Google, Meta, Amazon and other tech companies have laid off more than 104,000 employees in the last year
- The tech industry has seen a string of layoffs in the face of uncertain economic conditions.
- Meta announced a fresh round of cuts on Tuesday, impacting 10,000 employees.
- Layoffs come as digital advertisers are cutting back on spending and rising inflation curbs consumer spending.
The job cuts in tech land are piling up, as companies that led the 10-year bull market adapt to a new reality.
Amazon announced a fresh round of layoffs Monday, eliminating an additional 9,000 employees after the e-retailer cut more than 18,000 jobs in January. The company's first round of cuts marked the largest workforce reduction in Amazon's 28-year history.
Earlier this month, Meta announced plans to lay off 10,000 workers, adding to the 11,000 cuts it made in November. Google has also made significant cuts to its workforce, as the company announced plans to lay off 12,000 people in January. That same month, Microsoft said it was letting go of 10,000 employees.
The layoffs come in a period of slowing growth, higher interest rates to battle inflation, and fears of a possible recession next year.
Here are some of the major cuts in the tech industry so far. All numbers are approximations based on filings, public statements and media reports:
Amazon: 27,000 jobs cut
Amazon on Monday announced plans to cut 9,000 more employees on top of the previously announced layoffs that began in November and extended into January. That round affected more than 18,000 employees.
Amazon made the decision to lay off more employees as it looks to streamline costs. It took into account the economy, as well as the "uncertainty that exists in the near future," CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo to staff.
"The overriding tenet of our annual planning this year was to be leaner while doing so in a way that enables us to still invest robustly in the key long-term customer experiences that we believe can meaningfully improve customers' lives and Amazon as a whole," Jassy said.
Amazon went on a hiring spree during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company's global workforce swelled to more than 1.6 million by the end of 2021, up from 798,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Meta: 21,000 jobs cut
Facebook parent Meta announced its most significant round of layoffs ever in November. The company said it plans to eliminate 13% of its staff, which amounts to more than 11,000 employees.
Just four months later, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company would lay off an additional 10,000 employees and close hiring for 5,000 positions in a March message to employees.
Meta's disappointing guidance for the fourth quarter of 2022 wiped out one-fourth of the company's market cap and pushed the stock to its lowest level since 2016.
The tech giant's cuts come after it expanded headcount by about 60% during the pandemic. The business has been hurt by competition from rivals such as TikTok, a broad slowdown in online ad spending and challenges from Apple's iOS changes.
Alphabet: 12,000 jobs cut
Google, owned by parent company Alphabet, said in January that it will lay off 12,000 people from its workforce.
Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, said in an email sent to the company's staff that the firm will begin making layoffs in the U.S. immediately. In other countries, the process "will take longer due to local laws and practices," he said. CNBC reported in November that Google employees had been fearing layoffs as its counterparts made cuts and as employees saw changes to the company's performance ratings system.
Alphabet had largely avoided layoffs until early this year, when it cut about 240 employees from Verily, its health sciences division.
Microsoft: 10,000 jobs cut
Microsoft is reducing 10,000 workers through March 31 as the software maker braces for slower revenue growth. The company also is taking a $1.2 billion charge.
"I'm confident that Microsoft will emerge from this stronger and more competitive," CEO Satya Nadella announced in a memo to employees that was posted on the company website Wednesday. Some employees will find out this week if they're losing their jobs, he wrote.
Crypto.com: 500 jobs cut
Crypto.com announced plans to lay off 20% of its workforce Jan. 13. The company had 2,450 employees, according to PitchBook data, suggesting around 490 employees were laid off.
CEO Kris Marszalek said in a blog post that the crypto exchange grew "ambitiously" but was unable to weather the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire FTX without the further cuts.
"All impacted personnel have already been notified," Marszalek said in a post.
Coinbase: 2,000 jobs cut
On Jan. 10, Coinbase announced plans to cut about a fifth of its workforce as it looks to preserve cash during the crypto market downturn.
The exchange plans to cut 950 jobs, according to a blog post. Coinbase, which had roughly 4,700 employees as of the end of September, had already slashed 18% of its workforce in June saying it needed to manage costs after growing "too quickly" during the bull market.
"With perfect hindsight, looking back, we should have done more," CEO Brian Armstrong told CNBC in a phone interview at the time. "The best you can do is react quickly once information becomes available, and that's what we're doing in this case."
Dell: 6,650 jobs cut
Dell announced it would lay off 5% of its workforce, or about 6,650 employees, in early February. The company began the year with more than 130,000 employees, but said that the cuts were made to "stay ahead of downturn impacts."
