22nd July 2022
Bite-sized business news from the UK and beyond
Good morning Watch out Huw Edwards, the TikTokers are coming. Ofcom’s latest annual survey of the UK news landscape revealed that TikTok is the fastest growing news source for adults. According to the survey nearly half of people using the social media platform for current affairs turn to fellow TikTokers rather than conventional news organisations for their updates.
Today's stories
First Eurozone rate hike in 11 years
Big Tech cuts back on hiring
EUROPEFirst Eurozone rate hike in 11 years
Other stories to keep you in the loop
UK debt interest reaches record high as inflation soars
Truss tax plans accused of breaking spending rules
Russia restarts gas supply to Europe via Nord Stream 1 pipeline
Blockchain.com lays off a quarter of staff as fallout from crypto crash worsens
Ocado plunges £211m into the red as online customer orders dwindle
Tesla sells most of its Bitcoin holdings
Snap shares plunge on disappointing results and plans to slow hiring
TECHBig Tech cuts back on hiring
This month a slew of tech giants have announced that they will be pulling back on recruitment to cut costs in the face of uncertain economic conditions.The global economy has faced a series of headwinds this year – soaring inflation, geopolitical turmoil from the war in Ukraine, global supply issues – which has increased the risk of a recession. After growing rapidly during the height of the pandemic, tech giants like Apple, Google, Meta and Amazon have all signalled that they will be scaling down on hiring in preparation for a weaker global economy.Some tech companies are going as far as cutting jobs. That includes Microsoft, which said last week that it was eliminating some positions as part of a reorganisation.Former pandemic highfliers like Netflix and Peloton also have been laying off workers in recent months. Netflix trimmed a few hundred jobs in June, and Peloton just announced plans to shutter its in-house manufacturing.Amazon staffed up during Covid so it could handle a surge in e-commerce spending. That’s now left it overstaffed in its warehouses, but the company has said it’s working through that problem with attrition.During an internal Q&A last month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that there were “probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here,” adding that if more aggressive goals made employees quit, that would be okay with him.Similarly, during a call with Twitter employees when he still wanted to buy the company a month ago (remember?), Elon Musk addressed potential layoffs with the ominous statement, “Anyone who is obviously, like, a significant contributor, should have nothing to worry about.”
Stat of the day
“The Gray Man” is Netflix's most expensive blockbuster costing $200m, early reviews have so far panned it as “listless” “mediocre” and “gruelling”
Interesting links from around the web
The new edition of “The World’s 50 Best Restaurants” is out
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