Tech layoffs in 2023: A timeline

Although technology companies announced massive layoffs final yr, 2023 has been  a lot worse. Layoffs have far outpaced final yr’s cuts, as tech giants together with Amazon, Cisco, Fb father or mother firm Meta, Microsoft, Google, IBM, SAP, and Salesforce — in addition to many smaller corporations — announce sweeping job cuts.

The issue: Large Tech went on a hiring binge in the course of the pandemic when lockdowns sparked a tech shopping for spree to help distant work and an uptick in e-commerce, and now they face income declines.

Persevering with supply chain issues, inflation, and the conflict in Ukraine are additionally having an affect on each enterprise and client spending, resulting in fears of recession.

In accordance with knowledge compiled by Layoffs.fyi, the net tracker holding tabs on job losses within the expertise sector, 1,059 tech corporations have laid off about 240,193 employees up to now this yr, in comparison with 164,411 layoffs final yr.

Here’s a record — to be up to date frequently — of a number of the most distinguished expertise layoffs the trade has skilled just lately.

October 2023

Qualcomm is about to chop 1,258 staff by December this yr, based on filings made to the state’s Employment Growth Division. Layoffs on the chipmaking big will have an effect on its San Diego and Santa Clara places of work and embody roles akin to engineers, analysts, software program builders, and staff in finance, authorized, and human sources. These job reductions are a response to the corporate’s current monetary struggles, with income down 23% year-on-year and web revenue down 52% for the quarter ending June.

Fb’s father or mother, Meta, laid off staff from its metaverse customized silicon unit, affecting Fb’s Agile Silicon Crew or FAST, based on a Reuters report. FAST is house to just about 600 Fb staff, based on the report. The job cuts at FAST come simply days after the corporate launched its Quest 3 mixed reality headsets, that are anticipated to supply a metaverse play.

September 2023

Airtable, a low-code software program firm, underwent its second spherical of layoffs inside 9 months, slicing round 237 staff, equal to 27% of its workforce. CEO Howie Liu defined that these measures purpose to focus on giant enterprise purchasers and regain management over spending. This transfer follows an analogous downsizing effort in December 2022, which affected 254 staff. Airtable anticipates reaching cash-flow positivity after these layoffs. The choice displays a post-pandemic shift from hypergrowth to a extra sustainable enterprise mannequin.

Alphabet, the father or mother firm of Google, initiated one other spherical of layoffs, this time affecting tons of of staff inside its recruiting group. The transfer is a part of Alphabet’s ongoing efforts to streamline its operations and improve effectivity amid financial uncertainties. The tech big is grappling with fierce competitors from trade rivals like Microsoft, AWS, IBM, and Oracle, significantly within the discipline of generative AI and synthetic intelligence. In a strategic shift, Alphabet is focusing its workforce towards engineering and technical roles, reflecting a broader development within the tech trade.

August 2023

Cybersecurity firm SecureWorks introduced it’s shedding 15% of its workforce, round 300 staff. This constitutes the second spherical of layoffs enacted by firm this yr, with the corporate saying a 9% discount within the dimension of its workforce in February. In a regulatory submitting, SecureWorks stated that it could incur about $14.2 million in bills as a result of layoffs, largely associated to worker termination advantages and real-estate prices. “We’re saying actions to simplify and scale our enterprise and to ship worthwhile progress,” wrote CEO Wendy Thomas in an electronic mail to staff on August 14, including that the corporate can be “persevering with to spend money on the expansion of our enterprise, aligned to our strategic priorities.”

US cybersecurity agency Rapid7 introduced plans to put off 18% of its workforce, roughly 400 international staff. “As we speed up our supply of the main safety operations resolution and repair platform expertise to clients, now we have decided it’s essential to restructure our operations, together with the troublesome determination to scale back our group within the close to time period,” CEO Corey Thomas stated in a letter to employees. In a regulatory filing with the SEC, Boston-based Rapid7 estimated that the restructuring plan will incur prices of between $24 million-$32 million in fees and will likely be “considerably full” by the tip of the fourth quarter of 2023. The corporate added that it additionally plans to completely shut a lot of undisclosed workplace places on account of the restructuring, which is able to value a further $4 million. The announcement was made in tandem with Rapid7’s 2023 second quarter monetary outcomes, the place the corporate reported a lack of $66.8 million in the course of the three-months ending June 30.

