Wall Street Journal moves Asia HQ to Singapore
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) are reportedly laying off an unspecified number of employees as it moves its Asia headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore.
The Business Times said WSJ sent a letter to their staff saying that the decision to move its Asia HQ follows the exit of other foreign firms from Hong Kong.
“Consequently, some of our colleagues, mostly in Hong Kong, will be leaving us,” said WSJ editor-in-chief Emma Tucker, explaining the need for them to restructure.
“It is difficult to say goodbye, and I want to thank them for the contributions they have made to the Journal," she added.
In light of the restructure, Tucker said WSJ is creating a new business, finance, and economics group where they will need to appoint a new Singapore-based editor.
The news publication is also hiring new journalist roles in Singapore and Hong Kong to add to their deep pool of reporters in the Asia-Pacific region.
A precedent on editorial-related job cuts
The Wall Street Journal is not the first news publication to lay off people this year as Yahoo already announced one just a month ago.
Last month, People Matters reported Yahoo was disbanding its editorial and social media teams, cutting the jobs of 17 employees in the process.
READ MORE | Yahoo announces editorial job cuts
The layoff reportedly caught the affected employees by surprise as leaders didn’t hint about any potential job cuts in their latest town hall session.
Yahoo’s job cuts are part of its restructuring process that started when it cut around 1,000 staff members in February 2023 to revamp its advertising technology unit.
Layoffs: a continuing trend and cause of worry
The year 2024 continues to see layoffs in various sectors, a trend that started with the tech industry last year.
Some of the companies that announced job cuts this year include HSBC, Barclays, Starbucks, Apple, Citigroup, eBay, and TikTok.
Last year saw at least 263,100 people hit by job cuts, with the largest layoffs happening in January and February.
Just four months into this year, at least 80,600 workers were laid off by 281 tech firms, according to the layoffs.fyi monitoring website.
Because of this trend, many employees around the world are experiencing anxiety over potentially losing their jobs.
READ MORE | Over half of workers fear job loss: study
A report from AuthorityHacker showed at least 54.58% of workers are anxioys about the risk of job loss, with employees from the tech space showing more visible signs of distress.
Most employees are worried that Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology will soon take their place in the workforce within the next five years.