Fired by Musk or Zuckerberg? The old economy welcomes you

Some of the world’s biggest technology firms have begun firing thousands of employees in recent weeks, putting an abrupt end to over a decade of rapid jobs growth

By Harry Wilson and Siddharth Philip

As Meta Platforms Inc., Twitter Inc. and other leaders of the new economy embark on an unprecedented round of firings, the stalwarts of the old economy are waiting with open arms.

Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover said Friday it wants to hire about 800 technology workers to power its growth in fields ranging from autonomous driving to artificial intelligence, electrification and machine learning.

British lender Barclays Plc is offering support for laid-off workers looking to start new fintech businesses and hopes to fill some of its thousands of technology job vacancies.

“I’m a firm believer that when one door closes, another one opens and out of adversity can come opportunity,” Mark Ashton-Rigby, Barclays’ chief operating officer, wrote in a LinkedIn post this week.

Some of the world’s biggest technology firms have begun firing thousands of employees in recent weeks, putting an abrupt end to more than a decade of rapid jobs growth. Bloomberg has reported that Amazon Inc. is cutting 10,000 positions, while Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, has said it’s making 11,000 employees redundant. At Twitter, at least 3,700 jobs are being cut, or about half the social media company’s workforce, under new owner Elon Musk.

Ashton-Rigby wrote that Barclays was extending its program for aspiring entrepreneurs, which provides a 20-week course to help them create their own fintech companies. Barclays has more than 3,000 open roles for technology staff around the world in areas such as engineering and innovation.

“If you’re embarking on a new chapter and are reading this, take it as a sign that there could be something very exciting for you just around the corner... apply today,” he wrote.

JLR, owned by Tata Motors Ltd., said the tech workers it’s looking to recruit have skills that are essential to develop and build the carmaker’s next-generation of electric cars. It’s looking to hire across the UK, US, Ireland, India, China and Hungary.