Networking big Cisco Programs introduced one other spherical of layoffs. Regardless of staff viewing the transfer as recent cuts, the corporate clarified that these layoffs have been a part of the restructuring plan introduced in November 2022, which included eliminating round 5% of its 83,000 workforce. The discount goals to rebalance the group and prioritize investments in key areas, Cisco stated. Cisco reiterated that the layoffs aren’t solely pushed by value financial savings, however by the necessity to adapt to the altering expertise panorama. The corporate plans to help affected staff with beneficiant severance packages and help to find new roles. Nevertheless, disgruntled staff expressed dismay, highlighting the affect of dropping jobs no matter whether or not they have been beforehand introduced.

Evernote, the maker of the note-taking app of the identical title, is shedding most of its employees within the US and Chile and shifting to Italy, the house of its company father or mother, Bending Spoons. “Going ahead, a devoted (and rising) group based mostly in Europe will proceed to imagine possession of the Evernote product,” firm CEO Francesco Patarnello stated in a message to staff. He didn’t specify the variety of employees to be laid off, however stated that affected staff usually will obtain 16 weeks of wage, as much as one yr of medical health insurance protection, and a efficiency bonus. Bending Spoons, which acquired Evernote in November final yr, had enacted a spherical of layoffs in February that affected greater than 100 staff.

June 2023

Oracle laid off tons of of staff and rescinded job affords for its Cerner healthcare unit, acquired earlier this yr for $28 billion, based on a report by Insider. The layoffs have been reportedly as a result of issues with Cerner’s venture for the US Division of Veterans Affairs Workplace. The VA has raised issues about technical glitches and affected person issues of safety with its new digital well being report system, and the layoffs solid a shadow over Oracle’s optimistic outlook for Cerner. Firm executives anticipate Cerner to be a vital consider future progress, contemplating the healthcare trade’s ongoing digital transformation because the sector adopts digital healthcare data. Simply days earlier than the Cerner layoffs got here to mild, Oracle introduced that quarterly cloud income skilled a big surge, rising 54% year-over-year and contributing to report gross sales for the fiscal yr.

CRM software program supplier Zendesk applied a brand new spherical of layoffs, decreasing its workforce by an extra 8% as a result of ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty and elevated competitors from rivals. The transfer got here simply six months after the corporate laid off 300 staff for related causes. CEO Tom Eggemeier introduced the choice in an electronic mail to all staff, which was later posted as a weblog. Eggemeier highlighted the necessity to align the corporate’s worker construction with buyer objectives, as enterprise clients think about adopting newer applied sciences like generative AI. Eggemeier stated he believes Zendesk has a possibility to guide within the new period of clever buyer expertise (CX), with options akin to Zendesk AI and Conversational Commerce.

Could 2023

Stack Overflow, the question-and-answer portal for builders, introduced that it’ll lay off 10% of its workforce, affecting not less than 58 staff. The job cuts come as the corporate shifts its focus to profitability amid macroeconomic issues, based on a weblog put up by CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar. Affected staff embody UX designers, HR professionals, product designers, and senior software program builders. To enhance profitability, Stack Overflow plans to launch AI and ML-based choices within the coming months. This transfer is probably going in response to demand from enterprises for generative AI and pure language processing capabilities, as distributors like AWS, IBM, and Google have launched new product choices on this area.

Employment-focused social media platform LinkedIn on Tuesday stated it could let go of 716 staffers because it shuts down a job search app in China and prepares for tapering income progress.  In accordance with a letter to staff from CEO Ryan Roslansky, the layoffs have been designed to reorganize the corporate and develop into extra agile. He famous that the corporate had skilled shifts in buyer habits and slower income progress in current months. Along with the layoffs, the corporate will spin up 250 new roles in particular segments of its operations, new enterprise, and account administration groups beginning Could 15. The corporate will even section out the native job app InCareer by August 9, 2023, as a part of its enterprise technique modifications in China.

Expertise companies and consulting firm Cognizant is about to chop round 1% of its international workforce, or roughly 3,500 staff, in a bid to scale back prices. Regardless of posting a 3% improve in web revenue year-on-year for its most up-to-date quarter, Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar stated the corporate was monitoring an unsure macroeconomic atmosphere and potential shifts in shopper priorities. The job cuts are a part of the corporate’s NextGen program, which goals to simplify its working mannequin and realign workplace area. Cognizant has not confirmed the place the affected employees are based mostly, but it surely did say the cuts would largely have an effect on non-billable roles. In an announcement, Cognizant stated the modifications replicate the post-pandemic hybrid work atmosphere, and its drive for simplification contains working with fewer layers to boost agility and allow quicker decision-making.

