone impacted with compassion and to lend as much support as we can to them,” he says.
He confirms that the layoffs are a result of the substantial hiring that took place during the pandemic and plans to offer impacted employees one month of salary for every year of service, rounded up to the nearest half year.
On the same note, Google’s APAC headquarters laid off 190 workers earlier this year, about 6% of its workforce. Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, agreed that the layoffs are due to the hiring spree that took place during at the peak of COVID-19, which left the company’s headcount in a “different economic reality.”
But many of the company’s employees saw the cuts coming after workers in other parts of the world were in the same boat. Those working on Google Pay, Google Cloud, and Google Analytics, as well as employees in finance, legal, and trust and safety roles were affected.
Further, Pouyuen Vietnam, one of Vietnam’s largest shoemakers that manufactures shoes for Nike and Adidas, plans to lay off 3,000 workers and will not renew the contracts of another 3,000.
Like many countries across the globe, Vietnam has been heavily affected by inflation and the current cost-of-living crisis.
The layoffs come just after Pouyen Vietnam placed 20,000 of its workers on paid leave at the end of last year.
According to Vietnam’s Labour Ministry, more than 630,000 workers lost their jobs or had their hours cut in 2022, and in the final quarter of 2022, orders were down between 30% and 40% from the United States and 60% from Europe.
Other companies who have chosen to downsize in the region include JP Morgan, Goldman, Morgan Stanley, ZTE, and Citigroup, and more.
