From HP, Amazon, Roku and Beyond Meat to Meta and Twitter, big names across a number of sectors have announced major layoffs during the fall.
In October, Intel Corp. INTC,
See Now: Intel begins layoffs and offers unpaid leave to manufacturing workers
Additional details of the layoffs emerged in early December. The chip maker, which had 121,000-plus employees worldwide at the end of last year, is laying off around 200 employees in California, according to letters sent to the state Employment Development Department. Intel said that 111 employees in Folsom, Calif., and 90 employees in Santa Clara, Calif., which is home to the chipmaker’s headquarters, are affected by the job cuts. The permanent layoffs are scheduled to begin Jan. 31.
Alphabet Inc. GOOGL,
“Earlier this year, we launched Googler Reviews and Development (GRAD) to help employee development, coaching, learning and career progression throughout the year,” a Google spokesperson told MarketWatch in a statement. “The new system helps establish clear expectations and provide employees with regular feedback.”
Read: Google looks to shed 10,000 ‘poor-performing’ workers: report
The spokesperson declined to comment on the potential job cuts.
HP
HP Inc. HPQ,
“Companies are delaying their refresh [sales] cycle,” Lores told MarketWatch in an interview ahead of the public release of the company’s fourth-quarter results.
Now read: HP plans to cut up to 10% of workforce as earnings forecast comes up short
HP is launching a three-year workforce-reduction plan meant to shed 4,000 to 6,000 jobs, according to Lores, with more than half of the roughly $1 billion in restructuring costs expected to be realized in the new fiscal year.
Amazon
Amazon.com Inc. AMZN,
In a post on the company’s corporate site, Dave Limp, senior vice president of Amazon’s devices and services business, said the company would consolidate some teams and programs. “One of the consequences of these decisions is that some roles will no longer be required,” he said. Limp didn’t specify how many roles would be affected.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon could eventually cut about 10,000 jobs.
In a subsequent blog post on the company’s corporate site, Chief Executive Andy Jassy said the online retailer is planning additional layoffs, which affected employees will learn more about next year. “Our annual planning process extends into the new year, which means there will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments,” he wrote. “Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023.”
Now see: Amazon confirms layoffs, becoming latest tech powerhouse to slash roles
The tech giant, which recently announced a pause in corporate hiring, has 1.54 million employees, according to its most recent quarterly earnings report.
Cisco
Cisco Inc. CSCO,
“This is about rebalancing across the board,” said Chief Financial Officer Scott Herren, adding that as many jobs will be added as reduced.
Also read: Cisco’s stock rises on strong quarterly sales and guidance, but a restructuring is coming
“Our goal is to minimize the number of people who end up having to leave,” Herren told MarketWatch. “We will match as many with new roles at the company as we can. This is not about reducing our workforce. In fact, we’ll have roughly the same number of employees at the end of this fiscal year as we had when we started.”
Roku
Roku Inc. ROKU,
“Due to the current economic conditions in our industry, we have made the difficult decision to reduce Roku’s headcount expenses by a projected 5%, to slow down our [operating-expense] growth rate,” the company said in a brief statement, noting that about 200 positions in the U.S. will be affected. “Taking these actions now will allow us to focus our investments on key strategic priorities to drive future growth and enhance our leadership position,” the statement said.
Related: Roku to cut 5% of staff in latest signal of challenging times for ad industry
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Roku said it anticipated charges of about $28 million to $31 million related to the job cuts, mainly stemming from severance payments, notice pay, employee benefits and other costs. The company expects to take the bulk of those charges in the fourth quarter of 2022. Implementation of the workforce reductions will be mostly complete by the end of the first quarter of 2023, it said.
Salesforce
Salesforce Inc. CRM,
Axios reported that the San Francisco-based company laid off several hundred workers. “Our sales performance process drives accountability,” said a Salesforce spokesperson in a statement emailed to MarketWatch. “Unfortunately, that can lead to some leaving the business, and we support them through their transition.”
Now read: Think you had a bad week? Salesforce, cloud companies had some of their worst weeks ever
As of February 2022, the customer-relationship-management software company had over 78,000 employees globally. Citing a source, Barron’s reported that the recent job cuts represent less than 1% of the company’s workforce.
RingCentral
RingCentral Inc. RNG,
In October, RingCentral was added to the list of “zombie” stocks compiled by equity research firm New Constructs.
