End-of-year all hands meetings are bringing news of pink slips in 2023 at some Triangle companies.
As talk of a potential recession heats up, companies are streamlining – taking hard looks at their operations – from Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), which is cutting 5 percent (or more than 4,000) of its employees, to Jaggaer, a software procurement firm in Morrisville that at a recent all hands meeting disclosed plans to lay off less than 1 percent of its headcount.
Jaggaer CEO Jim Bureau confirmed the job cuts but did not give details. The company, previously known as SciQuest, has not released a recent headcount.
But even with workforce reductions spreading, many companies are still trying to fill open positions. That means opportunity for laid off workers, said Mark Beasley, professor and director of the Enterprise Risk Management Initiative at North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management.
“Layoffs in certain industry sectors create a huge opportunity to pick up talent for a lot of organizations,” he said. “Unemployment is still pretty low. Even though the headlines are talking about layoffs … more people are looking at, ‘I’m having trouble getting the talent we need.’”
A recent survey out the N.C. State business school shows talent is a top concern heading into 2023. Executives are more worried about keeping workers than job cuts. Three of the top four risks highlighted by executives surveyed are related to talent: retention; labor cost increases; and resistance to changes in company culture.
But in the technology sector, it’s clear local CEOs are being more intentional about their hiring practices. Tech job postings are going down, according to new data from the North Carolina Technology Association. In the Raleigh and Durham metros in November, job postings were down 11 percent and 6 percent, respectively, year over year.
But according to JLL, tech companies continue to account for about 20 percent of office leasing activity. While there is anticipation that total employment in the tech sector may decrease next year, it is unlikely to reach 2020 levels, with long-term growth projections still above overall economic growth forecasts.
