The fallout from the COVID-19 Pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine has led to a significant economic slump in 2022. There is a rapid increase in prices for some common commodities, especially food and energy, causing hardship for households, cost of living crises continues to be persistent and broadening inflation pressure, economic growth is slowing, inflation is rising and more countries are falling into recession. Businesses are encountering increasing challenges, interest rates are changing at central banks, start-ups are saying capital is dying up, workers are being put on notice and tech is bracing for an economic recession and an uncertain future.

Global core inflation has risen from an annualized monthly rate of 4.2% at the end of 2021 to 6.7% in July.

For the past decade, tech companies have soared, hiring tens of thousands of workers and amassing huge cash and an ever-growing profit. The share prices of firms like Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Google keep dominating stock exchanges and making investors rich.

In recent times, tech has been signaling to investors for months that the boom times are ending – Amazon was one of the first tech giants to warn earlier this year that it had hired too many warehouse workers and had overbuilt, anticipating higher customer demand.

Meta formerly known as Facebook for the first time reported a decline in daily users which sent its stock prices plummeting. The company’s stock Is now down to 50% for the year. Last week the company laid off 11,000 employees amounting to 13% of the company’s workforce.

The layoff trend continues on Twitter as the company has now sacked 4,400 contractual workers. Elon Musk-led Twitter has already fired about 50% of its workforce across the globe.

Amazon is set to cut close to 10,000 employees in corporate and technology. Amazon trimming its workforce signals that consumer sentiments are low, especially weeks before the holiday season which is usually the best time of the year for e-commerce.

Snap lays off approximately 20% of its more than 6,400 employees. Though the scale of the layoff is significant, it shouldn’t come as a surprise as Snap’s stock price has lost nearly 80% of its value since the beginning of the year.

The volatility spreads further as Rohin Hood slashes its workforce by 30%. The CEO and co-founder Vlad Tenev took responsibility for Robinhood’s overhiring in the frenzy that was 2021. He said that last year, the company staffed many of its operations functions under the assumption that the heightened retail engagement would continue in 2022.

Stripe cuts 14% of its workforce impacting around 1.120 of the fintech giant’s 8,000 workforce, followed by Lyft cutting off 13% of its staff, nearly 700 employees as it rethinks staffing and rising inflation and fears of a looming recession.

Layoffs hit Netflix again as they let go of roughly 300 staff and they indicated that more rounds of layoffs would be coming as the company tries to adjust for its heavily weakened stock price. It has lost close to 70% of its value since it announced it was down by 200,000 subscribers.

Apple has not announced layoffs but is slowing down hiring as it sees a drop in demand across products and services.

One thing is clear; a brutally cold winter is coming.

Industry experts say the next few weeks are critical and with the economic forecasts looking dire thousands of tech workers may be out of work in the weeks ahead. Tech companies are coming off a period of out-sized growth spurred on by the pandemic.

Gownder said that in other ways some companies may just be playing follow the leader and assessing economic conditions based on what other companies are doing.

While the situation isn’t great for tech workers, we should maintain an optimistic front and take some steps. Some of these steps are;

DON’T PANIC; it is normal to feel overwhelmed with the loss of a job but it is important to keep a leveled head. Remember it’s a setback not the end of your career.

ASK ABOUT SEVERANCE PAY AND BENEFITS; such as unused vacation leave, and paid sick leave. Find out what other employees have received and don’t be afraid to negotiate. The higher your position and time with the company, the more benefits you stand to receive.

ASK FOR A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION AS IT WOULD BE VALUABLE TO SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVE EMPLOYMENT.

FIND OUT YOUR PENSION BENEFITS.

NETWORK; no matter the industry you’re in, network because it is very crucial. Reach out to friends, families, and acquaintances who work in the industry and see if they know of any openings. You can also attend events and meet-ups or connect with people online. The more people you know, the better your chances of landing a job.

CONSIDER FREELANCING; if finding a new full-time job feels like too big a challenge, another option is freelance work. There are numerous freelance opportunities in tech and once you’ve built up a portfolio of clients it will be much easier to find a full-time job down the road or keep freelancing.

The tech industry may have a few hard years. While some of that was self-imposed by tech companies, tech industry workers have skills In high demand, leverage on that, leverage on your skills, leverage on your network and you may find yourself in a new role at a company you enjoy, from a location you love.