Also read: RingCentral added to ‘zombie’ stocks list by equity research firm New Constructs
New Constructs, which uses machine learning and natural language processing to parse corporate filings and model economic earnings, described RingCentral as a “cash incinerator” at risk of declining to $0 per share.
Redfin
Redfin RDFN,
“The housing market will get smaller in 2023,” Kelman wrote in an email to staff. “A layoff is awful but we can’t avoid it,” he added.
Now read: ‘A layoff is awful but we can’t avoid it:’ Redfin lays off 13% of staff as housing market slows down
In June, Redfin laid off 8% of its staff, citing “years” of “fewer home sales.”
Beyond Meat
Beyond Meat Inc. BYND,
The cuts followed a 4% workforce reduction in August.
Related: Beyond Meat’s stock edges lower on sales drop, growing losses
The pressures on the plant-based food company continue. In November, Beyond Meat reported a big drop in third-quarter revenue, escalating losses and tepid revenue guidance.
Meta
Facebook parent Meta META,
“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,” he wrote in a post on the company’s public newsroom. “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.”
Zuckerberg wrote that while Meta will be making reductions in every area across both its Family of Apps and Reality Labs segments, some teams will be affected more than others. The cuts to Reality Labs will be closely watched for any potential impact on the company’s metaverse strategy, which is handled within the segment.
Meta’s job cuts came hot on the heels of layoffs at Twitter that affected about half of that company’s 7,500 employees. In late October, Elon Musk bought Twitter for the inflated price of $44 billion and quickly launched an effort to slash costs at the unprofitable company.
Before the layoffs hit, Twitter faced a class-action lawsuit over lack of notice to employees.
Also read: ‘I just killed it’: Musk scraps Twitter’s gray ‘official’ label just hours after its launch
The cuts, which came just before the midterm elections, also sparked concern about the microblogging site’s ability to fight misinformation in the postelection period.
On Dec. 6, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu told MarketWatch that he will look into the loss of janitors’ jobs at Twitter.
Lyft
In November, Lyft Inc. LYFT,
Now read: Lyft lays off 13% of workers in second round of cuts this year, maintains financial guidance
The latest layoffs follow 60 job cuts in July; a hiring freeze through the end of the year was also implemented in September. In April 2020, in the early days of the pandemic, Lyft laid off nearly 1,000 employees and put another 288 on furlough.
Snap
Some companies confirmed their layoffs earlier this year. In August, Snap Inc. SNAP,
“The scale of these changes vary from team to team, depending upon the level of prioritization and investment needed to execute against our strategic priorities,” said Snap Chief Executive Evan Spiegel in a statement. “The extent of this reduction should substantially reduce the risk of ever having to do this again, while balancing our desire to invest in our long-term future and reaccelerate our revenue growth.”
Related: Snap stock rallies more than 10% after company confirms layoffs, launches restructuring
The Verge reported that Snap had more than 6,400 employees prior to the job cuts.
Robinhood
Also in August, Robinhood Markets Inc. HOOD,
Also read: Robinhood to lay off 23% of its workforce, with CEO admitting ‘this is on me’
In April, Robinhood cut about 9% of its workforce. At that time, CEO Vlad Tenev wrote in a blog post that the company had grown from about 700 employees at the start of 2020 to nearly 3,800.
Coinbase
In July, Coinbase Global Inc. COIN,
Now read: Why Coinbase is laying off 18% of employees and what it means for crypto
The crypto exchange had expanded rapidly, from 1,250 employees at the beginning of 2021 to 4,948 at the end of March 2022. “I am the CEO, and the buck stops with me,” said Armstrong, adding that the company grew too rapidly.
Shopify
Also in July, Shopify Inc. SHOP,
Adobe
Adobe Inc. ADBE,
“As part of our ongoing and routine business prioritization, we have shifted some employees to positions that support critical initiatives and removed a small number of specific roles to balance resources against top priorities,” said Adobe, in a statement emailed to MarketWatch.
Adobe is not doing companywide layoffs and is still hiring for critical roles across the company, it said. “The investments we’re making today to drive innovation, expand our product portfolio and serve a growing number of customers will enable us to continue to drive strong growth,” Adobe added.
The company has more than 28,000 employees worldwide.
GameStop
Videogame retailer and meme-stock darling GameStop Corp. GME,
Speaking during a conference call to discuss the company’s third-quarter results, GameStop CEO Matt Furlong described reductions in headcount during the back half of 2022, but did not give specific numbers. “We now have a firm understanding of the resources required to pursue opportunities in gaming,” he said.