This is a year old, but not irrelevant...
Once we pulled back from the drop in employment during the depths of the pandemic, there was a hot minute where labor had the upper hand over capital. That’s not the normal state of affairs — it’s called “capitalism” after all, not “laborism.”
Tellingly, these layoffs have largely been confined to tech, a relatively small portion of the economy the media covers obsessively. Perception bests reality when headlines report a five-figure layoff every week, and nobody does the math on the broader employment picture. One of the great externalities in society is an ad-supported ecosystem that turns attention to capital, resulting in a catastrophizing of all media.
The chaser dropped on November 30, when every knowledge worker (reportedly) met their replacement: ChatGPT... n 2023, the new Bangalore may be ChatGPT.
https://www.profgalloway.com/disinflation/What I was actually looking for and didn't find is Galloway or some others who note that one firm laying off 2,000 workers is huge news, but 2,000 firms hiring 4 workers each is not, so layoff headlines can be deceiving. It's better to look at overall wage and employment figures to understand just want sort of disturbance in the Force is happening - destruction or reallocation.
Note the graph in the above article though about tech pandemic hiring and post-pandemic layoffs. A lot of those firms are still "heavy" compared to Feb 2020
