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CNN
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Earlier this week, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, Microsoft
(MSFT) and Vox Media announced layoffs that affect more than 22,000 workers.
His moves follow in the footsteps of job cuts earlier this month. at Amazon, Goldman Sachs and Salesforce. More companies are expected to follow suit as companies that have aggressively hired in the past two years hit the brakes and, in many cases, back down.
The cutouts contrast sharply with 2022, which had the second highest level of job creation on record, with 4.5 million. But last year’s employment numbers began to fall as the year progressed, with the December jobs report showing the lowest monthly gains in two years.
The highest level of hiring occurred in 2021, when 6.7 million jobs were added. But that came on the heels of the first year of the pandemic, when the US effectively shut down and 9.3 million jobs were lost.
The current layoffs are taking place in multiple industries, from media companies to Wall Street, but so far they are hitting big tech especially hard.
That’s in contrast to job losses during the pandemic, in which consumer shopping habits shifted toward e-commerce and other online services during the lockdown. Tech companies embarked on a hiring spree.
But now, workers are returning to their offices and in-person shopping is picking up. Add in the growing likelihood of a recession, higher interest rates, and tepid demand due to rising prices, and tech companies are cutting costs.
January has been filled with headlines announcing job cuts at one company after another. Here’s a list of layoffs this month – so far.
Google
(GOOGL)The parent company said Friday it will lay off 12,000 workers across all product areas and regions, or 6% of its workforce. Alphabet added 50,000 workers in the past two years as the pandemic created increased demand for its services. But fears of a recent recession have caused advertisers to pull out of their core business of digital advertising.
“Over the last two years we have seen periods of spectacular growth,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email to employees. “To match and fuel that growth, we contracted for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”
The tech giant is laying off 10,000 employees, the company said in a securities filing on Wednesday. Worldwide, Microsoft has 221,000 full-time employees, 122,000 of them in the United States.
CEO Satya Nadella said during a talk in Davos that “no one can defy gravity” and that Microsoft could not ignore the weaker global economy.
“We live in times of significant change, and when I meet with clients and partners, some things are clear,” Nadella wrote in a memo. “First, as we saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, now we see them optimize their digital spend to do more with less.”
The publisher of news and opinion website Vox, technology website The Verge and New York Magazine announced Friday that it is cutting 7% of its staff, or about 130 people.
“We are experiencing and expect more of the same economic and financial pressures that others in the media and technology industries have faced,” Chief Executive Jim Bankoff said in a memo.
The layoffs are also hitting Wall Street hard. The world’s largest asset manager is cutting 500 jobs, or less than 3% of its workforce.
from today “Unprecedented market environmentis a stark contrast to their attitude over the last three years, when they increased their headcount by roughly 22%. The last major round of cuts from him was in 2019.
The bank will lay off up to 3,200 workers this month amid a Drop in global trading activity. More than a third of the cuts are expected to come from the company’s trading and banking units. Goldman Sachs
(FADXX) it had almost 50,000 employees at the end of the third quarter of last year.
The cryptocurrency brokerage announced in early January that it will remove 950 people, nearly one in five employees in its workforce. The move comes just months after Coinbase laid off 1,100 people.
Although Bitcoin got off to a strong start to the new year, cryptocurrency businesses were hit by significant drops in the prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
mcdonald’s
(MCD)which thrived during the pandemic, plans to cut some of its corporate staff, chief executive Chris Kempczinski said this month.
“We will be evaluating roles and staffing levels in parts of the organization and there will be tough discussions and decisions ahead,” Kempszinski said, outlining a plan to “break down internal barriers, become more innovative and reduce work that doesn’t align with the priorities of the company”.
The online custom subscription clothing retailer said it plans to lay off 20% of its salaried staff.
“We will lose a lot of talented team members from across the company and I’m so sorry,” Stitch Fix said.
(SFIX) founder and former CEO Katrina Lake wrote in a blog post.
As the new year began, Amazon
(AMZN) said it plans to lay off more than 18,000 employees. Departments from human resources to those of the company Amazon
(AMZN) Stores will be affected.
“Companies that last a long time go through different phases. They are not in heavy people expansion mode every year,” CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo to employees.
Amazon grew during the pandemic and hired rapidly in recent years. But demand has cooled as consumers return to their offline lives and battle high prices. Amazon says it has more than 800,000 employees.
At the New York Times DealBook Summit in November, Jassy said she thinks Amazon “made the right decision” about quickly building out its infrastructure, but said its hiring spree is a “lesson for everyone.”
Even as he spoke, Amazon warehouse workers who helped organize the company first US union at a Staten Island facility last year they were protesting Jassy’s appearance outside the conference venue.
“We definitely want to take this opportunity to let you know that the workers are waiting and that we are ready to negotiate our first contract,” said Amazon Workers Union President Chris Smalls, calling the protest a “welcome party” for Jassy.
Sales force
(CRM) it will cut about 10% of its workforce of its more than 70,000 employees and reduce its real estate footprint. In a letter to employees, Salesforce
(CRM)‘s Chairman and Co-CEO Marc Benioff admitted to adding too much to the company’s staff early on. in the pandemic.
– CNN’s Clare Duffy, Matt Egan, Oliver Darcy, Julia Horowitz, Catherine Thorbecke, Paul R. La Monica, Nathaniel Meyersohn, Parija Kavilanz, Danielle Wiener-Bronner and Hanna Ziady contributed to this report.
