2023 Tech Layoffs: A Timeline

but Tech company announces massive layoffs Last year, tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, SAP, Salesforce, and Facebook parent company Alphabet announced significant job cuts, so 2023 looks even worse.

The problem: Big Tech continued to hire heavily during the pandemic, when lockdowns spurred technology purchases to support the rise of remote work and e-commerce, but now they’re seeing declining revenues. facing

Tech giants aren’t the only ones cutting jobs. Smaller tech companies have also been caught up in the pandemic-induced hypergrowth and are currently suffering from its effects.

nevertheless Global IT spending projected to rise in 2023, according to market research firm Gartner, enterprise software and IT services will have the fastest growth, while data center systems and telecommunications services will grow less than 1%, with a modest overall increase expected . Meanwhile, hardware sales are projected to decline.

Ongoing supply chain issuesinflation and the war in Ukraine are also affecting both business and consumer spending, leading to recession fears.

According to data compiled by layoff.fyi, an online tracker that monitors job losses in the tech sector, tech companies laid off 101,657 workers in the first six weeks. That’s 64% of all tech layoffs in 2022.

Prominent tech companies such as Amazon and Microsoft have already announced significant job cuts this year, but the silver lining for tech professionals is that many of the layoffs involve non-technical staff. In fact, the shortage of experienced technical talent means companies are increasing the salaries of his IT professionals. His Janco Associates, a consultancy firm, Salary increases for IT professionals could increase by 8% in 2023.

Below is a list (updated regularly) of the most notable technology layoffs the industry has experienced recently.

February 2023

Microsoft has confirmed it is cutting employees working for it hololens, Surface laptops, Xbox products, and more, reports have surfaced that the tech giant has laid off 100 employees who worked on its industrial metaverse team and is shutting down that division. The move to cut staff working on HoloLens and its industrial metaverse team is a recent move by the company to Augmented reality, virtual reality and metaverse initiatives from the consumer to the enterprise side. However, Microsoft said in a statement that it is committed to advancing the industry. metaverseThe company has not disclosed how many jobs it will cut in these areas. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) From Washington State on Friday, Microsoft said it reported 617 employees would be laid off in Redmond, Bellevue and Issaquah.

Yahoo said it will lay off about 20% of its workforce by the end of the year, or about 1,600 employees, according to media reports it has confirmed. The move is aimed at restructuring the company’s advertising technology business unit and redistributing finances more efficiently. The job cuts end Yahoo’s attempt to become a direct competitor to Google and Meta in the digital advertising market.

GitHub, a Microsoft-owned software development and version control services provider, has cut 10% of its Microsoft-owned workforce, or about 300 employees, and transitioned the remaining employees to work from home, allowing the company said it would protect the immediate financial stability of

The layoffs came about a month after the company enacted a hiring freeze.

Cloud-based video conferencing service provider Zoom said it would furlough 15% of its workforce, fearing uncertain macroeconomic conditions. The move comes after the company continued hiring during the pandemic.

Additionally, Zoom said it is also making changes to its team structure, with several members of its management team taking pay cuts.

Due to declining PC sales and infrastructure requirements, Dell Technologies announced it will furlough 6,650 employees, or about 5% of its total workforce. In addition to the headcount cuts, co-chief operating officer Jeff Clark said the company will introduce changes that include restructuring its sales team and consolidating the services divisions of its consumer and infrastructure businesses.

Splunk announced in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that as part of broader measures to optimize costs and processes in the face of uncertain macroeconomic conditions, 4% of its workforce said he would be fired. The workforce reduction decision will primarily affect the company’s 325 employees in the North America region.

In a message shared with a PayPal employee Published in the company’s online newsroomPayPal president and CEO Dan Schulman said the company plans to cut 2,000 jobs, about 7% of its workforce.

The company beat analyst expectations in November, Report third quarter Financial Results, PayPal Lowers Q4 Forecast. Quote Challenging macro environment and slowing e-commerce trends.

January 2023

Despite 11% revenue growth in 2022, SAP said in its fourth-quarter financial results announcement that net income fell 68%, resulting in restructuring and resulting layoffs .

Companies such as Google and Salesforce have announced sweeping layoffs based on performance metrics to reverse overhiring during the pandemic, but CEO Christian Klein said the layoffs were “targeted. He said it was part of a “restructuring” and not based on performance. .

“We definitely didn’t overhire,” says Klein, noting that revenue grew faster than the SAP workforce in 2022.

