What's going on?

Micron posted shrinking stats in its quarterly results earlier this week.

What does this mean?

It�s hard to justify the latest tech upgrade when your household bills are pricey enough to rival a brand-new PlayStation 5. But when shoppers cut back on not-so-little luxuries like smartphones and PCs, it affects businesses all through the supply chain. Just look at Micron: the biggest US memory chipmaker could barely keep up with out-of-control demand last year, but those consumer cutbacks helped to almost halve its sales last quarter from the same time the year before. The firm even notched a quarterly loss four times bigger than already pessimistic analysts expected, so it�s pulling out all the stops to make the books better next year. Micron cut production by roughly 20% a few months back, and is now planning to trim its manufacturing investment further, cut its workforce by 10%, and squash any bonuses. Talk about festive joy.

Why should I care?

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Micron has a problem: its chips are made to a set standard, meaning they can be easily switched with competitors� products. So the firm will end up in trouble if its biggest rivals � including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix � don�t follow its production-cutting lead to help bring the glut of chips across the industry in check. And if you think being replaceable sounds like a recipe for disaster, you might be right: that could well be why Micron�s shares have underperformed a key index of some of the world�s biggest chipmakers by around 12% this year.

The bigger picture: New year, no new jobs.
Micron does have some company in the firing room, mind you: Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm have all announced hiring freezes or layoffs of their own. Pair that with Big Tech�s recent workforce mega-cull, and the high likelihood that Western economies will face a recession next year, and the writing might be on the wall for 2023�s job market.