Why is 13% the Magic Number?

In the wake of a Friday the 13th, there seems to be another number popping up – in business news. If you pay attention to HR news, you’ve probably seen a certain statistic many times recently: 13%.

That’s the number of employees, more or less, laid off by Meta, Redfin, Stripe, Lyft, GoFundMe, Peloton, and more companies in late 2022. (Although the last two are at 12% layoffs – still pretty close).

Why 13%?

In his newsletter Understandably, Bill Murphy Jr. expounds on some potential theories:

🔹  If inflation is around 8%, this is just a slightly higher number to get ahead of the game

🔹  15% is an investor signal to indicate a company is making serious but not functionality-impeding cuts

🔹  Groupthink

🔹  Pure coincidence

Personally, I would be willing to bet there’s an economic theorem at play here. I must confess though, even as a recruiter who has seen a number of business cycles of hiring & layoffs, I’m not exactly sure what it is. And since I don’t believe in coincidences, let the theories fly!

#HRnews #layoffs #businesscycles