New York
CNN
—
Just this week Alphabet, the parent company of Google, Microsoft
(MSFT) and Vox Media announced layoffs It affects more than 22,000 employees.
Their moves follow job cuts earlier this month At Amazon, Goldman Sachs and Salesforce. More companies are expected to follow suit, with firms that have been hiring aggressively for the past two years hitting the brakes and, in many cases, reversing.
The cuts are in a sharp contrasting tone 2022, which has the second highest job gain rate at a record level – 4.5 mln. But last year’s job numbers began to decline year-over-year, with December’s jobs report showing the lowest monthly gain in two years.
The highest level of hiring occurred in 2021, when 6.7 million jobs were added. But that came during the first year of the pandemic, when the U.S. effectively shut down and 9.3 million jobs were lost.
The current layoffs are happening across many industries, from media firms to Wall Street, but so far Big Tech has been hit particularly hard.
This has seen consumer shopping habits shift towards e-commerce and other online services during the lockdown, in contrast to job losses during the pandemic. Tech firms have gone on a hiring spree.
But now workers are back in their offices and personal shopping is back. Add in the increased likelihood of a recession, high interest rates and weak demand due to rising prices, and tech businesses are cutting costs.
January is filled with headlines announcing job cuts at company after company. List of layoffs this month – distant voice
Google
(GOOGL)‘s parent said on Friday it was cutting 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce, across product areas and regions. Alphabet has added 50,000 workers over the past two years as the pandemic created greater demand for its services. But recent recession fears are causing advertisers to pull back from the core digital ad business.
“Over the past two years, we have seen periods of dramatic growth,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email to employees. “To accommodate and fuel this growth, we are hiring for a different economic reality than we face today.”
The tech behemoth is cutting 10,000 jobs, the company said in a securities filing on Wednesday. Globally, Microsoft has 221,000 full-time employees, of which 122,000 are located in the United States.
CEO Satya Nadella said during a speech in Davos that “no one can defy gravity” and that Microsoft cannot ignore the weak global economy.
“We are living through a period of significant change, and as we meet with customers and partners, several things become clear,” Nadella wrote in his memoir. “First, where we saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, we’re now seeing 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 they are cutting 7% of their jobs, or about 130 people.
“We are experiencing and expect the same economic and financial pressures that others in the media and technology industries are facing,” Chief Executive Jim Bankoff said in a note.
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.
today’sunprecedented market environment” is a stark contrast to his attitude over the past three years, when he increased his staff by nearly 22%. Its last major downsizing was in 2019.
The bank will lay off up to 3,200 employees this month a decline in global deal activity. More than a third of the layoffs are expected to come from the firm’s trading and banking divisions. 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 was laying off 950 people — nearly one in five workers in its workforce. The move comes months after Coinbase laid off 1,100 people.
While Bitcoin has had a solid start to the new year, cryptocurrency companies have seen significant drops in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
McDonald’s
(MCD)CEO Chris Kempczinski said this month that the company, which has thrived during the pandemic, plans to lay off some of its corporate staff.
“We will be evaluating roles and staffing levels in some parts of the organization, and there will be difficult discussions and decisions ahead,” Kempszinski said, announcing a plan to “break down internal barriers, develop more innovation and reduce work that doesn’t fit the needs of the organization.” company priorities.”
The online personalized clothing retailer said it plans to cut 20% of its salaried workforce.
“We will be losing a lot of talented team members across the company, and I’m very sorry,” Stitch Fix
(SFIX) founder and former CEO Katrina Lake wrote in a blog post.
As the new year begins, Amazon
(AMZN) He said that he plans to lay off more than 18,000 workers. From human resources to company departments Amazon
(AMZN) Stores will be affected.
“Companies that have been operating for a long time go through different stages. They’re not in expansion mode for heavy people every year,” CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo to employees.
Amazon rose during the pandemic and has taken off quickly over the past few years. But demand cooled as consumers returned to their offline lives and struggled with high prices. Amazon says it has more than 800,000 employees.
At The New York Times DealBook summit in November, Jassy said he believed Amazon “made the right decision” about building its agile infrastructure, but that the hiring spree was “a lesson for everyone.”
Even as he spoke, Amazon warehouse workers helping organize the company the first US labor union Last year, they picketed Jassy’s appearance outside the conference venue at a Staten Island facility.
Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls called the protest a “welcome party” for Jassy, saying, “We definitely want to use this opportunity to let the workers know that we are waiting and ready to negotiate our first contract.”
Salesforce
(CRM) It will cut about 10% of its workforce of more than 70,000 employees and reduce its real estate footprint. In a letter to Salesforce employees
(CRM)Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff admitted that the company has added more employees than early on. in a 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.
