Layoff announcements from industries spanning big tech to finance to real estate are spooking investors, according to one industry watcher — but there's more to the story.

Google announced the layoff of 12,000 employees, while Salesforce and Amazon are each shedding 8,000 team members. And the trend is not limited to tech: banking, finance and real estate have also shed a considerable number of jobs over the last few months.

But according to Marcus & Millichap's John Chang, context matters. In December, the US added 223,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate was 3.5%, a 50-year low. Even in the Bay Area, "the epicenter of the tech industry," the December unemployment rate was just 2.1% in San Francisco and 2.3% in San Jose.

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