April 2023

Going through a slowdown in income progress, cloud storage firm Dropbox introduced that it’s shedding 500 staff, or 16% of its workforce, primarily so as to have the ability to rent employees with AI experience. Though income for the fourth quarter final yr — the final quarter for which Dropbox reported earnings — was up by 5.8% yr over yr to $598.8 million, the corporate has skilled a slowdown in gross sales just lately. In the meantime, to be able to keep competive, the corporate must ramp up its AI capabilities, CEO Drew Houston stated in be aware to staff.

Enterprise Linux big Crimson Hat introduced it should lay off virtually 4% of its international employees, or about 800 employees, noting that the cuts will have an effect on common administrative employees, not technical employees or gross sales folks. The corporate has helped increase gross sales for company father or mother IBM, which reported that in the first quarter of the year, Red Hat revenue jumped 8% year over year. Regardless of the gross sales progress Crimson Hat CEO Matt Hicks stated {that a} employees restructuring was essential to ramp up efforts to bolster the corporate’s open hybrid cloud technique, significantly for the industries together with  telecommunications and automotive.

Fb’s father or mother firm, Meta, initiated one other spherical of  layoffs. These have been previosuly introduced — the distinction this time is that most of the cuts reportedly have an effect on technical staff. The newest wave of job cuts will see roughly 4,000 staff laid off from the corporate, together with these in consumer expertise, software program engineering, graphics programming, and gameplay programming. The timeline for the cuts might differ, relying on the places staff, Meta stated. Instagram, a Meta subsidiary, can also be downsizing or relocating UK-based employees, with the app’s head, Adam Mosseri, shifting again to the US.

March 2023

Kyndryl, the managed IT companies supplier that spun out of IBM, introduced layoffs affecting its inner IT companies to streamline operations and develop into extra aggressive. The precise variety of affected staff was not disclosed, however nameless feedback on job-loss monitoring web site The Layoff.com recommended that employees in IT asset administration roles and Kyndryl’s personal CIO group have been amongst these let go. Kyndryl, which employs 90,000 globally, has been going through declining income and gradual progress since its separation from IBM.

IT companies and consultancy agency Accenture introduced it could lay off 19,000 staff, or 2.5% of its workforce, over the following 18 months to scale back prices amid unsure financial circumstances. Tech employees have been anticipated to be largely spared although, as the corporate stated the cuts would primarily have an effect on non-billable company capabilities. The choice got here as demand for companies stabilized following post-pandemic progress, and Accenture additionally lowered its fiscal yr 2023 income progress forecast. Regardless of the decreased forecast, Accenture’s diversified enterprise and trade combine is anticipated to supply stability for the tech companies big.

Amazon stated it plans to put off about 9,000 extra employees from a number of enterprise models, together with AWS, PXT (Folks Expertise and Expertise, the corporate’s HR arm), Promoting, and Twitch. The announcement got here two months after Amazon unveiled plans to lay off 18,000 employees. AWS is an enormous income generator for Amazon however has not been immune to current macroeconomic conditions. Income progress slowed sharply within the fourth quarter of 2022, to twenty% in year-on-year phrases. That’s properly beneath the 27.5% and 33% figures seen within the earlier two quarters. 

4 months after social media big Meta confirmed that it could reduce 13% of its international workforce — amounting to 11,000 jobs — the corporate introduced an extra 10,000 layoffs. Moreover, Meta stated that it could go away 5,000 at present empty roles unfilled. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg cited troublesome macroeconomic circumstances and a deal with “flattening” the corporate’s organizational construction as key elements within the determination to chop extra employees.

Collaboration software program firm Atlassian stated that it plans to fireside 500 staff, or round 5% of its general workforce. The Australia-based firm stated that the job losses have been organizational, and never pushed by a necessity to chop prices — regardless of posting a web loss in its February financials, Atlassian noticed its income develop 27%, to $873 million within the final quarter.

February 2023

This spherical of Twitter layoffs noticed the embattled social media platform lose 10% of its remaining employees, as about 200 have been fired. The layoffs included startup founders whose corporations had been absorbed by Twitter, together with Esther Crawford, most just lately the pinnacle of Twitter Blue. Twitter has fewer than 2,000 employees left on employees, down from about 7,500 simply earlier than Elon Musk purchased the corporate in late October 2022.

Twilio introduced that it could slash its workforce by roughly 1,400, months after shedding a further 816 in the course of the fourth quarter of 2022. The cloud communications firm stated additionally that it could reorganize internally, creating two new enterprise models, Twilio Communications and Twilio Knowledge & Purposes, in an official weblog put up. Earlier than these two current rounds of layoffs, the corporate employed practically 9,000 employees.

