After two years of mass hirings, we’re now in a reversal period.
Tech companies both large and small have cut jobs, including Meta, Twitter and Netflix, which cited the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and overhiring during rapid growth periods. Other tech giants like Robinhood, Glossier and Better are a part of a growing list that are continually letting people go.
Recent data from LinkedIn shows that fintech has also been trimming their workforce. Forbes reported that Chicago-based debit card company M1, reduced its team of 369 people to 349 in one month. Neobank reported a slight decrease in employees on LinkedIn as well. PointCard, a debit rewards startup reported 105 employees in January and now it’s down to 61.
Retail tech is also taking a hit. USA Today recently reported that Shopify is cutting 10% of its staff, or nearly 1,000 employees, as a result of a sales downturn in recent months.
Unfortunately, the list of tech layoffs seems to keep growing, and we’re keeping track. Here’s who have made major downsizing moves to their workforce so far.
Hopefully, this trend will stop soon as Harvard Business Review pointed out that layoffs are awful for companies. A study they raised showed that even just a 1% downsizing would lead to a 31% increase in people quitting, and survivors of layoffs have a 41% decline in job satisfaction and a 20% decline in job performance and productivity.
01
Meta
On November 9, 2022, Meta announced 11,000 people, or 13 percent of its workforce, were laid off. This is the company’s most significant round of job cuts so far. The recruiting and business teams are the most affected, with engineers leading projects related to the metaverse, going mostly unscathed.
“I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here,” Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s founder and CEO wrote in a letter to employees. “I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.”
Hiring freezes are also expected to stretch through next year as well.
02
Twitter
On November 6, 2022 it was reported that Twitter’s newly minted CEO Elon Musk laid off nearly half of Twitter’s workforce. In a company-wide memo, employees were informed 24 hours before layoffs began that they would be informed of if still had a job.
“In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce,” the email said. “We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is, unfortunately, necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.”
Since then, it has been reported that the company is asking some fired employees to return to the company due to wide operational gaps.
03
Shopify
In a statement shared with employees in July, Tobias “Tobi” Lütke, Shopify’s founder and CEO, revealed that layoffs will happen across their recruiting, support and sales departments. The organization will also be doing away with “over-specialized and duplicate roles”, as well as positions that were “convenient to have but too far removed from building products.”
He continued, “As a consequence, we have to say goodbye to some of you today and I’m deeply sorry for that,” Lütke said.
04
Netflix
With an initial round of reductions taking place in May, it was reported a month later that more than 300 employees were let go from the streaming giant across multiple departments, bringing the total to more than 450 so far.
“Today we sadly let go of around 300 employees,” a Netflix spokesperson shared with Variety in a June 23 report. “While we continue to invest significantly in the business, we made these adjustments so that our costs are growing in line with our slower revenue growth. We are so grateful for everything they have done for Netflix and are working hard to support them through this difficult transition.”
05
Robinhood
NY Times reported on August 2 that the investing app giant laid off 23% of its staff because of the imploding cryptocurrency market.
This came just months after laying off 340 employees.
06
Snap Inc.
In a August 30 report by Verge, it was shared that Snap Inc. (Snapchat parent company) had laid plans to lay off about 20 percent of its more than 6,400 employees.
