Dr. Jennifer Whitson co-authors article about rising game industry layoffs in The Conversation

Despite its financial success in 2023, the video games industry laid off at least 10,500 people from their jobs. As of January 2024, 5,900 games industry employees have already been laid off, indicating that layoffs will be worse this year despite predictions that games industry profits will continue to rise.  

Members of The First Three Years Project PhD candidate Kenzie Gordon (University of Alberta), Dr. Jennifer Whitson (Sociology & Legal Studies), Dr. Johanna Weststar (Western University), and Dr. Sean Gouglas (University of Alberta) published an op-ed in The Conversationto unpack why these layoffs are happening and who is benefiting.

The First Three Years is a research project tracking 207 post-secondary students' career trajectories after graduation. The data being collected will look at both the process of finding a job after graduation as well as their experiences in the games industry.

In their article “The video game industry is booming. Why are there so many layoffs?”, the team lays out how post-secondary programs that train students for the games industry have developed rapidly over the past 15 years. Despite this growth in trained workers, corporate takeovers have resulted in layoffs that are explicitly attempting to improve profit margins for shareholders. These layoffs have impacted not just young workers but also senior talent.

The authors argue for the importance of unions that can advocate for better labour practices and call for the companies laying off large amounts of their workforce after a project is completed to be held accountable. They conclude that if we want to fix these problems “we ultimately must ask who benefits from layoffs in a booming industry and systematically remove those benefits.”