2023’s Major Tech Company Layoffs
The tech sector is facing a challenging time due to the convergence of a struggling economy, the COVID-19 outbreak, and some apparent business errors. Unfortunately, the number of job losses has increased in 2023, following the cuts made in the previous year. Keeping track of these developments can be difficult, but we have collated all the significant layoffs in a single location and will keep updating this article as the situation progresses.
June
Spotify hairstyles
Spotify continued its layoff plans in January and announced in June that it would cut 200 jobs from its podcast unit. The change is part of a more targeted approach to improving podcasts with enhanced resources for creators and presenters. The company is also merging the Gimlet and Parcast production teams into a revamped division of Spotify Studios.
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Shopify Terminations
Shopify’s e-commerce platform played a significant role at the height of the pandemic, but the Canadian company is backing off now that the rush is over. In May, the company laid off 20% of its workforce and sold its logistics business to Flexport. Co-founder Toby Lutke described the job cuts as necessary to “pay undivided attention” to Shopify’s core mission, and acknowledged that the company needs to ramp up now that “stable economic booms” are over.
Polestar layoffs
Polestar delayed production of its first electric SUV (Polestar 3) in May, and this has had an impact on its workforce. The Volvo spinoff brand said in May it would cut 10 percent of its workforce to cut costs as it faces lower production expectations and a tough economy. Polestar said Volvo needed more time for software development and testing, which also hindered the EX90.
SoundCloud layoffs
SoundCloud continued last year’s massive layoffs in May. The podcast service announced it will lay off 8 percent of its staff to turn a profit in 2023. Billboard’s sources claim the company hopes to break even in the fourth quarter.
April
Raise hairstyles
Lyft laid off 13 percent of its workforce in November 2022, but took additional steps in April. The ride-hailing company announced that it was laying off 1,072 employees, or about 26 percent of its staff. It comes just weeks after CEO Logan Green was replaced by former Amazon executive David Resher, who said the company needed to streamline its business and refocus on drivers and passengers. Green has previously said Lyft needs to increase spending to compete with Uber.
Dropbox layoffs
Cloud storage companies are not immune from the current economic situation. In April, Dropbox announced that it was laying off 500 employees, or about 16 percent of its team. Co-founder Drew Houston attributed the cuts to a volatile economy, a maturing business and an “urgent need” to fuel growing interest in artificial intelligence. Although the company is profitable, Houston said its growth is slowing and some investments are “no longer sustainable.”
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Roku layoffs
Roku eliminated 200 jobs at the end of 2022, but that didn’t happen. The streaming platform creator laid off another 200 employees in March 2023. As in the past, the company has argued that it needs to curb rising costs and focus on projects with the biggest impact. Roku has struggled with one or two combinations of a tough economy and the end of the pandemic-induced video streaming boom.
Hairstyles by Lucid Motors
If you thought luxury electric car makers would be particularly vulnerable to financial turmoil, you guessed right. Lucid Motors announced in March that it was laying off 18 percent of its workforce, or about 1,300 people. The brand continues to miss production targets, and these cuts are said to help address “changing business needs and productivity improvements.” The cuts were also extensive, affecting managers and contractors.
layoffs dead (facebook)
Meta laid off 11,000 jobs in the fall of 2022, but it did not succeed. In March 2023, the company revealed plans to lay off another 10,000 workers in another cost-cutting initiative. The first layoffs affected its recruiting team, but it downsized its technology team at the end of April and its business teams at the end of May. The owner of Facebook hopes to make his operations more efficient by reducing the layers of management and asking some managers to take over the jobs previously reserved for people from Rikki. It may be a while before Meta’s headcount grows again – don’t expect a hiring freeze until it completes restructuring in late 2023.
February
Rivia hairstyles
Rivian has had layoffs in 2022, but it wasn’t enough to help the fledgling EV brand’s bottom line. In February, the company laid off another six percent of its employees, i.e. around 840 employees. It’s still struggling to break even, and production shortfalls due to supply chain issues haven’t helped matters. CEO RJ Scaringe says the job cuts will help Rivian focus on the “bigger impact” of its business.
