TOPLINE
Facebook’s parent company Meta is planning to lay off thousands of employees, according to the Wall Street Journal, which would make it the latest major tech company to implement job cuts as employers fear rising inflation could slide the economy into recession.
TIMELINE
Nov. 6, 2022The “large-scale” layoffs planned for Meta could be the largest for a major tech company so far this year, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal, adding an official announcement is expected as soon as Wednesday, following a hiring freeze announced in September (Meta did not immediately respond to a Forbes request for comment, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said the company would be focusing investment on “a small number of high priority growth areas”).
Nov. 2, 2022Online financial services company Chime will lay off 12% of its staff, with the cuts expected to affect 160 of the company’s 1,300 employees, a spokesperson told CNBC, as the San-Francisco-based online banking and financial services company attempts to recapitalize “regardless of market conditions,” according to an internal memo obtained by TechCrunch.
Nov. 3, 2022Rideshare giant Lyft will reportedly lay off 13% of its staff, according to a letter from company officials obtained by CNBC, with job cuts affecting approximately 650 employees (13% of its staff of roughly 5,000, not including its contracted drivers), marking the company’s second round of layoffs this year, after it laid off 60 workers in July (Lyft did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Forbes).
Nov. 3, 2022Stripe announced plans to cut 14% of its workforce (roughly 1,120 of its 8,000 positions as of October, according to PitchBook) as the online financial services company contends with “stubborn inflation, energy shocks, higher interest rates, reduced investment budgets and sparser startup funding,” after the company “overhired” and “underestimated both the likelihood and impact of a broader slowdown,” CEO Patrick Collison announced in a statement to employees.
Nov. 3, 2022Billionaire Elon Musk reportedly plans to cut roughly 50% of Twitter’s 7,500 employees, multiple outlets reported Thursday—one week after the world’s richest man took over the company, with previous reports indicating he could lay off 25% and as much as 75% of the workforce, although Musk has walked back on that original number.
Nov. 2, 2022In a blog post released Wednesday, Opendoor CEO Eric Wu blamed the company’s job cuts, which affect 18% of its workforce, on “the most challenging real estate market in 40 years” and a “need to adjust our business”—as the housing market continues to cool in the wake of rising inflation and the Federal Reserve’s four rounds of interest rate hikes this year.
Nov. 1, 2022Upstart’s layoffs are expected to affect roughly 7% of the cloud-based AI lending company’s workforce, with cuts primarily among employees who work in loan applications, a spokesperson confirmed to Forbes, saying the move comes “given the challenging economy.”
Oct. 28 ,2022Zillow, the Seattle-based online real estate company, plans to let go of 300 workers (roughly 5% of its nearly 5,800 employees), TechCrunch reported, nearly a year after it announced plans to lay off another 2,000 employees.
Oct. 26, 2022Seagate Technology CEO Dave Mosley said the cuts, estimated to affect 8% of the data storage company’s workforce, follow “global economic uncertainties” and reduced demand, as the company’s shares plummet to $53.69 from a peak of $117.67 in January.
Oct. 25, 2022Manufacturing giant Philips unveiled plans to lay off approximately 4,000 workers amid a “worsening macroeconomic environment,” with the cuts expected to affect more than 5% of the company’s workforce in both the Netherlands—where the company is based—and the United States.
Oct. 22, 2022Vacasa’s layoffs affect roughly 3% of the company’s workforce, primarily in its corporate divisions, Skift reported—its second round of cuts this year following its decision to let go of 25 sales employees in July—a spokesperson told Skift the company is attempting to “optimize our resources and teams to be efficient and align with our priorities.”
Oct. 19, 2022Philadelphia-based delivery startup Gopuff laid off as many as 250 employees in its third round of layoffs this year, unnamed sources told Bloomberg, after cutting roughly 400 in March and 100 in January—a company spokesperson told Forbes the recent cuts are part of a 10% reduction announced over the summer.
Oct. 18, 2022Microsoft’s cuts will affect less than 1% of its 180,000 workers, a spokesperson told CNBC, three months after the Redmond, Wash.-based tech company announced it would slash another 1% of its workforce, with the cuts coming in the company’s modern life experiences team—a Microsoft spokesperson told Forbes the company will “evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis and make structural adjustments accordingly.”
