Despite a surge in the number of jobs available in the US, companies have begun to slow down hiring as fears of an incoming recession abound.
Silicon Valley in particular, has become more closed off than ever before with many companies announcing cuts to spending as well as putting a freeze on hiring. While tech companies saw growth in the pandemic years, consumer spending has begin to shift away, prompting many companies to slow down. In fact, some organisations have gone so far as to begin laying off workers as the world claws its way back from the pandemic years.
Here is a list of some of the biggest layoffs in tech so far:
Tesla
Earlier this year, Elon Musk had announced that his electric car company would be cutting back 10% of its workforces over the next three months. While the cuts were supposed to be directed at salaried workers and more hourly workers were supposed to be hired, the company fired 200 out of 350 of its Autopilot feature workers and shut down its San Mateo plant in California.
Coinbase
Cryptocurrency has tanked hard in the past few months, leaving many crypto companies in the lurch and unsure of where they’re headed. In June, Coinbase fired 18% of its total workforce, the equivalent of 1,100 people of its employees in fear of a recession and the barren wasteland that crypto turned into.
Twitter itself has been suffering lowered revenue which it claims is because of the ‘uncertainty’ that had risen from the $44 billion deal with Musk. The microblogging site is now locked in legal battle with him and while the October date for the court trial is coming up, the company laid off 30% of its talent acquisition team in July 2022, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Shopify
Ecommerce platform Shopify hasn’t fared as well as its larger competitor Amazon. Late in July 2022, the company’s CEO Tobi Lütke wrote in a blog on the website that the company would be cutting 10% of jobs, with most of the cuts happening in recruiting, support, and sales. According to the post, the company had focused on hiring on the assumption that ecommerce would sustain after the pandemic, which turned out to be bet that “didn’t pay off.”
SoundCloud
The music streaming and distribution company is going through a tough time. The company despite changing its partner payout programme and registering profits for the first time ever in 2020, is being forced to cut 20% of the jobs.
TikTok
Despite being the rising star in the social media space and making Mark Zuckerberg sweat as Facebook registered the first ever decline in revenue in a quarter, the Chinese app has not been immune to the turbulence in tech.
The company has been laying off workers in the US and has been prepping its workers in the UK and EU for the same, according to five sources that spoke to tech magazine Wired.
