Almost 26,000 workers were let go in the quick-service restaurant, lifestyle, and grocery retail sectors during the 2023–24 fiscal year.
The hiring boom during the preceding two fiscal years stands in stark contrast to this drop.
26000 Workers Fired During 2023-24; What is the Reason?
The decline in demand in these areas is the reason for the hiring slowdown.
Employers such as Titan, Raymond, Page, Reliance Retail, and Spencers cut their total number of permanent and contract workers by 17%, or 52,000 people.
After agriculture, the retail industry continues to be the second largest employer in India.
In 2023–24, the total number of workers in the retail industry decreased from 455,000 to 429,000.
Reduced expenditure on non-essential items by consumers led to a drop in retail demand.
Restaurants, Electronics Most Impacted
The areas most impacted by the decreased spending were restaurants, electronics, lifestyle goods, and clothing.
Following Diwali 2022, expenditure started to drop.
Diminished consumer demand was a result of rising interest rates, job losses in IT and startups, and inflation.
Because of these economic challenges, the rise in retail sales dropped to just 4%.
Retailers responded to poor sales by opening stores at a rate that was, at most, 9% slower than in the previous five years.
From 7.1 million square feet in 2023 to an anticipated 6-6.5 million square feet in 2024, the retail sector’s store expansion shrank.
The commercial real estate services company CBRE noticed this decrease in space demand.
Thousands Of Layoffs As Startups Focusing On Profit
Its the mid of August this year and so far almost 8,000 persons have been laid off by 32 companies across India as revealed in the layoffs.fyi, a real-time layoff tracker.
Interestingly, most of these companies are startups which belong to the Information Technology (IT) sector.
It appears that the maximum number of layoffs this year came from Paytm as it let go of at least 3,500 employees in June reportedly.
So far, over 1.30 lakh layoffs have taken place this year alone across the world this includes the major ones among the Big Tech.
For instance, Intel let go of 15,000 employees, which is equal to 15 percent of its workforce – in an attempt “to deliver $10 billion in cost savings in 2025” on 1 August.
During the time when layoffs continued to affect the tech sector, overall hiring is witnessing a downward trend.
