Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

theloadstar.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 254 posts

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

#231

Post by grey-area »

abduhl wrote: post #173
grey-area wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you'd like more insight on where this is going, I'd recommend looking into Jeremy Grantham. He called this correctly in 2021, before it burst: https://www.livewiremarkets.com/wires/grantham-this-is-a-bub... He feels there is still farther to fall (and I agree with him there): https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/prepare-for-an-epic-... Falling stock prices are really a reflection of real-world problems - while…

The Jeremy Grantham interview you cite to for him "correctly" calling a bubble in 2021 was posted on May 28, 2021. S&P was at $420.04. S&P closed today at $395.52. The S&P continued to climb from May 28, 2021 until January 2022. I would not label this "correctly" calling a bubble when he is off by over 6 months and equities remain within 10% of when he gave his interview.

The peak came after he spoke, in late 2021, and it’s not over yet, bear markets often have rallies. The nasdaq in comparison to s&p has larger losses from peak as it was the epicentre of the bubble this time, hence the layoffs there, but every sector is going to suffer.

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

#232

Post by chii »

aaa_aaa wrote: post #228
qqqwerty wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good point that I had not previously considered. Inflation has been pretty stubborn. I assume some of that is coming from supply chain issues, but some of it also could be due to higher-earning households not being as price sensitive as they would have been in previous eras. i.e. a Google engineer is not going to really notice or care that milk is 50% more expensive. They might not even notice or care that…

Inflation mostly caused from extreme money printing.

then you'd be glad to hear that the US has not done "extreme money printing" then.

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

#233

Post by SkyPuncher »

willcipriano wrote: post #25

Remember when everyone cut jobs and canceled orders at the beginning of the pandemic and it really bit them? I'm like 49% sure that's going to happen again. Something funny is in the air.

I'm of the opinion that we're just regressing to the pre-COVID trend line.

Many metrics have a huge pandemic bump that's just approaching the pre-COVID trend line. I suspect we'll see a slight overcorrection. First dipping below trend, then bouncing back up a bit, before finally returning to trend line.

Companies will adjust to supply chain issues. Workers will wisen up and move jobs. Home demand will level out with supply. People will return to "normal" work areas.

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

#234

Post by nly »

SilverBirch wrote: post #111
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 literally what interest rate hikes are meant to do though, and everyone plays along. You hike rates, which switches people to saving instead of spending, since no one is spending companies cut costs and downsize instead of spend for growth and hey presto, demand collapses. In a cheap money environment you take the money and you gamble for growth, in an expensive money environment you do your best to run lean.…

*Servicing debt, instead of borrowing and spending. Very few people save in the best of times.

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

#235

Post by pchristensen »

ec109685 wrote: post #206
maldeh wrote: post #166

Barely two months from their announcing a hiring spree... https://www.reuters.com/business/logistics-startup-flexport-...

They’re one of the biggest job promoters here, so it will be odd not seeing their jobs show up for a while. Flexport always seemed to be hiring.

You’ll still see the jobs. Flexport is still hiring many software engineers.

Source: I’m a hiring manager for software engineers at Flexport.

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

#236

Post by deltree7 »

pm90 wrote: post #205
madrox wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was my initial take six months ago, but I've come to realize this is about runways. Imagine you just lost your job. First thing you'd want to do is get some idea of how long it'll be until you can get another one, then look at your budget and cash on hand to make sure you can pay the bills. If you don't, you have the options of borrowing money (which is hard and a bad deal in these circumstances) or selling some…

Amazon and Meta are at 0 risk of running out of money. They make billions in profits. Smaller companies that are still not generating profits? Absolutely they need cuts to survive. Both of these things are true at the same time. I’m continually surprised at how quickly people have bought the excuse trotted out by extremely profitable companies for mass layoffs. In that situation it is primarily an exercise in juicing…

How about you go raise money to start a company and tell them this exact thought process?

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

#238

Post by deltree7 »

themitigating wrote: post #183
RC_ITR wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One interesting concept is that falling inequality will look exactly like this. Wealthy people have gotten used to increasing the gap and therefore assume that trouble at the top is much worse below. But what’s actually panning out is that Internet technology is great at replacing white collar jobs and awful at replacing blue collar jobs (I don’t think electricians are losing sleep over ChatGPT).

But technology is replacing entry level jobs Self checkout, food delivery robots, robotic waitresses, etc.

They are not. It's easy to build an AI that write code than to build an AI that change sheets

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

#239

Post by pchristensen »

warent wrote: post #123
abadger9 wrote: post #110

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

I interviewed a couple years back and found it to be a very weird, cold process. It's a neat business model but I don't know about their culture.

I’m sorry you didn’t have a bad experience interviewing. I feel like Flexport has the most balanced culture of any company I’ve worked at.

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

#240

Post by pchristensen »

abadger9 wrote: post #110

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

If you’re a software engineer, you don’t need to wait for the economy to recover. Email me if you have questions!
Post reply on HN