The consulting firm Accenture in late March said it planned to cut 2.5 percent of its workforce, roughly 19,000 jobs, after lowering its annual revenue and profit projections. The company had expected revenue growth of between 8 and 11 percent, but it revised that forecast down to between 8 and 10 percent. The company wrote in a securities filing that it expects more than half of the layoffs to occur among employees in “nonbillable corporate functions.”
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is cutting about 12,000 jobs, CEO Sundar Pichai said in January. He said that the job cuts — estimated to be 6 percent of the workforce — will occur across the company and that the decision came after a “rigorous review.” Alphabet nodded to the tremendous growth the company experienced over the past two years, but demand has waned with the return to in-person life and with interest rate increases, which have made borrowing more expensive. Pichai said that the company had hired to meet the prior surge but that the economic reality the company faces now is far different.
The Seattle-based e-commerce giant announced in November 2022 plans to slash roughly 10,000 corporate jobs — many from its human resources, devices and retail divisions — and raised that total to 18,000 in January. In March, Amazon said it planned to lay off an additional 9,000 workers, citing an “uncertain economy.” (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, and the newspaper’s interim CEO, Patty Stonesifer, sits on Amazon’s board.)
Bloomberg reported in April that Apple planned to lay off a small number employees from its retail teams, which are responsible for the construction and upkeep of the company’s global retail stores, citing sources familiar with the plans. At the time, Apple had been the only tech giant to not announce major cuts to its workforce. Still, it is pulling back in some areas, including by trimming contractors such as engineers, recruiters and security guards, according to Bloomberg.
In January, the cryptocurrency exchange announced that it was eliminating 950 jobs in an effort to reduce operating expenses. In a blog post, chief executive Brian Armstrong wrote that the cuts come as the industry “trended downward along with the broader macroeconomy” in 2022.
In February, the PC maker is shedding about 5 percent of its workforce, or around 6,650 positions,. Plunging demand for personal computers has forced the company to enact a broader cost-cutting program that also includes a hiring freeze and a pullback on travel. “What we know is market conditions continue to erode with an uncertain future,” Dell Vice Chairman Jeff Clarke told employees, according to a Feb. 6 SEC filing.
In February, the e-signature company announced plans to lay off about 10 percent of its workforce as part of a broader restructuring. An earlier round of layoffs affected about 9 percent of the company, according to CNBC, which reported on Feb. 16 that the latest cuts will bring DocuSign’s head count to around 700.
Swollen by pandemic hiring, the food delivery company in November 2022 shed 1,250 corporate jobs, about 6 percent of its workforce. Chief executive Tony Xu said in a note to employees that company leaders were “not as rigorous as we should have been in managing our team growth,” as the company’s revenue growth was eclipsed by operating expenses.
The cloud storage and software firm said April 27 that it would lay off 500 employees, about 16 percent of the company. Chief executive Drew Houston wrote in a staff memo that Dropbox’s growth had slowed as a result of the larger economic downturn even though the company remains profitable. He also wrote that the company will be increasing its investment in artificial intelligence and needs to reorganize its staffing to prioritize those skills.
In February, CNN reported that the telecommunications giant plans to cut a total of 8,500 positions, or 8 percent of its workforce, by the end of 2023. The company experienced lower-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings as equipment sales slowed in the United States, according to Reuters.
The online market platform announced Dec. 13, that it was cutting 225 employees, or 11 percent of its staff. Josh Silverman, Etsy’s chief executive, blamed a “very challenging macro and competitive environment,” as well as lagging sales and growing employee expenses. “This is ultimately not a sustainable trajectory and we must change it,” he said in a blog post.
In June, the food delivery platform said it would lay off approximately 400 employees, or about 15 percent of its workforce, according to a message sent to company workers. The company’s operating costs have risen faster than revenue, CEO Howard Migdal wrote in his message.
The computer giant said in November 2022 that it would trim 4,000 to 6,000 workers by the end of 2025 in an effort to reduce costs. The announcement came after HP reported an 11.2 percent drop in fourth-quarter revenue compared with the same period in 2021; full-year sales dipped 0.8 percent.
The technology company announced plans in January to cut around 3,900 positions, or about 1.5 percent of its global workforce. IBM said the cuts were related to earlier divestitures of its Kyndryl and Watson Health businesses, although those moves took place long before the job cuts were announced in late January.
The job-searching company announced in March that it would lay off 2,200 people, or 15 percent of its staff. In a March 22 memo to staff, chief executive Chris Hyams cited a decline in U.S. job openings, which he predicted would fall even further in the next few years. “With future job openings at or below pre-pandemic levels, our organization is simply too big for what lies ahead,” added Hyams, who said he’d take a 25 percent cut in base pay.
The cryptocurrency exchange said in a November 2022 blog post that it would slash 30 percent of its payroll, or 1,100 workers, to “adapt to current market conditions.” The industry experienced a dramatic downturn in 2022, erasing billions of dollars of investments.
