TOPLINE
Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta began laying off thousands of employees Wednesday, nearly a month after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the social media giant’s latest round of layoffs, as high inflation and economic instability continue to push major U.S. companies to reduce their head counts, including large-scale layoffs this week at Opendoor, Ernst & Young and David’s Bridal.
Meta began laying off employees Wednesday morning as part of a massive round of job cuts announced … [+]GETTY IMAGES
TIMELINE
April 19
Meta informed employees in an internal message board the cuts would start Wednesday morning, while a source told Vox they could affect roughly 4,000 employees—part of the company’s latest round of layoffs Zuckerberg unveiled last month, affecting approximately 10,000 of its nearly 87,000 employees and bringing Meta’s total number of job cuts since November to 21,000.
April 18
Opendoor will cut 560 employees, roughly 22% of its workforce, in its latest round of cuts, after the online real estate company slashed another 18% of its staff in November, telling Forbes the company has suffered from high mortgage rates and has been “weathering a sharp transition in the housing market,” with a 30% decline in new listings from last year.
April 17
Ernst & Young is cutting roughly 3,000 employees based in the U.S.—less than 5% of its U.S. workforce and less than 1% of its more than 358,000 employees worldwide, according to PitchBook—over concerns with the “impact of current economic conditions, strong employee retention rates and overcapacity,” (Ernst & Young did not immediately respond to a Forbes inquiry for confirmation).
April 14
David’s Bridal laid off 9,236 positions across the United States Friday, according to a notice filed to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor, the state where the company is headquartered, with the company’s CEO James Marcum saying the recent uncertain economic conditions and the post-Covid environment led to company’s choice to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and lay off a majority of their employees.
April 14
The extent of Best Buy’s layoffs is not yet clear, though sources told the Wall Street Journal the big box tech and appliance retailer informed hundreds of employees who had sold smartphones and computers at more than 900 U.S. stores their positions had been eliminated.
April 12
Redfin cut 200 employees “due to the housing downturn and economic uncertainty,” the Seattle-based company confirmed to Forbes, following two rounds of layoffs over the past year, including one in November affecting 862 employees (Redfin has more than 5,500 employees, according to PitchBook).
April 4
Walmart, the biggest employer in the country, laid off more than 2,000 employees at five plants, including in Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas, just weeks after reportedly asking roughly 200 workers to look for other jobs at other company sites last month as part of an adjustment in staffing “to better prepare for the future needs of customers.”
April 3
McDonald’s plans to cut “hundreds” of employees this week in a restructuring plan, Reuters reported Monday, citing unnamed sources, after the fast-food giant closed its corporate offices for part of the week in order to conduct the layoffs—McDonald’s, which has 150,000 global employees, according to PitchBook, did not respond to a Forbes inquiry.
April 3
Hyland Software, the developer behind process management software OnBase, announced plans to cut 1,000 employees—roughly a fifth of its workforce—and reassess job responsibilities, as CEO Bill Priemer said the Ohio tech company “did not anticipate the degree to which inflation, rising interest rates and wage increases would impact our expenses.”
March 30
Billionaire Richard Branson’s aerospace company Virgin Orbit announced it will cut 675 employees, reducing its head count to 100 employees, as the company reportedly ceases operations “for the foreseeable future” after the struggling company failed to secure last-minute funding.
March 30
Roku is letting go of 6% of its workforce (200 employees) and exiting office facilities it no longer occupies, the San Francisco Bay area based tech company announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Thursday, as part of its latest restructuring plan, after cutting another 200 positions in November.
March 29
Electronic Arts, the maker of video game franchises such as Battlefield, FIFA and Madden, will cut roughly 6% of its workforce, the company announced in a SEC filing Wednesday, with CEO Andrew Wilson writing in a memo to staff the company is “moving away from projects that do not contribute to our strategy” amid “macro uncertainty.”
March 29
Robert Kyncl, the CEO of Warner Music Group, announced the New York-based entertainment company will cut 270 positions in a memo seen by Variety, calling the reduction an example of “some hard choices in order to evolve” (Warner Music Group did not respond to a request for comment from Forbes).
