The labor market ballooned in January when the US economy added an astonishing 517,000 jobs, blowing past Wall Street’s expectations. But at the same time, a slew of corporate layoff announcements have prompted questions about whether there could be a broad slowdown on the horizon. Many of the companies that have recently announced layoffs — like Google, Zoom, Meta, Microsoft, IBM, Intel and Amazon — hired aggressively because of an uptick in demand during the pandemic. But the post-pandemic return to the office means there’s far less need for worker connectivity and online shopping.
