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Winter is coming: Tech giants announcing layoffs as recession looms around

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In the past few months, there has been an unfortunate number of tech layoffs, as the possibility of an impending recession caused a lot of fear and speculation. From well-known companies to startups, it seems no one is immune.

The technology sector has been particularly hard hit by these layoffs, with major firms like Meta, Twitter, Salesforce, Google, and others all announcing job cuts in recent months. For many tech workers, these layoffs come as a shock, as the industry has long been seen as relatively recession-proof.

However, the current situation is unique, and many companies are not able to maintain their workforce in the face of such immense economic pressure.

 While it’s certainly difficult for those who have lost their jobs, it’s important to remember that these layoffs are happening across all industries – not just tech.

In this article, we have compiled a list of companies that have announced mass layoffs in the recent past.

Meta

Meta (previously Facebook) announced that it has laid around 11,000 employees, accounts for 13% of the workforce, to become more capital efficient. The social network company also announced it is freezing hiring till Q1, 2023, with few exceptions.

“Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,” says Zuckerberg in a letter to employees.

The company said it has shifted much of its resources to a smaller number of high-priority growth areas – AI discovery engine, ads and business platforms, and long-term vision for the metaverse. Further, Meta said it has slashed the cost across the business, including scaling back budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking its real estate footprint. 

“Fundamentally, we’re making all these changes for two reasons: our revenue outlook is lower than we expected at the beginning of this year, and we want to make sure we’re operating efficiently across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs,” adds Zuckerberg in the letter.

Twitter

Soon after closing the $44B acquisition deal, Elon Musk, Twitter’s new boss, slashed 3,700 jobs and fired top executives, including then-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. In fact, many employees found they lost their job after their access to company-wide systems, like email and Slack, were revoked. 

“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately, there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day,” tweeted Musk. 

However, the micro-blogging site has asked dozen of employees who lost their jobs to return.

“Some of those who are being asked to return was laid off by mistake. Others were let go before management realized that their work and experience may be necessary to build new features Musk envisions,” said people familiar with the moves,” said a people familiar with the move. 

Salesforce

Cloud-based software company Salesforce is the latest technology company to lay off people from the sales team to improve the profit margin. However, according to unverified reports on the Internet, the US company might fire about 2,000 people or more. 

“Our sales performance process drives accountability. Unfortunately, that can lead to some leaving the business, and we support them through their transition,” a Salesforce spokesperson said Tuesday in a statement. 

Microsoft

Last month, the Redmond giant Microsoft announced that it has let go of additional workers, which accounts for less than 1%, as the company revenue is expected to slow down. 

“Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis and make structural adjustments accordingly,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC. “We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the year ahead.

Netflix

Netflix laid off around 300 employees in the second back in June, representing about 3% of total employees. However, in May, the streaming service announced the first round of layoffs firing 150 positions due to slow subscriber growth. 

“Today we sadly let go of around 300 employees,” Netflix said in a statement Thursday. “While we continue to invest significantly in the business, we made these adjustments so that our costs are growing in line with our slower revenue growth. We are grateful for everything they have done for Netflix and are working hard to support them through this difficult transition.”

The company also warned its investors that it would be pulling on some spending growth over the next couple of years. 

Other companies

Additionally, several other technology companies like Shopify, Stripe, Coinbase, Lyft, and others have laid off around 900 jobs on average as a cost-cutting process. Tech giants like Amazon and Google announced that they had frozen their hiring process for quite some months. 

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