March 28
Lucid Group, a San Francisco Bay area electric car maker, announced in a SEC filing it will cut 18% of its more than 7,200 employees by July as part of a restructuring plan to adjust to “evolving business needs and productivity improvements.”
March 27
The first group of Disney employees being laid off will be notified this week, followed by two additional groups before the start of the summer, according to a staff memo seen by multiple outlets, as part of the company’s plan to cut 7,000 positions (roughly 3.2% of its 220,000 global employees)—CEO Bob Iger had previously called the layoffs a “necessary step to address the challenges we face today,” in a conference call last month.
March 24
Bed Bath & Beyond’s cuts affect 1,300 employees, including 572 at an e-commerce facility and 377 at its corporate headquarters in New Jersey, according to state financial documents, as the company’s financial woes continue and after it announced plans last August to cut 20% of its workforce and close 150 stores.
March 22
A round of cuts at Indeed will affect 2,200 of its more than 14,600 employees from “nearly every team,” CEO Chris Hyams said in a statement, writing the cuts come as the job market cools following a “recent post-Covid boom,” and warning tech revenue will likely decline in fiscal years 2023 and 2024.
March 22
Glassdoor, a San Francisco-based employer rating site, will reduce its workforce by roughly 15%, affecting 140 employees, CEO Christian Sutherland-Wong announced in a statement, blaming the “shifting macroeconomic environment.”
March 21
Data chip manufacturer Marvell Technologies will cut 4% of its workforce (approximately 320 employees) as part of a move to put its workforce in position to “take advantage of our most promising opportunities, both now and when we emerge from the current industry downcycle,” the company told Bloomberg.
March 20
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced the company—which has roughly 1.5 million employees—will cut 9,000 positions primarily from its advertising, web services, people experience and technology solutions (PXT) and Twitch platforms, following two rounds of layoffs since January that affected roughly 18,000 employees.
March 15
Marketing e-commerce firm Klaviyo slashed 140 of its roughly 1,200 positions, TechCrunch and the Boston Globe reported, making it the latest Boston-based tech company to reduce its head count, following HubSpot, Wayfair and Whoop.
March 14
Tyson Foods will lay off 1,660 employees and close two plants in Arkansas and Virginia, the agricultural giant confirmed to Forbes, following an underwhelming financial report that showed operating income from its chicken business was less than half of what it was last year.
March 9
Lockheed Martin plans to cut 176 employees from its Sikorsky heavy lift helicopter division in Maryland, according to a Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification filing with the Maryland Department of Labor—Lockheed Martin had 116,000 employees as of last month, according to PitchBook.
March 8
Hunter Douglas plans to lay off 361 of its roughly 23,000 employees, the company announced in a state filing, as the window and curtain company closes a facility in Cumberland, Maryland, the Cumberland Times-News reported.
March 6
Atlassian will cut 500 full-time employees, or roughly 5% of its staff, it announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday—co-CEOs Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar cited a “changing and difficult macroeconomic environment” in an internal memo, adding, “we need to go further in rebalancing the skills we require to run faster at our company priorities.”
March 6
Satellite radio company SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz announced in a memo to employees the layoffs will affect roughly 8% of its nearly 6,000 employees (roughly 475 positions) and affect “nearly every department,” as executives attempt to “maintain a sustainably profitable company” amid “today’s uncertain economic environment.”
March 1
Citigroup’s cuts are expected to affect less than 1% of the company’s roughly 240,000 employees, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg, after the company reportedly cut another 50 trading employees in November (Citi did not respond to Forbes’ request for details).
March 1
Chicago-based software consulting firm Thoughtworks will cut 4% of its roughly 12,500 global employees (500 employees) in a move intended to “support the future growth of the business,” spokesperson Linda Horiuchi confirmed to Forbes, following the company’s prediction in a first quarter forecast that revenue will drop by more than 5% from the first quarter last year.
