Busybodies in the workplace Big Tech layoffs and the potential impact on TCI’s tourism-reliant economy

Within the walls of Big Tech corporations are the innovations of our future – preserved through a wide array of information technology, but not limited to artificial intelligence, e-commerce or computer software.

The transformations they engineered exhibit the people and artifacts throughout the ages, which have shaped the world around us. Still, trends guarantee a series of technological marvel to come.

BY D MARKIE SPRING

However, an atypical phenomenon is sweeping the tech sphere! More than 200,000 workers were laid off in 2022 and 2023, owing to the poor job market, as tech plunges into a ‘pull-back’ period for the first time since the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC).

So, how did we get here?

During Covid-19 tech companies recorded the best financial period ever. In Europe and the US especially, governments dispersed several stimulus packages worth trillions of dollars, in which period consumers spent more money online than ever before, propelling companies’ financial growth to soaring heights.

Consequently, Tech Giants: Zoom, Google, Snapchat, Meta, Amazon and others, hired tens of thousands of workers – and with interest rates nearing zero – they invested in projects and spent more on marketing campaigns.

Until now, these tech companies were ‘flying high,’ and suddenly their successes have metamorphosed into unsustainable growth, as COVID-19 restrictions ease and government spending becomes exhausted. Interest rates began rising again and the present value of money became more beneficial than money in the future. All these risky projects and the workers they hired to execute them are now under enormous scrutiny.

Additionally, the Financial Times is reporting, since the GFC, banks are now bracing to cut jobs and firing is expected to be ‘super brutal,’ the paper outlined! Already, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are laying-off workers and tens of thousands more – across the sector – are expected to go, reversing the mass hiring by banks in recent times.

And therefore, bank executives are forced to slash costs following the collapse in investment banking revenues, following overrecruitment during the height of the pandemic, inapt policies for the business going forward; not withholding, the deteriorating economic climate.

By now, you’re asking, what does this unfortunate axing of workers has to do with the TCI?

The answer to this question surrounds TCI’s reliance on tourism; especially, the American market, which accounted for roughly 82 per cent.

If so many workers become unemployed, and this trend continues – it could create a huge dent in the tourist sector.

To bolster this argument, a study conducted in 2018 by Alegre et al, found, an unemployment rate above 10 per cent has a positive impact on the probability of vacation cancellations and; subsequently, the demand of goods and services designed for tourists.

Therefore, a drop in tourist arrivals will certainly decrease economic output within the services industry, the gross domestic product, as well as, TCI purchasing power parity, as we’ve witnessed on September 11, 2001, during the 2008 GFC, and during the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, these setbacks can adversely affect households and communities – reducing family disposable incomes; thus, eroding their purchasing power. Besides, individuals may face layoffs; hence, limiting access to medical services, which would negatively impact social life.

As the trend continues, let’s hope layoffs are not significant, as to influence vacation cancellations to the TCI!

Are we doing everything within our power in TCI, to avoid creating a school-to-prison pipeline?

These are harsh words to hear, but in a climate where it appears the jails are filling up faster than the schools, we must sound the alarm.

In any given year, we have hundreds of high school graduates leaving their comfort zones with absolutely nothing to do in these beautiful by nature islands.

A very small minority are able to find jobs. Some of the brilliant scholars are often lucky to be awarded the Chevening scholarship, while others may have families in a position to send them off to the local community college or abroad to continue their studies.

What about the majority who are not as fortunate? Where are the hands-on talent workshops available to assist students that may have fallen behind academically?

Building that school-to-college or trade talent pipeline to attract high school students before they complete their final year is of paramount. We have got to find better ways to augment a pathway forward on this.

Paring the immigration department with labour and offering free two-year college tuition were both smart moves by this administration. It allows the department heads and leaders to work hand in hand to identify areas of need and be in a better position to bridge those needed gaps.

What more can be done for struggling parents or those where English may not be their first language? Challenges like this may put students at a disadvantage to excel or for parents to assist them academically.

Are there any available afterschool programmes? Where there is hope for a better life and constructive things to do, our

BY ED FORBES

young people will not be attracted to senseless acts of violence. Finding ways and means to help students identify and develop their skill sets earlier in life, will also help to prepare them for the next step in their career path. What’s even more important, is for teachers and administrators to recognise when a student is screaming out for help; often times it’s mischaracterised as criminal mischief.

Students who are having behavioural issues at school may be coming from abusive or dysfunctional households. They may also have mental and/or emotional challenges and need an intervention that is focused on their specific needs.

We should be doing everything within our power to avoid students being exposed to the criminal justice system.

In order for a transformation like this to take place, it will certainly require more communityled solutions, parental involvement and stronger support and commitment from civic leaders.

What's troubling to me and many others, is the rate of incarceration the country is currently experiencing, with many involving our youth. What will it take to shift this trajectory? Is trade school one of the long-term solutions?

Just take a look around the country, the mechanism that's driving our workforce are trade and service-related jobs. We should be advocating more for studies in these areas.