Oct. 14, 2022HelloFresh, which took off during pandemic-related shutdowns, cut 611 workers workers and shut down a California production facility this week as the company focuses on “newer, more efficient sites,” a company spokesperson told Business Insider.
Oct. 14, 2022Beyond Meat announced it will lay off 19% of its workforce, as the California-based company struggles with a decline in demand for plant-based meats driven by inflation as consumers opt for cheaper alternatives, company officials said.
Oct. 14, 2022Nevada-based real estate valuation firm Clear Capital announced plans to cut 27% of its global workforce (roughly 378 employees), TechCrunchreported, including 108 employees at its California office.
Oct. 13, 2022Oracle is laying off 201 employees, according to multiple outlets, citing documents filed to the state’s Employment Development Department, two months after the company started laying off an undisclosed number of its estimated 143,000 employees, as part of a larger plan to cut thousands, The Information reported.
Oct. 12, 2022Intel could reportedly cut thousands of employees, including roughly 20% in its sales and marketing departments, Bloomberg reported citing unnamed sources familiar with the proposal, following a disappointingcompany financial forecast in July it blamed on a “sudden and rapid” economic decline, while its shares shrank by more than half over the past year, to $25.04.
Oct. 11, 2022Brex’s job cuts affect 136 employees, bringing its staff to roughly 1,150, as the company adjusts to a “new macro environment” that “warrants a new level of focus and financial discipline,” CEO Pedro Franceschi wrote in a blog post.
Oct. 6, 2022Peloton’s layoffs, which affect roughly 12% of the company, come two months after a memo to employees obtained by Bloomberg revealed the exercise equipment maker cut nearly 800 jobs, and announced plans to shut stores and raise prices for its Bike+ and Tread machines.
Sept. 29, 2022SoftBank is prepping to cut at least 150 of the 500 workers employed by the Vision Fund, the Japanese conglomerate’s venture capital arm, which would would affect roughly 30% of staff, according to Bloomberg, a move that SoftBank’s billionaire founder and CEO Masayoshi Son hinted at last month after a record $23 billion quarterly loss (it’s unclear whether the layoffs will affect employees at the Lond0n-headquartered fund’s two U.S. locations in Silicon Valley and Miami).
Sept. 28, 2022San Francisco-based electronic signature company DocuSign will lay off 9% of its more than 7,400 employees (roughly 670 employees), the company announced in a Securities and Exchange filing Wednesday, saying the cuts are “necessary to ensure we are capitalizing on our long-term opportunity and setting up the company for future success.”
Sept. 26, 2022Wells Fargo reportedly announced plans to lay off 36 employees, bringing the bank’s total layoffs since April to more than 400, Iowa CBS affiliate KCCI reported, following the banking giant’s decision earlier this month to cut roughly 75 in its home mortgage division (Wells Fargo did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Forbes).
Sept. 21, 2022In a similar move, Google also alerted about 50 employees—roughly half of those employed at the firm’s startup incubator Area 120—they need to find a new internal role within three months if they want to stay at Google, the Journal reported.
Sept. 21, 2022Clothing outlet Nordstrom plans to lay off 231 employees at an Iowa distribution center starting next month, local ABC affiliate KCRGreported, citing a spokesperson who said the move is necessary to “better align with the current needs of our business” (Nordstrom did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Forbes).
Sept. 20, 2022Gap could cut as many as 500 corporate jobs from its offices in New York and San Francisco, as well as offices in Asia, unnamed sources told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday (A Gap spokesperson confirmed the layoffs to Forbes but would not provide further detail).
Sept. 16, 2022AbbVie reportedly announced plans to lay off 99 employees whileBristol Myers Squibb plans to cut 261, according to state filings seen by Endpoints News, making them the latest pharmaceutical companies to slim down their workforces, following Biogen and Teva, which reportedly cut 300 jobs last month.
Sept. 14, 2022Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson announced the move to cut 11% (roughly 800-900 of the company’s nearly 8,000 employees) on a company blog, saying the workforce grew “too fast” and “without enough focus” over the past two years.
