U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh weighs in on Elon Musk's Twitter layoffs
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U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh is keeping a close eye on layoffs in the tech sector, including Elon Musk's chaotic overhaul at Twitter.
"As far as Twitter, that's a whole different situation [than the broader tech layoffs]," Walsh said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). "I don't know enough about it, but I think that's Elon Musk looking at the business model. I am sure at some point that will fix itself out as it moves forward."
To be sure, Musk's changes to Twitter are moving forward this Friday.
Musk kicked off layoffs of reportedly 3,700 of Twitter's 7,500-strong workforce on Friday as he seeks to reposition the social media platform for profitable growth after a $44 billion acquisition.
Most of the firing occurred in Twitter's ethical AI, marketing and communication, search, public policy, and wellness departments, according to reports. While ousted employees announced their departures on Twitter, Musk took to the platform to attack "activist" groups that he claims triggered a plunge in advertising revenue.
The Twitter rightsizing comes against the backdrop of new hiring freezes at tech giants such as Amazon (AMZN) and Qualcomm (QCOM) amid slowing growth. Meanwhile, Twitter rival Snap (SNAP) has slashed its workforce this year, and Meta (META) is reportedly trimming the fat after several weak quarters.
“We haven’t seen, I don’t think, a lot of layoffs yet, but there’s been lots of talk of layoffs and freezing hiring, so that’s something that would concern me because they are good-paying jobs,” Walsh said, adding that he is "offering right now to any tech company out there, anything that we can do at the Department of Labor to help you and assist you, I’d love to do that."
Walsh has good reason to be eyeing Musk's moves at Twitter, as the world's richest person is a major employer through his other businesses, Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX.
Moreover, the two appeared to find some common ground earlier this year when the Biden administration extended its first olive branch to the eccentric billionaire. In March, Musk gave Walsh a tour of Tesla's new Gigafactory after the Labor Secretary said on Yahoo Finance Live he would welcome a call from the EV titan.
"We had a good conversation," Walsh told Yahoo Finance after the meeting with Musk.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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