Article By: Joshua 'The Red' Russak (Red@aclion.com)
We are in the final days of October, a month that will be remembered as "the time in which the credit crunch came to a head not only for the economy as a whole but for the tech community in particular." (TechCrunch) Everybody in my office has been either asking or answering a very important question: "How does the current economic situation specifically effect the online sector?" And now we have a better idea...
Small Business and Startup Companies are being pushed to cut and focus on increasing their profit margin through better processes. Their "plan-of-action"? Layoffs!! Lots and lots of layoff, which keeps their bank accounts lasting a tad longer, especially for web companies that require little physical capital. VC firms like Sequoia Capital are urging their portfolio companies to cut costs and increase capital, with layoffs as the solution.
One of my co-workers at AC Lion made a great point, that as a recruiter you need to understand people should be more willing to hear about opportunities - in fact, they'd be crazy not to keep their ear to the ground about upcoming opportunities. Layoffs are happening everywhere I look and I recently stumbled on a new site that effectively tracks these layoffs, company information, etc. - TechCrunch Layoff Tracker. They've begun tracking all of the relevant layoffs in the tech sector. They've mapped out...Total Layoffs: 92, andTotal Employees: 24,662l
*For a comprehensive list Click Here.
A the end of the day, it's important to know who's laying off and why, and TechCrunch Layoffs is a great source for tracking firings...BUT I DO HAVE SOME GOOD NEWS!! I found another site, Web-Strategist.com, where Jeremiah Owyang, Sr Analyst at Forrester Research: Social Computing, started this post series (see archives) to recognize and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Check it out, you may find your name on that list some day ;)