Sept. 13, 2022Warner Bros. Discovery, which formed in a merger between the two production giants in April, could reportedly cut “hundreds” of ad sales employees from the WarnerMedia and Discovery sides of the company, Axios reported, citing unnamed sources, as the company looks to downsize its advertising team representing HBO, CNN, Discovery, Turner and Warner Bros. Entertainment, according to Insider, which also spoke to unnamed sources.
Sept. 12, 2022Goldman Sachs usually lays off 1% to 5% of its workers each year as a part annual performance reviews, but suspended this program during the Covid-19 pandemic—the investment bank suggested earlier this year it would reinstate the cuts, which are expected to be closer to 1% of workers across all sectors and could happen some time this month, the New York Times reported, citing people familiar with the plans.
Sept. 9, 2022Beaumont-Spectrum, which formed earlier this year out of a mergerbetween Beaumont and Spectrum, cut 400 corporate positions as the health care network struggles with “significant financial pressures from historic inflation, rising pharmaceutical and labor costs, COVID 19, expiration of CARES Act funding and reimbursement not proportional with expenses.”
Sept. 2, 2022Banking giant Citigroup reportedly made layoffs in its home mortgage division that a source told Bloomberg encompassed fewer than 100 positions.
Sept. 2, 2022SoftBank, the Tokyo-based investment management giant, reportedlyplans to cut up to 20% of the roughly 500 staffers at its Vision Fund three weeks after the fund posted a record loss in the fiscal quarter ending in June.
Sept. 2, 2022Investment banking giant Credit Suisse could reportedly cut as many as 5,000 jobs as the scandal-hit bank seeks to turnaround its reputation and reduce costs, according to Reuters.
Aug. 31, 2022Snap, the California-based developer of mobile app Snapchat, announced plans to lay off more than 1,200 employees (roughly 20% of its staff), in its second round of job cuts this summer, according to an internal memo obtained by CNN.
Aug. 31, 2022Bed Bath & Beyond unveiled plans to lay off 20% of its workforce and take out $500 million in new financing, as the struggling retail giant closes 150 “lower-producing” stores amid continuing issues with low sales.
Aug. 31, 2022VF Corporation, the parent company of brands such as Vans, Timeberland and the North Face, reportedly cut 300 employees and eliminated 300 open positions (less than 1% of its global workforce), with CEO Steve Rendle writing in an internal letter to employees obtained by the Denver Business Journal that the cuts come amid an environment that will “likely continue to be marked by volatility” (VF confirmed the layoffs to Forbes but would not provide further details).
Aug. 30, 2022Snap CEO Evan Spiegel announced in a company memo that the company will lay off 20% of its than 6,400 workers (1,280 employees), the Verge reported, saying the company is facing a “lower rate of revenue growth”—the company’s stock price has plummeted nearly 80% since earlier this year.
Aug. 26, 2022Online mortgage lender Better.com reportedly announced its third round of layoffs this year and its fourth in the past 12 months, laying off close to 250 employees, an unnamed worker told TechCrunch—bringing the company’s total layoffs since December to roughly 4,000 as the company struggles amid a precipitous downturn in the housing market (Better.com did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Forbes).
Aug. 25, 2022Artificial intelligence startup DataRobot interim CEO Debanjan Saha announced the Boston-based company’s second round of job cuts since May in a move “to adapt to changing market dynamics,” and even though the company did not specify the number of employees leaving, LinkedInreported it will affect 26% of its staff, which, according to the site TechTarget, would mean roughly 260 of its 1,000 employees.
Aug. 25, 2022Tennessee-based trucking company U.S. Xpress cut 5% of its corporate workforce, a spokesperson confirmed to local ABC affiliate WTVC, bringing its total layoffs this summer to roughly 140, following a round of cuts in May that slashed another 5% of the company’s corporate staff, reported at the time to be around 70 employees.
Aug. 22, 2022Ford announced it will let go about 3,000 office and contract employees as the carmaker moves to cut spending as it transitions to producing electric vehicles, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Aug. 19, 2022Boston-based online furniture retailer Wayfair slashed 870 jobs (nearly 5% of the company’s 18,000 employees), according to an internal memo from CEO Niraj Shah obtained by the Boston Globe, which stated the company was rebuilding after the Covid-19 pandemic but that their “team is too large for the environment we are now in.”
