According to recent reports, Google is continuing its global program of layoffs.

The next round of layoffs are in Israel.

The affected employees are expected to also include those working for Google Cloud and Waze.

The employees are expecting pre-firing hearings.

Last month, the US tech giant announced that it was laying off 6 percent of its 12,000-employee global workforce.

The round of job cuts in Israel is estimated to be similar to the 6 percent overall rate of the global workforce.

The layoffs are expected to continue most of this week.

Where have all the big tech layoffs come from?

Chief CX Innovation Officer at Arise Virtual Solutions, Jonathan Shroyer, offers up a possible explanation why this phenomenon is happening and why it seems to be happening in the tech industry in particular:

“​​The pandemic created new micro business sectors, causing some sectors to struggle (restaurant, cinema, travel), while others boomed (delivery, tech, and entertainment). At the start and during the pandemic we saw a spike in struggling sectors and a spike in hiring in booming areas. By and large as the pandemic has softened these booming sectors are returning back to normalcy and the struggling sectors are bouncing back. It is a rebalancing of supply, demand, and consumer behavior. Sadly these unpredictable sector changes have a large cost, the cost being the impact on people and their careers,” Jonathan Shroyer explains. “This has the potential to affect the financial stability through the US and emotional stability inside the homes of the families impacted by such unstable economic times.”

Moving forward, companies need to prioritize employee retention before layoffs need to occur. By considering executive compensation adjustments, undergoing hiring freezes and preemptively preparing contingency plans, companies can successfully prepare and prevent mass layoffs.

Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.