The tech industry has been booming for years, but the slowing economy has led to massive job cuts at tech companies and small.
As of Dec. 16, more than 91,000 jobs have been lost in the U.S. sector, according to a running tally from Crunchbase News. That includes some 10,000 cuts at online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. and all the way down to earlier stage startups.
Case-in-point: Detroit-based financial technology firm Autobooks cut nearly 40 positions from the company earlier this month, which previously counted nearly 140 employees. The layoffs were needed to “recalibrate cost and support models to balance future growth with profitability,” CEO Steve Robert told Crain’s.
Chris Rizik, the CEO and fund manager of Ann Arbor-based Renaissance Venture Capital, which has an investment stake in Autobooks, said there is likely to be more cuts. The last decade has made for a generally easy environment for startups to raise capital, Rizik said.
That’s likely coming to an end.
“The bar is going to be higher for companies,” Rizik said. “There’s going to be a bigger distinction between winners and losers.”