March 1
Waymo’s cuts will affect 8% of its workforce, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters and The Information Wednesday, bringing the total number of employees laid off at the company this year to 209, after its parent company Alphabet—which is also the parent company of Google—announced a massive round of layoffs affecting roughly 12,000 employees (Waymo did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes).
February 28
Cuts at General Motors will number in the “low hundreds” of employees, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters, while the Detroit News reported the number could affect as many as 500 of the company’s 167,000 employees (GM did not respond to Forbes’ inquiry as to how many employees could be cut).
February 27
Twitter started laying off 200 of the social media giant’s remaining 2,000 employees in the social media platform’s latest round of job cuts, sources familiar with the matter told the New York Times, just weeks after CEO Elon Musk pledged to “stabilize the organization” following several rounds of layoffs last fall that cut the company’s staff of roughly 7,500 by more than half.
February 27
Cerebral confirmed the mental-health startup will cut 15% of its workforce (roughly 285 employees) in a statement to Forbes, saying the layoffs are part of a reorganization plan—the company’s third round of layoffs since last summer, including one round in June that affected 350 employees.
February 27
Denver-based software company Palantir Technologies will cut just under 2% of its workforce, even as the company reported a $31 million profit in the last fiscal quarter—affecting as many as 76 of the company’s 3,838 employees, according to PitchBook (Palantir did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Forbes).
February 24
Ericsson’s latest round of layoffs, which is expected to affect 8% of its nearly 106,000 global employees (roughly 8,500 positions), comes as part of a cost-cutting plan intended to save roughly $880 million by the end of 2023 and includes 1,400 positions it had announced would be cut earlier this week in Sweden, where the company is headquartered.
February 22
NPR President and CEO John Lansing announced the layoffs, which are expected to affect at least 100 of its roughly 1,100 employees, in a memo to staff Wednesday afternoon amid a slowdown in advertising revenue and as “the global economy remains uncertain.”
February 21
McKinsey’s job cuts could affect more than 4% of the company’s nearly 44,000 employees, according to PitchBook—McKinsey did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for further details, though people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg the New York-based company is expected to conduct the layoffs in the coming weeks.
February 16
DocuSign unveiled plans to cut 10% of its staff in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday, affecting roughly 740 of its 7,400 employees—the San Francisco-based software company’s second round of cuts in less than half a year, after it slashed another 9% of its workforce last November.
February 15
Accounting firm KPMG could cut 2% of its staff (roughly 700 employees), the Financial Times reported, citing a staff memo from Carl Carande, the vice-chair of the company’s U.S. advisory business, who said the cuts are intended to align its workforce with “current and anticipated market demand”—making it the first of the so-called Big Four accounting firms to conduct a major round of layoffs amid growing recession fears in recent months.
February 10
Twilio’s cuts, which will affect just over 1,500 of the company’s nearly 9,000 employees, according to Pitchbook, come as part of a major realignment plan—the company’s second in five months, following its decision to slash another 11% of its workforce last September, with CEO Jeff Lawson saying in a message to employees on Monday, “it’s clear that we’ve gotten too big.”
February 9
News Corp, the owner of the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, publishing giant HarperCollins as well as outlets in the U.K. and Australia, plans to slash its workforce by 5% this year (roughly 1,250 employees), the Journal reported, following a 7% revenue drop to $2.52 billion over a 12-month period ending in December.
February 8
Yahoo plans to cut more than half of its Yahoo For Business division by the end of the year, affecting more than 1,600 employees, including nearly 1,000 this week alone, according to a company spokesperson, who told Forbes the cuts will “simplify and strengthen our advertising business,” which has been “not profitable and struggled to live up to our high standards.”
February 8
Nomad Health, a New York-based online healthcare staffing management company, is laying off 17% of its corporate staff (nearly 120 employees), with CEO Alexi Nazem telling workers in a letter obtained by Forbes the move comes as the company is “confronting a major shift in the post-pandemic economy” due to high inflation, recession fears and low consumer demand.
