US tech layoffs show little sign of slowing, with 50,000 jobs cuts announced this month alone. Still, experts have said there’s still reason for hope. Competition for tech workers “will remain fierce — even when and if the economy falls into recession around the middle or second half of 2023,” Joe Brusuelas, RSM’s chief economist, told NBC News. 8 in 10 laid-off tech workers found a new job within three months of starting their search; 4 in 10 within one month. – ZipRecruiter Also 59% of all tech jobs exist outside the tech sector.
San Francisco-based communications company, Twilio, has announced that they will be cutting 11% workforce to help restructure the company after a period of rapid expansion. In a memo to employees, Twilio CEO, Jeff Lawson, clarified that all staff cuts will be made through an “Anti-Racist” and “Anti-Oppression” lens which took many by surprise. Despite right-wing publications such as Daily Caller, describing the move as “race-based,” Lawson’s actions come at a very critical time for POC workers who more times than not, are forced to suffer the brunt of staff layoffs and redundancies.
Silicon Valley-based startup, Sanas, is working to build real-time voice-altering technology that aims to make international workers sound more “Westernized.” For many years, Black workers have been advised to use their “white voice” when communicating with colleagues or customers in a professional working environment. Additionally, movie adaptations such as “Sorry To Bother You” show that Black workers achieve higher success rates when they choose to emulate a “whiter” voice. Despite the program working to “protect the diverse voice identities of the world,” many wonder whether the product is actively working to remove unconscious
San Francisco-based fintech company, TomoCredit, has raised $122 million in funding and debt financing. The funding round was led by Morgan Stanley’s Next Level Fund and included Morgan Stanley’s Next Level Fund, MasterCard, and debt from Silicon Valley Bank. The funding will help the platform expand its credit product offerings to help support immigrants with no credit history in the US. TomoCredit, co-founded in 2018 by Kristy Kim and Dmitry Kashlev, is a fintech platform dedicated to providing the next generation with a credit card designed to help millennials boost
Tech giant, Meta, has seen an unexpected increase in diverse hires since expanding its remote working options. Facebook, also known as Meta, is one of many companies that have introduced new remote working options for its employees following the pandemic. As a result, between 2021 and 2022, the tech company reported a slight increase in the share of Black, Hispanic, and Asian employees joining its US workforce, while the proportion of white workers dropped by 1.5%. According to Facebook’s Chief Diversity Officer, Maxine Williams, employees from underrepresented backgrounds and people
They’ve been spat on, called racist names, harassed in grocery stores, and violently attacked. Since the emergence of COVID-19, some combination of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theory has been weaponized to target people perceived to be Chinese. The violent consequences of online disinformation targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander communities demonstrate the power of the internet to stoke racial resentment. Misinformation, disinformation, and online hate speech have led to widespread violence in India, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka in the past several years. Conspiracy theories targeting the AAPI community have caused upswells in hate crimes
Instagram has partnered with Brooklyn Museum and writer Antwaun Sargent to debut this year’s #BlackVisionaries program. The initiative, designed to help invest in and support Black talent, will include a grant of $650,000. The support program, co-founded by the social media giant, writer Antwaun Sargent and the Brooklyn Museum in 2021, is designed to help uplift and champion underrepresented voices within the creative industry. Last year, five Black designers and Black-led small design businesses were awarded $205,000 in grants last year. The funding allowed each participant to pursue their biggest
Black-founded startups recently saw record amounts of investment, with quarterly funding commitments nearing or even topping $1 billion. But according to new data from Crunchbase, venture capital funding has dropped significantly in the second quarter of 2022, down to just $324 million. So far in 2022, only 100 U.S. startups with a Black founder have received funding, with $100 million invested in seed rounds, $591 million in early-stage rounds, and approximately $876 million in later-stage rounds. Startups with at least one Black founder received 1.9% of deal counts and 1.2% of
Black-owned venture capital firm, MaC, has raised $203 million for its second fund, building on the initial $110 million they secured in seed-stage funding last year. The firm focuses on investing in underrepresented founders of color. The highly resourceful team uses their skills and knowledge to support the next generation of tech companies, focusing on reshaping the culture and providing resources to underrepresented communities. MaC was launched in 2019 by four founding partners: former Washington D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty, former talent agent Charles D. King, VC veteran Marlon Nichols, and
Jenna Wills, a former vice president at Afresh, filed a lawsuit against the company in April. Wills, who is Black, alleges she faced racial discrimination at the grocery-software startup. But an Afresh spokesperson said that Wills’ race was not taken into account in her termination. Here’s what happened. Wills joined Afresh in June 2021. Joining the startup was an easy decision for her because she was inspired by what they were building and their “incredible” mission to use artificial intelligence to help grocery stores order just the right amount of