Zoom release
Zoom was a staple of remote work culture at the height of the pandemic, so it’s no surprise that the company is cutting back now that people are returning to offices. The video calling company announced in February that it would lay off approximately 1,300 employees, or 15 percent of its staff. As CEO Eric Yuan puts it, the company hasn’t been hiring “sustainably” as it deals with sudden success. The layoffs are said to be necessary to survive the tough economy. The management team also offers more than an apology. Yuan will take a 98 percent pay cut for the next fiscal year, while all other executives will lose 20 percent of their base pay in addition to bonuses for 2023.
Yahoo hairstyles
ReturnByte’s parent company, Yahoo, is not immune to layoffs. The Internet brand announced in February that it will lay off more than 20 percent of its workforce during 2023, or more than 1,600 people. Most of the cuts, around 1,000 jobs, took place immediately. However, CEO Jim Lanzon did not blame economic circumstances for the layoffs. Instead, he framed it as a restructuring of the ad tech unit as it shed an unprofitable business in favor of a successful one. In practice, Yahoo withdraws from direct competition with Google and Meta in the advertising market.
Dell layoffs
Pandemic recovery and a bleak economy have hit PC manufacturers particularly hard, and Dell is feeling the pain more than most. It laid off five percent of its workforce in early February, or about 6,650 workers, after a rough fourth quarter in which PC shipments fell about 37 percent. Past savings efforts weren’t enough, Dale said — layoffs and streamlined regulation were reportedly required to get back on track.
Termination by Deliveroo
Food delivery services have thrived while COVID-19 has kept people out of restaurants, and at least some are feeling the tingle now that people are ready to dine out again. Deliveroo is laying off about 350 employees, or nine percent of its workforce. Founder Will Shaw says the “reinvestments” will bring the number closer to 300. The reasoning is familiar: Shaw says Deliveroo was quickly positioned to deal with “unprecedented” pandemic-related growth, but is reportedly having to cut costs as it struggles with a tough economy.
Layoffs DocuSign
DocuSign may be familiar to many online document signers, but it hasn’t been spared the effects of the harsh economic climate. The company announced in mid-February that it would lay off 10 percent of its workforce. Although he did not reveal how many people were represented, the company had 7,461 employees at the beginning of 2022. Most of those who lost their jobs work in DocuSign’s global field organization.
Terminations in GitLab
You may not be familiar with GitLab, but its DevOps (development and operations) platform powers tech brands like NVIDIA and T-Mobile — and its customers’ shrinking businesses are affecting the bottom line. GitLab is laying off seven percent of its employees, or about 114 people. The company’s chief executive, Sid Siegbrandig, said the troubled economy meant clients were taking a “more conservative approach” to software investments and that his company’s previous attempts to target spending were insufficient to meet those challenges.
GoDaddy layoffs
GoDaddy implemented layoffs at the start of the pandemic when it laid off 800 employees for its retail-oriented social platform. But in February of this year, I took bigger steps. The online service provider has laid off eight percent of its workforce, i.e. more than 500 people from all industries. President Aman Bhutani insisted other cost cuts were not enough to help the company navigate an “uncertain” economy, and this reflected efforts to consolidate acquisitions such as Main Street Hub.
Twilio layoff
Twilio cut more than 800 jobs in September 2022, but deeper cuts were made as 2023 progressed. The cloud communications brand laid off 17 percent of its employees, or about 1,500 people, in mid-February. Like many other tech companies, Twillio said previous cost cuts weren’t enough to withstand the unforgiving environment. He also justified layoffs as necessary for a rationalized organization.
January
google hairstyles (in alphabetical order)
Google parent Alphabet has been cutting costs for some time, including shutting down Stadia, but took those efforts a step further in late January when it announced it was laying off 12,000 employees. CEO Sundar Pichai wasn’t shy about why: Alphabet was hiring for a “different financial reality” and was restructuring to focus on the Internet giant’s core businesses. The decision strongly affected the company’s District 120 incubator, as most of the unit’s employees lost their jobs. Sub-brands such as Intrinsic (Robots) and Fairly (Health) laid off much of their workforce in the days leading up to the layoffs. Waymo went through two rounds of layoffs that resulted in 209 layoffs, or 8 percent of its workforce.