Slowing demand for PCs hit Dell harder than its competitors.
eBay: 500 jobs cut
Ebay announced it would lay off 500 workers, or 4% of its headcount, in February. Like many executives, eBay CEO Jamie Iannone said that the cuts came as a result of the global macroeconomic environment.
Salesforce: 7,000 jobs cut
Salesforce is cutting 10% of its personnel and reducing some office space as part of a restructuring plan, the company announced Jan. 4. It employed more than 79,000 workers as of December.
In a letter to employees, co-CEO Marc Benioff said customers have been more "measured" in their purchasing decisions given the challenging macroeconomic environment, which led Salesforce to make the "very difficult decision" to lay off workers.
Salesforce said it will record charges of $1 billion to $1.4 billion related to the headcount reductions, and $450 million to $650 million related to the office space reductions.
Twilio: 1,500 jobs cut
In February, Twilio said it would lay off 17% of its workforce, or around 1,500 employees. The company reported nearly 9,000 employees in Sep. 2022. and had already laid off 11% of its workforce that same month.
"These changes hurt," Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson said at the time.
Twitter: 3,700 jobs cut
Shortly after closing his $44 billion purchase of Twitter in late October, new owner Elon Musk cut around 3,700 Twitter employees, according to internal communications viewed by CNBC. That's about half the staff. Since then, significantly more employees have quit after Musk changed some policies around working from home and wrote that he expected all employees to commit to a "hardcore" work environment.
In a tweet on Nov. 4, Musk said there was "no choice" but to lay off employees as the company was losing $4 million per day.
Lyft: 700 jobs cut
Lyft announced in November that it cut 13% of its staff, or about 700 jobs. In a letter to employees, CEO Logan Green and President John Zimmer pointed to "a probable recession sometime in the next year" and rising ride-share insurance costs.
For laid-off workers, the ride-hailing company promised 10 weeks of pay, health care coverage through the end of April, accelerated equity vesting for the Nov. 20 vesting date and recruiting assistance. Workers who had been at the company for more than four years will get an extra four weeks of pay, they added.
Stripe: 1,100 jobs cut
Online payments giant Stripe announced plans to lay off roughly 14% of its staff, which amounts to about 1,100 employees, in November.
CEO Patrick Collison wrote in a memo to staff that the cuts were necessary amid rising inflation, fears of a looming recession, higher interest rates, energy shocks, tighter investment budgets and sparser startup funding. Taken together, these factors signal "that 2022 represents the beginning of a different economic climate," he said.
Stripe was valued at $95 billion last year, and reportedly lowered its internal valuation to $74 billion in July.
Shopify: 1,000 jobs cut
In July, Shopify announced it laid off 1,000 employees, which equals 10% of its global workforce.
In a memo to staff, CEO Tobi Lutke acknowledged he had misjudged how long the pandemic-driven e-commerce boom would last, and said the company is being hit by a broader pullback in online spending. Its stock price is down 78% in 2022.
Netflix: 450 jobs cut
Netflix announced two rounds of layoffs. In May, the streaming service eliminated 150 jobs after the company reported its first subscriber loss in a decade. In late June, it announced another 300 layoffs.
In a statement to employees, Netflix said, "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."
Snap: 1,000 jobs cut
In late August, Snap announced it laid off 20% of its workforce, which equates to more than 1,000 employees.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told employees in a memo that the company needs to restructure its business to deal with its financial challenges. He said the company's quarterly year-over-year revenue growth rate of 8% "is well below what we were expecting earlier this year."
Robinhood: 1,100 jobs cut
Retail brokerage firm Robinhood slashed 23% of its staff in August, after cutting 9% of its workforce in April. Based on public filings and reports, that amounts to more than 1,100 employees.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev blamed "deterioration of the macro environment, with inflation at 40-year highs accompanied by a broad crypto market crash."
Tesla: 6,000 jobs cut
In June, Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote in an email to all employees that the company was cutting 10% of salaried workers. The Wall Street Journal estimated the reductions would affect about 6,000 employees, based on public filings.
"Tesla will be reducing salaried headcount by 10% as we have become overstaffed in many areas," Musk wrote. "Note this does not apply to anyone actually building cars, battery packs or installing solar. Hourly headcount will increase."
Zoom: 1,300 jobs cut
Video conferencing provider Zoom said in February it would cut 15% of its workforce, laying off 1,300 workers. "We didn't take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably," Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said at the time.
Zoom's explosive growth was fuelled by Covid-19 lockdowns, but the company has suffered as life has largely returned to normal for many.