Tech and life sciences industries in the Bay Area are at it again–decimating jobs faster than our favorite brunch spots can run out of avocado toast. Recently, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Corning Optical Communications, Zendesk, and Exabeam decided to weigh down our already weary workforce with another round of layoffs, affecting a total of 305 workers, as per the official notices filed with the state’s Employment Development Department (because who needs a job anyway, right?).

Let’s break down the latest carnage:

• Bio-Rad Laboratories, the not-so-beloved company of Hercules, Pleasanton, and Richmond, reportedly slashed 131 positions. Most of these cuts stemmed from its headquarters in Hercules, because what’s the fun of losing jobs if you can’t make it an event?
• Corning Optical Communications, your friendly neighborhood fiber-optics provider, decided that 80 layoff casualties were just what Milpitas needed. Those job losses, tragically, are permanent. Cheers to fiber optics, I guess.
• Zendesk, a name that used to catch the tech-savvy’s eye, announced 51 job losses in San Francisco, scheduled to take effect right around April 21. Good luck with that.
• Exabeam, in a display of corporate generosity, trimmed down its workforce by 43 in Foster City on February 4. It’s as if they think we can all take a sudden quarter-life crisis at the same time!

Ongoing layoffs in the Bay Area’s tech and biotech scenes undeniably stifle our chances of job stabilization. In 2024, we managed to scrape together 7,600 jobs, amounting to a blistering 0.2% increase from the previous year. Yay us! This put us far behind the state’s 1% growth. We may be used to being the best in tech, but right now, we’re playing at the bottom of the employment barrel.

So, while CEOs might bask in their bonus checks and golden parachutes, remember that the rest of the Bay Area is left scrambling. Have fun navigating this job market, folks. We’ll meet you at the unemployment line.

It seems that as long as the rich keep getting richer, our job security isn’t going anywhere. Cue the dramatic music!