Aug. 18, 2022Software company New Relic laid off 110 employees, including 90 in the U.S. (roughly 5% of its workforce), CEO Bill Staples posted in a statement on the company’s website, writing the cuts are essential in light of “current information on growth trends and market expectations.”
Aug. 16, 2022Philadelphia-based Audacy, the second biggest radio company in the United States, cut 5% of its workforce (estimated to be roughly 250 employees), Inside Radio reported, with CEO David Field saying the cuts come “in light of current macroeconomic headwinds.”
Aug. 16, 2022Apple, the world’s most valuable company, laid off 100 contracted recruiters amid a hiring slowdown, Bloomberg reported (Apple did not respond immediately to an inquiry from Forbes).
Aug. 15, 2022HBO Max cut 70 jobs (14% of its workforce) in a cost-cutting effort that comes four months after Discovery’s $43 billion acquisition of HBO Max parent company WarnerMedia, and a week after the company announced plans to combine the streaming service with Discovery+ as soon as next year, Deadline reported.
Aug. 12, 2022Texas-based home health services company Signify Health laid off 489 employees, a cost-cutting move that comes weeks after health care giant CVS made a bid to purchase the company, multiple outlets reported.
Aug. 11, 2022Meditation app Calm CEO David Ko announced plans to lay off 90 employees (20% of the company’s workforce) in a memo to employees, saying, “we as a company are not immune to the impacts of the current economic environment.“
Aug. 10, 2022California tech startup Nutanix announced plans to cut 270 (4% of its workforce) by the end of October, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, in an effort to reduce expenses.
Aug. 10, 2022Fast casual salad shop Sweetgreen cut 5% of its corporate workforce, attributing company losses to a slow return to the office and lingering Covid-19 cases, in a conference call, CNBC reported.
Aug. 9, 2022Website design company Wix.com made its second round of layoffs this year, cutting 100 employees as company President and COO Nir Zohar told Israeli newspaper Calcalist, “the world has experienced an economic crisis and we have seen U.S. GDP fall without growth.”
Aug. 9, 2022Canadian social media management company Hootsuite reportedlyannounced plans to cut 30% of its estimated 1,000 employees.
Aug. 8, 2022Groupon unveiled plans to lay off 15% of its workforce (500 employees), primarily in the company’s technology and sales departments, with CEO Kedar Deshpande writing in a message to employees obtained by Forbes, “our cost structure and our performance are not aligned.”
Aug. 8, 2022Snap started laying off an undisclosed number of its 6,000 employees, following a disappointing earnings report released last month, The Verge reported, citing anonymous sources.
Aug. 5, 2022iRobot, the maker of Roomba, cut 10% of its workforce (140 employees), as the company restructures after being purchased by Amazon for $1.7 billion, the company told Forbes, adding the job cuts were not related to the acquisition.
Aug. 4, 2022California-based video game developer Jam City laid off between 150-200 employees — roughly 17% of its workforce — VentureBeat reported, stating the cuts come “in light of the challenging global economy and its impact on the gaming industry.”
Aug. 3, 2022Walmart—the largest private employer in the United States—plans to cut 200 of its corporate employees as the company seeks to restructure, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources.
Aug. 2, 2022Online brokerage Robinhood cut 23% of its staff, with CEO Vlad Tenev citing a drop in trading activity, high inflation and a “broad crypto market crash”—the move comes after Robinhood laid off 9% of its full-time employees in April, a set of cuts Tenev says “did not go far enough.”
July 27, 2022Fitness company F45 Training laid off 110 employees, or 45% of its workforce, as CEO Adam Gilchrist stepped down.
July 26, 2022E-commerce company Shopify became the latest company to lay off employees, cutting ties with 1,000 (10% of its workforce), CEO Tobi Lutke announced, saying skyrocketing demand for online shopping during the pandemic has leveled off, and that the company made a bet that “didn’t pay off.”