February 8
Internet technology management company GitHub, which is owned by Microsoft, announced it is laying off 10% of its workforce—roughly 300 of its 3,000 employees—officials confirmed to Forbes, saying the move is part of a “budgetary realignment” intended to preserve the “health of our business in the short term”).
February 7
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, eBay announced a 4% reduction to its workforce (500 employees), as the San Jose, California-based e-commerce company works to cut costs “with considerations of the [global] macroeconomic situation.”
February 7
In a message to employees, Eric Yuan, the CEO of online meeting platform Zoom, unveiled plans to slash roughly 15% of the company’s workforce as “the world transitions to life post-pandemic” and amid “uncertainty of the global economy”—cutting approximately 1,300 positions, after it tripled its staff at the outset of the pandemic.
February 7
Atlanta-based cybersecurity company Secureworks announced in a SEC filing it will cut 9% of its staff (estimated to affect roughly 225 of its nearly 2,500 employees, according to PitchBook), as it looks to reduce spending amid a “time when some world economies are in a period of uncertainty.”
February 6
Jet maker Boeing confirmed to multiple news outlets plans to cut around 2,000 jobs in finance and human resources this year, though the firm said it will increase its overall headcount by 10,000 employees “with a focus on engineering and manufacturing.”
February 6
Texas-headquartered Dell Technologies, which owns PC-maker Dell, could cut roughly 6,650 employees, reportedly citing “uncertain” market conditions in their decision to move beyond earlier cost-cutting measures, while analysts noted a crash in demand for personal computer products—which makes up the majority of Dell’s sales—after a pandemic high.
February 2
Okta CEO Todd McKinnon unveiled plans to reduce the tech company’s workforce by 5% (roughly 300 positions) in an SEC filing on Thursday, citing a period of over-hiring over the past several years that did not account for the “macroeconomic reality we’re in today.”
February 1
NetApp, a San Jose, California-based cloud data company, announced plans in an SEC filing to lay off 8% of its staff (estimated to affect 960 employees) by the end of the fourth fiscal quarter of 2023 “in light of the macroeconomic challenges and reduced spending environment.”
February 1
Boston-based online sports betting company DraftKings also said it plans to cut 3.5% of its global workforce, in a cost-cutting move expected to affect approximately 140 employees, the Boston Globe reported.
February 1
FedEx announced it will slash 10% of its officer and director team and “consolidate some teams and functions”—four months after the delivery giant unveiled plans for a hiring freeze and that it would close 90 office FedEx Office locations—in a move CEO Raj Subramaniam said was necessary to make the company a “more efficient” and “agile organization” (FedEx employs roughly 547,000 people, according to PitchBook).
February 1
Electric automaker Rivian Automotive will cut 6% of its staff, CEO R.J. Scaringe said in an email to employees seen by Reuters, just over six months after the company laid off another 5% of its roughly 14,000 employees (Rivian did not immediately respond to an inquiry for more details from Forbes).
January 31
In a statement on Tuesday, online payment company PayPal announced it would cut 7% of its global workforce (2,000 full-time positions) amid a “competitive landscape” and a “challenging macro-economic environment,” CEO Dan Schulman said.
January 31
Publishing giant HarperCollins announced it would slash 5% of its staff in the U.S. and Canada as the publisher struggles with declining sales and “unprecedented supply chain and inflationary pressures;” HarperCollins is estimated to have roughly 4,000 employees worldwide, with more than half of them working in the U.S., the Associated Press reported.
January 31
HubSpot, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based software company, said it would cut 7% of its workforce by the end of the first quarter of 2023 in a SEC filing, as part of a restructuring plan, with CEO Yamini Rangan telling staff it follows a “downward trend” after the company “bloomed” in the Covid-19 pandemic, with HubSpot facing a “faster deceleration than we expected.”
January 30
Philips said it would cut 3,000 jobs worldwide in 2023 and 6,000 total by 2025 after the Dutch electronics and medical equipment maker announced $1.7 billion in losses for 2022, as CEO Roy Jakobs added the company will now focus on “strengthening our patient safety and quality management.”
