2020, the year of the rat in the lunar calendar was supposed to be a bumper year for many. From a YouGov survey done towards the end of 2019 where they asked respondents what was their new years resolution, this was the list
Travel is within one of the 10 items that people wish to do more in 2020. Thats why I can say not many would have expected 2020 to play out the way it is happening now, with COVID-19 changing all walks of life and bringing the world to a standstill. Being 4 weeks into Singapore’s circuit breaker and COVID 19 haunting the world for more than 6-8 weeks, lets have a quick look at the casualties of COVID-19 from a corporate point of view. (Its sad that to date there are 240k deaths, as per covid site, but for this post, I would be focusing on other casualties instead)
Travel takes the worst hit
- Virgin Australia, entering into administration as they grounded the flights and travel restricts are put into place.
- Trip Advisor lays off 25% of global workforce and closes offices
- Hertz, layouts off 10,000 while trying to avoid bankruptcy
- Marriott to furlough about two-thirds of its 4,000 corporate employees at its headquarters in Bethesda, Md., as well as two-thirds of its corporate staff abroad (expected to last 60 to 90 days).
- Ryanair Plans to Cut 3,000 Jobs
- Singapore Airlines (SIA) pilots will be required to take some days of no-pay leave a month from April as part of cost-cutting measures the national carrier is putting into place
- Walt Disney World said the company will be furloughing 43,000 employees starting April 19
- Coronavirus drives Indonesia’s Traveloka to lay off staff
- Travel tech and marketing company, Sojern has laid off 50% of its global workforce due to the impact of COVID-19 on the travel and aviation sector
- Norwegian Airlines announced that it would temporarily layoff 7,300 employees, or 90% of its staff.
- Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) announced that it would temporarily layoff 10,000 employees, or 90% of its staff.
- The Trump Organization laid off 1,500 people after it closed over a dozen properties due to the novel coronavirus pandemic
- Airbnb laid off most of its contractors and postponed summer internships, potentially postpone IPO
Non Travel Related Businesses
- BreadTalk Group is also cutting senior and middle management’s pay by 10 to 50 per cent for three months until June, affecting about 137 employees across Southeast Asia.
- Lyft lays off almost 1,000 staffers as Uber weighs big layoffs
- Boeing announced that it would cut about 10% of its workforce — or about 16,000 jobs
- Fashion platform Zilingo trims workforce, lays off 30 in Singapore
- Deliveroo lays off 25% of Singapore staff amid Covid-19 economic downturn
- Indonesian startup Stoqo becomes latest casualty of coronavirus
- ClassPass is a fitness platform. The company furloughed or laid off over half of its 700 employees
- On March 27, 2020, ZipRecruiter laid off 443 employees
This isn’t the exhaustive list but something that I compiled while catching up on news. These are very sad news, and it really puts things into perceptive on how things can change over night and how we must always be on our toes, be prepared for a rainy day and always not over stretch ourselves financially. Only then will we be able to weather the storm. My prayers are with the employees who recently got laid off or furlough.
If you know of any other companies that I missed, please feel free to comment and add on.