July 22, 2022Boston tech-watch company Whoop slashed 15% of its workforce, telling the Boston Globe it now has 550 employees (meaning it cut close to 97) adding in a statement, “given how negatively the macro environment has evolved, we need to grow responsibly and control our own destiny.”
July 21, 20227-Eleven, which operates 13,000 convenience stores across North America, cut 880 U.S. corporate jobs, just over a year after it completed a $21 billion deal to purchase Speedway.
July 20, 2022Seattle real estate startup Flyhome axed 20% of its staff, reported to be close to 200 workers, as the company navigates “uncertain economic conditions.”
July 20, 2022Ford plans to lay off up to 8,000 employees as the automaker seeks to pivot away from gas-powered cars and toward electric vehicle production, Bloomberg reported.
July 19, 2022Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud announced on LinkedIn the online video company is cutting 6% of its workforce to “come out of this economic downturn a stronger company.”
July 19, 2022Ohio-based automated health software startup Olive laid off 450 employees, nearly 35% of the company, as CEO Sean Lane admitted the company’s commitment to “act with urgency” led to a hiring spree that proved to be too much to handle, prompting him to “rethink this approach.”
July 18, 2022
Crypto exchange Gemini cut 68 employees—or 7% of its staff—less than two months after it let go of 10% of its workforce, according to TechCrunch.
July 14, 2022OpenSea, the New-York based non-fungible token (NFT) company, announced in a tweet it laid off 20% of its staff over fears of “broad macroeconomic instability” with the possibility of “prolonged downturn.”
July 13, 2022Online ordering startup ChowNow laid off 100 people, TechCrunchreported, as it reels back from a “large and ambitious” budget it couldn’t meet amid fears a stunted market could fuel a recession.
July 13, 2022Tonal, the at-home fitness company, cut 35% of its workforce amid a worsening “macroeconomic climate and global supply chain challenges.”
July 12, 2022Tesla laid off 229 employees, primarily in its autopilot division, and shut down its San Mateo, California, office, just weeks after CEO Elon Musk sent an email to executives, saying he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy and planned to cut 10% of his workforce, Reuters reported.
July 12, 2022Some 1,500 employees at the international delivery startup Gopuff were let go, (10% of its staff) and 76 of its U.S. warehouses were shut down, according to a letter to investors first reported by Bloomberg, as the company moves away from a growth-at-all-costs model.
July 12, 2022California-based mortgage lender loanDepot announced plans to lay off 2,000 workers by the end of the year, bringing its 2022 layoffs to 4,800 — more than half of the company’s 8,500 employees — as the housing market “contracted sharply and abruptly,” CEO Frank Martell said in a statement.
July 11, 2022Electric automaker Rivian unveiled plans to lay off 5% of the company’s 14,000 employees in areas that grew “too quickly” during the pandemic and to halt hiring of non-factory workers, according to an internal email from CEO RJ Scaringe, Bloomberg reported.
July 7, 2022Real estate firm Re/Max announced plans to lay off 17% of its workforce by the end of the year, with a goal of bringing in $100 million in annual mortgage-related revenue by 2028.
June 22, 2022JPMorgan Chase — the nation’s largest bank — laid off and reassignedmore than 1,000 of its 274,948 employees, citing rising mortgage rates and increased inflation.
June 15, 2022Real estate companies Compass and Redfin announced plans to cut 10% and 8% of their workforces, respectively, following a 3.4% drop in home sales from April to May, according to the National Association of Realtors, amid concerns the once red-hot housing market had cooled.
June 14, 2022Some 1,100 Coinbase employees learned they had been released after losing access to their work emails, marking an 18% reduction in the crypto company’s staff — a move that CEO Brian Armstrong called essential to “stay healthy during this economic downturn” — and a warning sign of a recession and a “crypto winter” after a 10-plus-year crypto boom.
May 21, 2022Used car seller Carvana CEO Ernie Garcia III sent an email to 2,500 employees — 12% of the company’s workforce — informing them they had lost their jobs, one week after freezing new hiring, as the company embraced for what looked like a looming recession in car sales, and reports of a “spendthrift” business style had come back to bite the company.
FURTHER READING
By Brian Bushard, Forbes Staff, and Carlie Porterfield, Forbes Staff