Microsoft confirmed that it’s slicing staff engaged on its HoloLens, Floor laptop computer and Xbox merchandise, as experiences surfaced that the tech big will likely be shedding 100 staff working for its industrial metaverse group and shutting that unit. The transfer to chop employees engaged on HoloLens and in its industrial metaverse group got here as a shock for the reason that the corporate had made current strikes to increase efforts to maneuver its augmented reality,  digital actuality and metaverse initiatves from the buyer to the enterprise facet. In an announcement, although, Microsoft stated it was dedicated to the economic metaverse. The corporate didn’t specify what number of jobs it could reduce in these areas, although a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) from Washington state Friday famous that Microsoft had reported that 617 staff can be laid off in Redmond, Bellevue and Issaquah.

Yahoo stated it should lay off about 20% of its employees, or apporximately 1,600 employees, by the tip of yr, based on media experiences confirmed by the corporate. The transfer is geared toward restructuring the corporate’s promoting expertise enterprise unit and reallocating its funds extra effectively. The layoffs mark the tip of Yahoo’s makes an attempt to be a direct competitor to Google and Meta within the digital promoting market.

Microsoft-owned software program growth and model management service supplier GitHubowned by Microsoft stated it could be slicing 10% of its workforce, or about 300 staff, and shifting  the remaining employees to distant work to be able to safeguard the corporate’s quick monetary stability.

The layoffs got here a couple of month after the corporate enacted a hiring freeze.

Cloud-based videoconferencing service supplier Zoom stated that it was shedding 15% of its workforce, fearing unsure macroeconomic circumstances. The transfer got here after the corporate went on a hiring spree in the course of the pandemic.

As well as, Zoom stated it is usually making modifications in group construction and a number of other members of its management group will take pay cuts.

 On account of declining PC gross sales and infrastructure necessities, Dell Applied sciences stated it could lay off 6,650 employees, or about 5% of its whole workforce. Along with the downsizing, Co-Chief Working Officer Jeff Clarke stated the corporate would introduce modifications that embody altering the construction of its gross sales group and integrating the companies division of its client and infrastructure companies.

In an organization submitting with the US Securities and Trade Fee (SEC), Splunk stated it could be shedding 4% of its workforce as a part of broader measures to optimize prices and processes forward of unsure macroeconomic circumstances. The choice to downsize will have an effect on 325 staff on the firm, largely within the North America area.

In a message shared with PayPal staff and posted on the company’s online newsroom, PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman stated the corporate was set to chop 2,000 jobs, about 7% of its workforce.

Though the corporate beat analyst expectations in November when it reported its third quarter monetary outcomes, PayPal downgraded its forecast for the fourth quarter, citing a difficult macro atmosphere and slowing e-commerce tendencies.

January 2023

Regardless of income rising 11% in 2022, throughout an announcement about its fourth quarter monetary outcomes, SAP stated that as a result of web revenue dropping by 68%, the corporate can be enterprise some restructuring, leading to layoffs.

Whereas corporations akin to Google or Salesforce introduced across-the-board layoffs based mostly on efficiency assessment standards to reverse over-hiring in the course of the pandemic interval, CEO Christian Klein stated that the job cuts are a part of “a focused restructuring” and never performance-based.

“We positively didn’t over-hire,” Klein stated, noting that income grew quicker than SAP worker progress in 2022.

After spinning off most of its infrastructure administration division as a brand new enterprise, Kyndryl, in November 2021, and promoting some property of its Watson Well being enterprise in January 2022, on the identical day as IBM’s This fall 2022 outcomes have been introduced, the corporate stated it was eliminating 3,900 job roles, or 1.5% of its international workforce.

On a convention name with analysts to debate the outcomes, CFO Jim Kavanaugh did not instantly point out the job cuts, as an alternative alluding vaguely to the scenario by acknowledging the enterprise would have some “stranded prices” to deal with in early 2023, leading to a “modest” cost of about $300 million

Later that day, in an interview with Bloomberg, Kavanaugh defined that these stranded prices associated to employees left with nothing to do following the asset disposals and consequently, they’d be laid off from the corporate.

In an announcement, a spokesperson for IBM stated it was necessary to notice the cost is fully associated to the Kyndryl spinoff and healthcare divestiture.

Google’s father or mother firm Alphabet introduced it was slicing 12,000 jobs, round 6% of its international workforce. An inner memo from Sundar Pichai stated that he takes “full duty for the choices that led us right here.”

