The technology industry is facing challenges due to the ongoing economic slowdown. In 2022, companies such as Amazon, Twitter, Meta, Apple and Google had to lay off employees in order to cut costs and restructure their teams as a result of the pandemic’s impact on the market, stagnant revenue growth and uncertainty of recession. Unfortunately, the new year 2023 has not brought much improvement. Fears of recession remain, the market is still unstable and layoffs continue.
Amazon has already announced layoffs of thousands of employees globally, Twitter is still reducing teams in stages, and Indian companies like Ola and Dunzo are cutting hundreds of jobs to reduce expenses. According to Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks tech startup layoffs, 91 tech companies around the world have laid off around 24,151 employees in January 2023.
Let’s take a look at the biggest tech layoffs of 2022.
Amazon
Amazon has continued its mass layoffs in 2023, following thousands of job cuts in the previous year due to economic uncertainty. In a recent blog post, CEO Andy Jassy confirmed that the company is continuing to lay off employees, cutting around 18,000 roles globally. “We plan to eliminate just over 18,000 roles. Several teams are impacted, however, the majority of the role eliminations are in our Amazon Stores and PXT organizations,” Jassy stated in the blog post. Amazon India was also affected by the layoffs, with impacted employees being informed that they would receive five months of severance pay.
Cisco
Cisco recently fired around 700 employees in its latest round of layoffs. The American digital communications technology giant reportedly cut jobs across various departments including software and hardware engineering, program management, product design, marketing, and more. According to SFGATE, out of the 700 impacted employees, 371 were from the company’s headquarters in San Jose, California.
ShareChat
India-based social media platform ShareChat announced layoffs on Monday, citing “several external macro factors that impact the cost and availability of capital.” The company, which is backed by Google, stated about layoffs and its short video app Moj are expected to lay off around 500 employees in this round of job cuts. “We’ve had to take some of the most difficult and painful decisions in our history as a company and had to fire around 20% of our incredibly talented employees who have been with us in this start-up journey,” ShareChat said in an official statement, according to NDTV.
Dunzo
Dunzo, a Bengaluru-based startup, has announced that it will be reducing its workforce by 3% as a cost-cutting measure. According to a report by CNBC-TV 18, the company’s CEO and Co-Founder, Kabeer Biswas, stated that the company will be providing the best support possible for affected employees during this difficult time. He mentioned that any decision that impacts people is difficult and always the last resort.
Ola
In the latest round of job cuts, Indian ride-hailing company Ola laid off 200 employees from its technology and product team. The company had previously laid off around 1100 employees in 2022, stating that it was part of a restructuring process. The recent layoffs primarily affected employees working in Ola Cabs, Ola Electric, and Ola Financial Services.
Coinbase
Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, recently announced in an official blog post that the company is planning to cut their operating expenses by 25%, which includes laying off around 950 people. Armstrong stated that despite the ongoing economic uncertainty, the company is financially stable and the cryptocurrency industry is not going away. He added that it was a difficult decision to make but all impacted employees will be informed by the end of the day.
Salesforce
American cloud-based technology company Salesforce also announced that it will be laying off around 10% of its total workforce, along with closing some offices as a cost-saving measure due to decreased revenue. According to Reuters, Salesforce will have to incur charges of $1.4 billion to $2.1 billion for the layoffs and will only record $800 million to $1 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter. In an official letter to employees, Co-CEO Marc Benioff stated that “the environment remains challenging and our customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions.”
Vodafone
In 2022, telecommunications service provider Vodafone announced plans to reduce costs by around $1.08 billion by 2026, due to declining revenue and losses. As part of cost-cutting measures, the company is planning to lay off hundreds of employees, primarily from its London headquarters. While the exact number of impacted employees is not clear, according to the Financial Times, these upcoming layoffs will be the company’s “biggest round of job cuts in five years.”
In the latest round of job cuts, Twitter, led by Elon Musk, laid off employees across its trust and safety team, which primarily handles global content moderation and deals with hate speech and harassment. The employees were fired from the respective departments in Twitter’s Dublin and Singapore offices. It’s worth noting that before Musk took over in late October, Twitter had more than 7,000 employees. However, after multiple rounds of layoffs, the company has fired more than half its workforce.