Coronavirus Impact: U.S. Tech Companies Fear Job Cuts, Income Loss

Depending on the company, U.S. tech giants from Amazon to Cisco Systems are worried that national quarantines and a deteriorating business environment caused by the global coronavirus pandemic will lead to layoffs and loss of income.
Based on an emailed survey to tech company staffers hosted by Blind, 53.8% of employees at the big U.S. tech firms are concerned about job security. Some 62% think their total income is going to be negatively affected by the outbreak.
Blind conducts “blind surveys” online through a large email list of tech company employees to gauge sentiment on numerous issues. The survey data was released this week and was conducted between March 9 and 11. Slightly more than 7,000 people responded to the survey.
Online travel booking company Expedia, Uber, and Intel were some of the companies where employees are most concerned about their job security.
Google, Uber, Cisco Systems, Oracle and Expedia employees were also most concerned that their income will be negatively affected by the economic trends stemming from the coronavirus.
For example, when asked, “Are you concerned your total income is going to be negatively affected by the economic trends stemming from the coronavirus?”
Cisco Systems employees topped the list with 72% saying yes. Uber was next at 70.9%, followed by Facebook at 70.4% and Oracle at 68.8%.
Regarding job security, Expedia employees were the most nervous with 77.2% saying they could lose their jobs because of the economic impact caused by the outbreak.
At the other end of the scale, 39.2% of Apple employees responding to the blind survey said they felt their jobs were at risk.
Gig economy giant, Uber, saw 63.3% of their respondents fearing the worst. The survey did not include Uber drivers.
Apple in China. In the U.S., Apple employees seem to be the most confident that their jobs are safe. ... [+]

The Washington Post reported on March 11 that job losses were piling up in sectors most heavily impacted by self-quarantine measures and travel bans.
Professional services firms have told me on background that they have lost a quarter’s worth of revenue, with no end in sight. Layoffs are pending.
United Airlines last week offered its employees unpaid leave.
“The U.S. economy is trapped. Either it won’t be that bad, or it can be really bad,” says Nancy Perez, a senior portfolio manager at Boston Private in Miami. “The unknowns are hard to quantify. We are not getting any guidance from the companies we invest in. It’s all because of the coronavirus.”
On March 11, Blind launched a crowdsourced study looking for information on the number of companies employing work-from-home policies, travel and visitor restrictions.
In less than 12 hours, they collected 600 responses from large, well-known tech giants like Salesforce and SAP, to lesser-known names. At first glance as of March 13, roughly 106 companies said they had a case of the new coronavirus COVID-19 among their workforce.
Most of the 100+ cases were reported in U.S. offices at tech firms nationwide, leading to mandatory work-at-home policies at some offices, according to the respondents.
Of the foreign cases cited in the survey, four were in Germany and six were in Switzerland.
How do you think COVID-19 will affect Tech companies in your country? write to us in the comments area!

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