Biden 'personally' understands impact of layoffs on family: WH

New York, Jan 25

With massive tech layoffs hitting Indians in the US, the White House has said that President Joe Biden "personally" understands how losing a job impacts a family.

In the last several weeks, major IT behemoths like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have fired thousands of tech professionals, a significant number of whom are either Indian-Americans or Indian IT professionals.

Most of these professionals, who are on H-1B visa, have to leave the country in 60 days if they are unable to find another alternative to sustain.

"President understands firsthand how the impact of losing a job can have on a family. He understands that very personally. But I'm just not going to get into individual specifics," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday.

More than 65,000 employees have been sacked by 166 tech companies to date, and according to economists, deeper layoffs are coming in 2023.

While Google announced to lay off 12,000 employees, Amazon earlier announced to lay off 18,000 employees globally, including nearly 1,000 in India.

The companies say they are firing people as recession is on the horizon.

"Again, I'm just not going to get into specifics on why this is happening. This is something for individual companies to speak to," Jean-Pierre said.

She said that with the US economy continuing to grow in a steady and stable manner, Biden is "going to do everything that he can to make sure this is an economy that works for everyone, that works from the bottom up and middle out. And that's what you've seen from his economic plans".

Indians scrambling for new jobs have asked elected representatives in Congress for the visa grace period to be extended beyond 60 days.