The corporate will likely be paying affected staff not less than 16 weeks of severance and 6 months of well being advantages within the US, with different areas receiving packages based mostly on native legal guidelines and practices.

The information comes 4 months after Alphabet posted lower-than-expected numbers for its third monetary quarter, the place it fell behind each income and revenue expectations. Nevertheless, whereas general income progress slowed to six% within the quarter for Alphabet, Google Cloud grew 38% year-on-year to $6.9 billion.

On Jan. 18, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed in a weblog put up that the corporate can be slicing virtually 5% of its workforce, impacting 10,000 staff. 

The chief government chalked up the downsizing maneuver to aligning its value construction with its income construction whereas investing in areas that the corporate predicts will present long-term progress.

The Seattle-based tech big reported its slowest progress in 5 years for the primary quarter of its fiscal 2023, due largely to a robust US greenback and an ongoing decline in private pc gross sales, inflicting web revenue to fall by 14% to $17.56 billion from this time final yr. Rising cloud revenue helped to soften Microsoft’s growth slowdown.

Google-backed, India-based social media startup ShareChat stated it’s shedding 20% of its workforce to organize for oncoming financial headwinds.

“The choice to scale back worker prices was taken after a lot deliberation and in mild of the rising market consensus that funding sentiments will stay very cautious all through this yr,” a spokesperson stated.

The transfer is anticipated to affect over 400 staff out of the corporate’s roughly 2,200 staffers. The corporate didn’t disclose the roles and the precise variety of employees affected by the choice.

Alphabet, Google’s company father or mother, additionally introduced there can be layoffs at its Mountain View, California-based robotics subsidiary Intrinsic AI, eliminating round 20% of its workforce or roughly 40 staff.

“This (downsizing) determination was made in mild of shifts in prioritization and our longer-term strategic path. It’ll guarantee Intrinsic can proceed to allocate sources to our highest precedence initiatives, akin to constructing our software program and AI platform, integrating the current strategic acquisitions of Vicarious and OSRC (business arm Open Robotics), and dealing with key trade companions,” based on an organization assertion.

Verily — a life sciences agency additionally owned by Alphabet and headquartered in San Francisco — is downsizing its workforce by 15% to simplify its working mannequin. The transfer comes simply months after the corporate raised $1 billion.

In accordance with an electronic mail despatched by CEO Stephen Gillett to all its staff, the downsizing is a part of the corporate’s One Verily program, which goals to scale back redundancy and simplify operational elements inside the firm.

As a part of the brand new One Verily program, the corporate stated it should transfer from a number of traces of enterprise to at least one centralized product group with more and more linked healthcare techniques.

Enterprise knowledge administration agency Informatica introduced plans to put off 7% of its whole workforce by way of the primary quarter of 2023, the corporate stated in a submitting with the US Securities and Trade Fee.

The transfer by Informatica, headquartered in Redwood Metropolis, California, will incur nonrecurring fees of roughly $25 million to $35 million within the type of money expenditures for worker transition, discover interval, severance funds and worker advantages, the corporate submitting confirmed.

The corporate stated it expects the layoffs to be accomplished by the primary quarter of 2023 however added that there is likely to be restricted exceptions.

Initially of 2023, San-Francisco based mostly Salesforce introduced it should lay off about 10% of its workforce, roughly 8,000 staff, and shut some places of work as a part of a restructuring plan.

In a submitting with the US Securities and Trade Fee (SEC), the corporate disclosed that its restructuring plan requires fees between $1.4 billion and $2.1 billion, with as much as $1 billion of these prices being shouldered by the corporate within the fourth quarter of 2023.

In a letter despatched by Salesforce’s co-CEO Marc Benioff and hooked up to the SEC submitting, he advised staff that as Salesforce’s income accelerated by way of the pandemic, the corporate over-hired and may not maintain its present workforce dimension as a result of ongoing financial downturn. “I take duty for that,” Benioff stated.

Seattle-based tech behemoth Amazon stated it could be shedding greater than 18,000 employees, with the majority of job cuts coming later this month. The information confirmed a December Computerworld article reporting that Amazon layoffs were expected to mount to about 20,000 people at all levels Whereas a number of groups are impacted, the vast majority of the job cuts will likely be within the Amazon Shops and Folks, Expertise, and Expertise (PXT) organizations.

In accordance with a be aware from CEO Andy Jassy, the layoffs are a results of “the unsure financial system.” He additionally stated that Amazon had “employed quickly over the past a number of years,” however added that the layoffs will assist the corporate pursue extra long-term alternatives with a stronger value construction.