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Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

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Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#101

Post by crote »

anm89 wrote: post #99
crote wrote: post #89

Wow, that's a huge surprise. I hadn't heard of Flexport before, but they seem to be focused on global shipping. The company I work for ships almost all of its products internationally, and we have seen a massive price hike over the last 2-3 years. Some of it necessary due to rising costs, but we know for a fact that larger-volume customers are still getting lower prices. Additionally, the well-known carriers still of…

The market right now is FAR from overheated. In fact maritime shipping is collapsing right now. https://www.drewry.co.uk/supply-chain-advisors/supply-chain-... Both volume and rates are down roughly 80% YOY.

Trust me, we're not seeing any of that in practice yet. Although that could be because we almost exclusively use air shipping.

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#102

Post by slt2021 »

fallingknife wrote: post #38
iab wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They raised two gillion??

G$ - > gigadollar. Not exactly standard, but I like it.

is 1 Gigadollar = 2^10 Megadollars?

or did op mean Gigidollars = mere 1e3 Mebidollars ?

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#103

Post by WWLink »

anm89 wrote: post #99
crote wrote: post #89

Wow, that's a huge surprise. I hadn't heard of Flexport before, but they seem to be focused on global shipping. The company I work for ships almost all of its products internationally, and we have seen a massive price hike over the last 2-3 years. Some of it necessary due to rising costs, but we know for a fact that larger-volume customers are still getting lower prices. Additionally, the well-known carriers still of…

The market right now is FAR from overheated. In fact maritime shipping is collapsing right now. https://www.drewry.co.uk/supply-chain-advisors/supply-chain-... Both volume and rates are down roughly 80% YOY.

That the companies are so sensitive to spikes and valleys in the market speaks louder about how badly run the companies are than anything else.

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#104

Post by [deleted] »

baumy wrote: post #28
bityard wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you imagine the backlash they would get from both inside and outside the company if they started pulling job recs before publicly announcing the downsizing? See also: insider trading

Fully agreed, it just shows what people should already know - the only folks who know a layoff is coming in advance are C suite and VPs, maybe a few others. And they will lie through their teeth about it right up until the moment it happens. I'm sure the recruiter who sent that message had no idea this was coming, and is just doing his job. The rest of us have to read the tea leaves. But for every company that lays p…

[deleted]

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#105

Post by dpflan »

dakiol wrote: post #86

Perhaps I'm naive, but I think companies are doing massive layoffs these days because of some sort of "domino effect". There are companies out there who would love to lay off half their staff, but in regular times they couldn't just do it (because it wasn't a common thing, and makes them look "bad"... everyone would protest). But since nowadays every damn company is doing massive layoffs (and not unknown companies, b…

This is from earlier and seems pertinent: Why are there so many tech layoffs, and why should we be worried? (stanford.edu) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34339698

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#106

Post by themagician »

super256 wrote: post #96
dakiol wrote: post #86

Perhaps I'm naive, but I think companies are doing massive layoffs these days because of some sort of "domino effect". There are companies out there who would love to lay off half their staff, but in regular times they couldn't just do it (because it wasn't a common thing, and makes them look "bad"... everyone would protest). But since nowadays every damn company is doing massive layoffs (and not unknown companies, b…

The FED is currently raising rates to fight inflation. One of the FED's main goals is slowing down demand, as policymakers can't control supply. So, to fight that elevated inflation they are killing demand, and when demand sharply drops, you can't keep paying your workers as before (because you sell less goods!). Moreover, companies simply got fat during the pandemic and over hired. I mean, there are probably also a…

Another impact of rising rates and declining demand is decreased credit lines and increased costs.

The world, particularly business in the US, really did get used to cheap borrowing for everything. Using a line of credit for everything or acquiring massive amounts of easy to service debt has been basically a standard business practice for the last 20 years.

I am actually surprised things haven't imploded yet. So many companies have acquired massive debt that's going to become increasingly impossible to service. It feels to me like we are waiting for the first big domino to fall.

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#107

Post by epivosism »

Many people seem surprised that an organization would simultaneously hire and fire. I think that's normal.

At the end of every season, the Yankees fire some players and hire others.

Old cells in organisms die or are killed, while new ones are born.

Soldiers going on missions may put down the equipment from the prior mission, and pick up new equipment.

The argument "the organization is behaving selfishly, they should just repurposing the existing organization member" is inane since the function of members of an organization depends on the member's specialty, role, purpose, and an organization's purpose can change over time.

It's really strange people act like this is some killer argument when in fact nearly every organization with multiple entities does something analogous (grow in some ways, shrink in others, at the same time)

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#108

Post by rafale »

super256 wrote: post #96
dakiol wrote: post #86

Perhaps I'm naive, but I think companies are doing massive layoffs these days because of some sort of "domino effect". There are companies out there who would love to lay off half their staff, but in regular times they couldn't just do it (because it wasn't a common thing, and makes them look "bad"... everyone would protest). But since nowadays every damn company is doing massive layoffs (and not unknown companies, b…

The FED is currently raising rates to fight inflation. One of the FED's main goals is slowing down demand, as policymakers can't control supply. So, to fight that elevated inflation they are killing demand, and when demand sharply drops, you can't keep paying your workers as before (because you sell less goods!). Moreover, companies simply got fat during the pandemic and over hired. I mean, there are probably also a…

Also the market is betting the Fed will not stick to their forecast and will end up lowering rates in 2023.

I tend to think they will stick to their guns: they will raise to 5+% and stay there as long as unemployment is below 4.5%

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#109

Post by anm89 »

People in this thread seem to be expressing confusion as to why they would be doing this "when the economy is still so strong"

The economy is not "still strong" by most measures. Employment is still strong although there are lot's of arguments to be made that when you dig beneath the surface things are much less rosy. But it get's way worse when you look past employment.

Both volume and rates on maritime container shipping are down roughly 80% YOY. https://www.drewry.co.uk/supply-chain-advisors/supply-chain-...

PMIs are falling off of a cliff https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/manufacturing-pmi

S&p Earnings are in steep decline off the peak https://www.macrotrends.net/1324/s-p-500-earnings-history

Consumer revolving credit is extremely high while the savings rate has fallen off of a cliff since the pandemic peak https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/REVOLSL

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT

Housing volume has fallen off of a cliff, auto wholesale has fallen off a cliff, Major Metro Commercial real estate volume has fallen off a cliff while REITs are suspending withdraws.

All of this while tax receipts are about to drop off of a cliff while US debt to GDP and deficit to GDP are essentially at historic highs while the rollover rate on that debt is constantly increasing.

And then realize that the US is in a drastically better position than China, Europe and Japan

It seems like some of the HN crowd is very out of touch with the realities of the economic data.

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#110

Post by abadger9 »

This is one company i've always wanted to work for- my mother is a CTO of a company in the same space/different aspect of the pipeline so I knew this company was going to do well when it entered the YC batch, but I've never even received a screening interview. Hope i can apply once the economy recovers
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