The Microsoft-owned networking platform said Oct. 16 that it would lay off 668 employees as part of an ongoing reorganization, according to a company announcement. In May, the company laid off 716 employees as part of a phaseout of the company’s China-based local jobs app, InCareer, according to a public letter from chief executive Ryan Roslansky.
The ride-share giant announced April 27 that it would lay off more than a quarter of its workforce, or 1,072 employees, according to a regulatory filing. It will also eliminate 250 vacant positions. The separations will cost Lyft as much as $47 million in severance payments, the company said.
In November 2022, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram announced plans to cut 11,000 jobs, or 13 percent of its workforce, in an effort to rein in expenses and focus on transforming its advertising business. The cuts underscored a tumultuous new period in Silicon Valley, whose tech giants have been long regarded as recession-proof. Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder, has said declines in online shopping and advertising competition led to a decline in revenue. His company has also bet big on a push to create a virtual world often called the metaverse. In March, Zuckerberg announced that an additional 10,000 workers would be cut.
In January, Microsoft said it planned to lay off 10,000 employees, the company said it was part of a restructuring plan to focus on areas of growth and brace the company for an economic downturn.
In January, online payment company PayPal said it will lay off 2,000 employees, or about 7 percent of its global workforce. In a memo to staff published to the company’s website, chief executive Dan Schulman said PayPal had made significant progress in addressing “the challenging macroeconomic environment” but added that the company has “more work to do,” as it restructures and focuses on core priorities.
In March, the streaming media device company said it planned to cut about 6 percent of its workforce, or about 200 employees, according to a March 29 filing. The company said the layoffs are part of a restructuring plan designed to reduce operating expenses and prioritize projects that may offer a “higher return on investment.” The company also shed 200 employees in November 2022, citing the “current economic conditions in our industry.”
The cloud-computing giant — whose products include the popular workplace chat system Slack, as well as tools for sales, marketing and customer service — announced in January cost-cutting plans that include shedding 10 percent of its workforce. Salesforce has more than 79,000 employees, meaning the layoffs affected nearly 8,000 people. Co-chief executive Marc Benioff said the company hired too many people when its sales surged during the pandemic. In September, Benioff told Bloomberg the company planned to hire about 3,300
According to a January earnings report, the European software giant announced plans to eliminate 2,800 employees, or 2.5 percent of its workforce, citing a “targeted restructuring” and plans to “strengthen its core business and improve overall process efficiency.”
Shopify said it would cut about 20 percent of its staff in May.
On Dec. 4, the music streaming company announced plans to lay off 17 percent of its staff — its third round of layoffs this year — citing slower economic growth and more expensive capital. Chief executive Daniel Ek said there is a need to ensure the company is “right-sized for the challenges ahead.”
This came after Spotify announced cuts in June and January. First that it would slash 6 percent of its workforce, citing the “need to become more efficient” and over-hiring during the pandemic. “I take full accountability for the moves that got us here today,” Ek wrote in a blog post, which also discussed reorganization plans. And later, an additional 200 jobs would be cut as it makes changes to its podcast strategy.
Online payment company Stripe said in November 2022 that it would cut 14 percent of its workforce. In a memo to staff in November, the company said the 1,100 job cuts will return Stripe’s head count to almost what it was in February 2022.
The wireless service giant announced plans to lay off 5,000 workers, or just under 7 percent of its U.S. workforce, according to letter sent to employees Aug. 24. The cuts come amid a larger cost-saving plan to improve the company’s efficiency as it faces heightened competition, chief executive Mike Sievert said in the message. Earlier this year, T-Mobile agreed to acquire Mint Mobile, the cell carrier backed by actor Ryan Reynolds, for $1.35 billion.
The San Francisco-based communications technology firm announced on Feb. 13 that it would be laying off 17 percent of its workforce. That’s 1,500 jobs based on Twilio’s September 2022 head count of roughly 9,000 people, according to an SEC filing. Executives said the cuts were part of a broader restructuring plan designed to shift the company toward greater profitability.
In May, Unity, which makes a software platform widely used in mobile and virtual reality games, said it planned to lay off 600 people, according to a SEC filing. The layoffs cover about 8 percent of the company’s workforce.
Video-streaming company Vimeo said in early January that it would lay off about 11 percent of its staff, or about 140 people, “due to the uncertain economic environment.”
Soon after Elon Musk acquired the San Francisco-based social media company formerly known as Twitter in October 2022, he fired much of the company’s top brass and laid off roughly half of its 7,500 workers. Hundreds more workers departed the next month, after refusing to sign a pledge to work longer hours, The Washington Post reported. It laid off another 200 people on Feb. 25, according to the New York Times.
The videoconference company said in February that it would lay off 15 percent of its workforce, or 1,300 workers — and its chief executive, Eric Yuan, said he’d take a 98 percent pay cut. Yuan said the company had not assessed whether it was growing sustainably as its product became ubiquitous during pandemic lockdowns and business skyrocketed. Now that much of the world has returned to in-person life, some consumers have “Zoom fatigue” — and the company’s shares have plummeted.