Amazon hairstyles
Amazon had already outlined its layoff plans last fall, but expanded the cuts in early January when it announced it would cut 18,000 jobs, most of them from its retail and human resources teams. It added 9,000 layoffs in March, and in April it announced that more than 100 gaming workers would be leaving. To no one’s surprise, CEO Andy Jassy blamed the “uncertain economy” and rapid hiring in recent years. Amazon has benefited greatly from the pandemic as people switch to online shopping, but its growth is slowing down as people return to their own stores.
Coinbase Terminations
Coinbase was one of the biggest companies affected by the cryptocurrency market downturn in 2022, and it has continued into the new year. The cryptocurrency exchange laid off 950 people in mid-January, just months after eliminating 1,100 roles. It’s one of the biggest relative cuts among major tech brands — Coinbase has laid off about a fifth of its staff. President Brian Armstrong said his team had to lay off employees to cut operating costs and survive what he previously called “crypto winter,” but that it also meant scrapping some projects that didn’t pan out.
IBM hairstyles
Layoffs are sometimes more driven by changes in company strategy than financial difficulties, and IBM provided a classic example of this in 2023. The computing pioneer cut 3,900 jobs at the end of January after cutting both its AI-powered Watson Health business and its (now) Infrastructure Management division. Kyndryl) in autumn. These employees simply had nothing to do because IBM was moving to cloud computing.
Microsoft hairstyles for employees
Microsoft began the second biggest wave of layoffs in the company’s history when it announced it would cut 10,000 jobs between mid-January and the end of March. Like many other tech heavyweights, it has been cutting costs as customers cut spending (especially on Windows and hardware) as they recover from the pandemic. The cuts have been particularly painful for some of the divisions — reportedly decimating the HoloLens and mixed reality teams, while 343 Industries is believed to be restarting Halo development after shedding dozens of employees. GitHub is cutting 10 percent of its team, or about 300 people.
PayPal hairstyles
PayPal is one of the healthiest big tech companies, beating expectations in the third quarter of last year. However, it was not immune from the harsh economy. At the end of January, the online payment company announced plans to lay off 2,000 employees, which is seven percent of the total workforce. CEO Dan Schulman argued that the downsizing would keep costs down and help PayPal focus on “core strategic priorities.”
Salesforce layoff
Salesforce set the tone for 2023 when it warned it would lay off 8,000 employees, or about 10 percent of its workforce, just four days into the new year. While the cloud software brand thrived during the pandemic as revenues rose rapidly, it admitted that it hired aggressively during the boom and was unable to maintain headcount as the economy tanked.
Redundancies in SAP
Business software powerhouse SAP saw its earnings plummet 68 percent at the end of 2022 and started 2023 by cutting 2,800 jobs to keep its business in top shape. However, unlike some big names in tech, SAP didn’t blame the cuts on extra staff during the pandemic. Instead, it described the initiative as a “targeted restructuring” at the company, which still expects exponential growth in 2023.
Spotify hairstyles
Spotify has been in full swing for the past few years expanding its podcast empire, but it quickly halted the practice as 2023 began. The music streaming service announced in late January that it would lay off 6 percent of its workforce (9,800 people who worked at Spotify as of the third quarter), along with restructuring efforts that included the departure of chief content officer Dawn Ostroff. While there were more Premium subscribers than ever before in 2022, the company also suffered huge losses – CEO Daniel Ek said he was “very ambitious” to invest before it had revenue to back it up.
Wayfair hairstyles
And Amazon isn’t the only major retailer to collapse in 2023. Wayfair said in late January that it would lay off 1,750 team members, or 10 percent of its global workforce. About 1,200 of them were company employees who were cut to “remove layers of management” and otherwise help the company become more lean. Wayfair had been cutting costs since August 2022 (including 870 jobs), but it saw the layoffs help it break even sooner than expected.