January 26
Hasbro said it would cut 15% of its global workforce this year (affecting roughly 1,000 full-time employees), as the toymaker’s revenue fell 17% over the past year “against the backdrop of a challenging holiday consumer environment,” CEO Chris Cocks said in a statement.
January 26
Michigan-based chemical company Dow announced it would cut 2,000 positions globally in a cost-reducing plan aimed at saving $1 billion, as CEO Jim Fitterling said the company navigates “macro uncertainties and challenging energy markets, particularly in Europe.”
January 26
Software company IBM announced it would slash 1.5% of its global workforce, estimated to affect roughly 3,900 employees, according to CFO James Kavanaugh, multiple outlets reported, as the company expects $10.5 billion in free cash flow in fiscal year 2023.
January 26
SAP, said it will lay off 3,000 workers—around 2.5% of its global workforce—in its earnings call announcing its fourth quarter 2022 results on Thursday, but did not specify where those cuts would be made. The German enterprise software firm—whose U.S. headquarters are in Pennsylvania—said the layoffs were part of an effort to cut costs and strengthen focus on its core cloud computing business.
January 25
Groupon, in an SEC filing, said it would reduce its head count by 500 employees, globally, in its second major round of cuts in recent months, after the e-commerce company cut another 500 positions last August.
January 25
Vacasa, the Portland, Oregon-based vacation rental management company announced it would slash 1,300 positions (17% of its staff) in a SEC filing as it moves to reduce costs and “focus on being a profitable company,” three months after it announced it would cut another 6% of its staff.
January 24
3M, the maker of Post-it Notes and Scotch tape, announced it would cut roughly 2,500 global manufacturing positions in a financial report, as chairman and CEO Mike Roman said the company expects “macroeconomic challenges to persist in 2023.”
January 24
Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini is planning to cut 10% of its workforce, according to an internal memo seen by CNBC and The Information, with layoffs estimated to affect 100 of its roughly 1,000 employees—its latest round of cuts after it slashed 7% of its staff last July, and another 10% last May.
January 23
Spotify will lay off 6% of its workforce (roughly 600 employees, based on the 9,800 full-time workers it had as of a September 30 filing) and shares of the firm rose more than 5% in early trading as investors continue to largely digest tech layoffs as positive news for bottom lines, while the company’s chief content officer Dawn Ostroff will depart the company as part of the reorganization.
January 20
Google parent Alphabet plans to cut around 12,000 jobs worldwide, CEO Sundar Pichai said, citing the need for “tough choices” in order to “fully capture” the huge opportunities lying ahead.
January 20
Boston-based furniture e-commerce company Wayfair announced it would cut 10% of its global workforce (1,750 employees), including 1,200 corporate positions, in a move to “eliminate management layers and reorganize to be more agile” amid reduced sales—the company’s latest round of job cuts following it’s decision to cut 870 employees last August.
January 19
Capital One slashed 1,100 technology positions, a source familiar with the matter told Bloomberg—Capital One did not confirm the number of positions that would be cut, although a spokesperson told Forbes that affected employees were told they could apply for other roles in the company.
January 19
Student loan servicer Nelnet announced it will let go of 350 associates hired over past next six months, while another 210 will be cut for “performance reasons,” telling Insider the cuts come as President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness program continues to stall after facing legal challenges from conservative groups opposed to the measure.
January 18
Microsoft’s cuts, which affect 10,000 employees (less than 5% of its workforce), come three months after the Washington-based company conducted another round of layoffs affecting less than 1% of its roughly 180,000 employees, with CEO Satya Nadella saying in a message to employees that some workers will be notified starting Wednesday, and the layoffs will be conducted by the end of the third fiscal quarter in September.
January 18
Amazon, one of the biggest companies in the country, had outlined a plan to eliminate more than 18,000 positions (including jobs that were cut in November) starting January 18 in a message to staff earlier this month from CEO Andy Jassy, who said the company is facing an “uncertain economy” after hiring “rapidly” over the past few years.
