Streams of layoffs at major companies have been announced since late last year – is it expected to stop anytime soon?
Guy Williams, president and CEO of Gulf Coast Bank and Trust has some insight. He spoke to WWL’s Newell Normand about what we can expect from the job market in the near future and more this week.
“I think one of the comments that was made is that some of the tech companies were storing people like storing Pokémon cards,” he said of layoff in the tech sector. “So like whoever has the most wins. And somebody woke up one day and said, you know, we got a lot of people hanging out, not doing much of anything.”
After taking over Twitter late last year, billionaire Elon Musk announced massive layoffs at the company. In the following months, there have also been layoffs announced at Tesla, one of his other companies, as well as Meta, Google and Microsoft.
“I think there’s a... genuine fear right now that we are going to go into a recession,” said Williams. “And so a lot of companies, you know, led by the tech companies, are looking and saying, you know, who’s not doing… who’s not doing a job that we need done?”
Outside of the tech sector, there have also been layoffs at Disney, Netflix and McDonald’s. Audacy reported last week that job cuts were up 396% in the first quarter of the year over first-quarter 2022.
However, there may be a bright spot on the horizon in the form of reported Treasury yields.
“I think it indicates that people are hoping the Fed is almost done,” said Williams, referring to the Federal Reserve Bank’s attempts to tame inflation by raising interest rates. “Most people expect one more rate increase, which will increase short rates, but perhaps not long term. And so what’s happening is we’re beginning to see optimism in the real estate market.”
Listen to the full conversation here to hear more about possibility of changing the standard international reserve currency, a Thailand lottery scam, and a St. Tammany Clerk of Court developing a fraud detection system.
