Tech Layoffs Throw Immigrants' Lives Into Limbo
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 12 December 2022
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
Since there is only a 90-day grace period for employees who are laid off, Tu is now racing to find a new job. That will be especially difficult because nearly 150,000 tech workers have lost their jobs this year, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks the number.
NPR's Stacey Vanek Smith reports on the struggle many immigrants are now facing.
Betsey Stevenson, a labor economist at the University of Michigan who also served in the Obama administration, explains what the tech layoffs might mean for the broader economy.
You can hear more about the tech layoffs on 1A.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wee-to remembers the first time they walked through the doors of the meta offices in New York City earlier this year |
| 0:06.1 | They had just landed a job as a research scientist working on Instagram |
| 0:10.0 | I was really excited for it because I feel like everything finally clicked. It's like what I wanted the location |
| 0:16.5 | The job package |
| 0:17.9 | Tuzz from Vietnam they came to the US eight years ago to study and this was their first real tech industry job |
| 0:25.9 | Tuzz says it just felt like they were finally adulting living the kind of life that their parents wanted for them |
| 0:33.0 | It's feel like I finally like make it, you know like the American dream as cliche as a side |
| 0:38.6 | But that dream did not last long early last month. It got an email meta was eliminating |
| 0:46.1 | 13% of its workforce 11,000 positions and Tuzz was one of them |
| 0:52.0 | I didn't have time to like really process to be honest. I just kind of like on spiral |
| 0:57.3 | Losing a job is always hard, but for Tuzz |
| 1:00.9 | It's worse. They're allowed to work in the US through a program called O PT |
| 1:05.6 | It allows them to stay in the country only as long as they are employed |
| 1:10.1 | There's only a 90-day grace period for employees who are laid off |
| 1:13.9 | So if Tuzz hasn't locked down a job by February 7th |
| 1:17.5 | They may be forced to leave the country for the first two weeks. I wake up every day. I just feel like |
| 1:22.8 | This feels so real like is this reality or is it a nightmare and |
| 1:27.7 | Finding a new job is especially challenging because of what is going on in the tech industry right now |
| 1:33.5 | Nearly 150,000 tech workers have been laid off this year according to the tracking site layoffs.fyi |
| 1:39.9 | More than a third of those cuts happened between November and now that means there is a lot of competition now for any job that Tuzz might apply for |
| 1:51.3 | competing without market |
| 1:53.3 | It's crazy because I know it's like flip right like usually it's like usually more opportunity than the talent pool |
... |
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