January 18
Teladoc Health will cut 6% of its staff—not including clinicians—as part of a restructuring plan the company announced in a financial report on Wednesday, as the New York-based telemedicine company attempts to reduce its operating costs amid a “challenged economic environment.”
January 13
LendingClub announced it would lay off 225 employees (roughly 14% of its workforce) in a SEC filing, amid a “challenging economic environment,” as the San Francisco-based company attempts to “align its operations to reduced marketplace revenue” following seven rounds of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes last year and as concerns persist of a potential recession.
January 13
Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek announced the company, which had more than 2,500 employees as of October, according to PitchBook, will cut 20% of its staff in a message to employees, as the company faces “ongoing economic headwinds and unforeseeable industry events—including the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX late last year, which “significantly damaged trust in the industry.”
January 12
DirecTV’s cuts could affect hundreds of employees, primarily managers, who make up nearly half of the company’s 10,000 employees, sources told CNBC, as the company struggles with an increase in the cost to “secure and distribute programming,” and after the company lost nearly 3% of its subscribers (400,000) in the third quarter of 2022, according to the Leichtman Research Group.
January 11
BlackRock officials reportedly told employees the New York-based company plans to reduce its headcount by 2.5%—the company did not immediately respond to a Forbes inquiry for further details, but in an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg, CEO Larry Fink and President Rob Kapito said the move comes amid “uncertainty around us” that necessitates staying “ahead of changes in the market.”
January 11
In a memo to employees, Flexport CEOs Dave Clark and Ryan Petersen announced plans to slash 20% of the company’s global workforce (estimated to affect 662 of its more than 3,300 employees, according to data from PitchBook), saying the supply chain startup is “not immune” to a worldwide the “macroeconomic downturn.”
January 10
Coinbase, one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the U.S. announced plans to lay off 25% of its workforce (950 employees) in a company blog post in order to “weather downturns in the crypto market,” after it laid off another 18% of its staff last June.
January 9
Goldman Sachs could lay off as many as 3,200 employees in one of the biggest round of job cuts so far in 2023 as the investment banking giant prepares for a possible recession, multiple outlets reported, citing people familiar with the job cuts.
January 9
Artificial intelligence startup Scale AI announced plans to cut one fifth of its staff, CEO Alexandr Wang announced in a blog post, saying the company grew “rapidly” over the past several years, but faces a macro environment that has “changed dramatically in recent quarters.”
January 5
Online apparel company Stitch Fix will lay off 20% of its salaried staff and close a Salt Lake City distribution center, founder and interim CEO Katrina Lake announced in an internal memo, after laying off another 15% of its staff last June.
January 5
Crypto lender Genesis Trading reportedly laid off 30% of its workforce, according to the Wall Street Journal, which spoke to unnamed sources—the company’s second round of cuts since August, lowering its staff to 145.
January 4
San Francisco-based software giant Salesforce will reduce its headcount by 10%, or 7,900 employees, CEO Marc Benioff announced in an internal letter, amid a “challenging” economic climate and as customers take a “more measured approach to their purchasing decisions.”
January 4
Online video platform Vimeo announced its second round of cuts in the past six months, which affect 11% of its workforce (roughly 150 of its 1,400 employees, according to data from PitchBook), with CEO Anjali Sud attributing the company’s decision to a “deterioration in economic conditions.”
KEY BACKGROUND
More than 120 large U.S. companies—including tech startups, major banks, manufacturers and online platforms—conducted major rounds of layoffs last year, cutting nearly 125,000 employees, according to Forbes’ layoff tracker. The biggest came from Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, which laid off roughly 11,000 employees in November. The company with the most rounds of cuts was Peloton, which underwent four separate rounds of layoffs, including one that affected more than 2,800 workers.
FURTHER READING
125,000 Laid Off In Major Cuts As Recession Fears Spiked, According To Forbes Tracker (Forbes)
I am a Boston-based reporter. Before joining Forbes, I covered the environment, local government and the arts for a small-town… Read More