In November 2021, we will spin off most of our infrastructure management division as a new business, Kyndryl, and in January 2022, on the same day that IBM’s fourth quarter 2022 results will be announced, we will take over the Watson Health business. After selling some assets, the company said: He is cutting 3,900 jobs, or 1.5% of the global workforce.

In a conference call with analysts to discuss the results, CFO Jim Kavanaugh didn’t directly mention the job cuts, instead saying the business has “leftover costs” that it will have to address in early 2023. I vaguely alluded to the situation, acknowledging something.A modest fee of about $300 million

Later in the day, in an interview with Bloomberg, Kavanaugh explained that these stranded costs related to staff would be left untouched following the disposal of the assets, resulting in his dismissal from the company. .

In a statement, an IBM spokesperson said it was important to note that the claims relate entirely to the Kyndryl spin-off and the sale of Healthcare.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has announced that it will cut 12,000 jobs, about 6% of its global workforce. According to Sundar Pichai’s internal memo, he “takes full responsibility for the decisions that have brought us here.”

The company will provide affected employees with at least 16 weeks of severance pay and six months of health benefits in the United States, and in other regions receive packages based on local laws and practices.

The news comes four months after Alphabet reported lower-than-expected numbers in the third quarter. However, Alphabet’s overall revenue growth slowed to 6% in the quarter, while Google Cloud grew 38% year-over-year to $6.9 billion.

On January 18th, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed in a blog post that the company will cut almost 5% of its workforce, affecting 10,000 employees.

The CEO has developed a downsizing strategy to align cost structure with revenue structure while investing in areas the company expects to show long-term growth.

The Seattle-based tech giant reported its slowest growth in five years in the first quarter of fiscal 2023. This was largely due to a 14% decline in net income to $17.56 billion due to a strong US dollar and continued decline in PC sales. This time last year. Rising cloud revenue helped cushion Microsoft’s growth slowdown.

India-based social media startup ShareChat, which is backed by Google, said it will lay off 20% of its workforce as it prepares for looming economic headwinds.

“The decision to cut payroll costs was taken after much deliberation and in light of the growing market consensus that investment sentiment has remained very cautious throughout the year,” the spokesperson said. It was

The move is expected to affect more than 400 of the company’s approximately 2,200 employees. The company did not disclose the roles and exact number of employees affected by the decision.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has also announced it will layoffs at its Mountain View, Calif.-based robotics subsidiary, Intrinsic AI, removing about 20% of its workforce, or about 40 employees.

“This (downsizing) decision was made after considering changing priorities and long-term strategic directions. )’s recent strategic acquisitions and working with key industry partners, it will allow us to continue dedicating resources to our highest priority initiatives,” the company said in a statement.

Verily, an Alphabet-owned San Francisco-based life sciences company, is cutting its workforce by 15% to simplify its operating model. The move comes just months after the company raised his $1 billion.

The job cuts are part of the company’s One Verily program, which aims to reduce internal redundancies and simplify operations, according to an email sent to all employees by CEO Stephen Gillett.

As part of its new One Verily program, the company said it will move from multiple business units to one centralized product organization with an increasingly connected healthcare system.

Enterprise data management company Informatica has announced plans to lay off 7% of its workforce by the first quarter of 2023, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The move by Informatica, headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., will result in approximately $25 million to $35 million in contingency costs in the form of cash outlays for employee transitions, notice periods, severance and employee benefits. Company filings show that

The company said it expects the layoffs to be completed by the first quarter of 2023, but added that there may be limited exceptions.

In early 2023, San Francisco-based Salesforce announced it would furlough about 10% of its workforce, about 8,000 employees, and close several offices as part of its restructuring plan.

In filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company said the restructuring plan would cost between $1.4 billion and $2.1 billion, with an estimated cost of up to $1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023. I made it clear that it would be borne by the company. .

Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff said in a letter accompanying the SEC filing that as Salesforce’s earnings accelerated due to the pandemic, the company has overhired and is on the move. told employees it could no longer maintain its current workforce size due to the economic recession. “I take responsibility for that,” said Benioff.

Seattle-based tech giant Amazon has laid off more than 18,000 staff, announcing massive layoffs later this month. The news confirmed that his December article on Computerworld reported: Amazon layoffs expected to reach about 20,000 at all levels Several teams are affected, but the bulk of the job cuts will be in Amazon Stores and the People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) organization.

According to CEO Andy Jassy’s memo, the layoffs are the result of an “uncertain economy.” He also said that Amazon “has been hiring rapidly over the past few years,” but added that the layoffs would help the company pursue longer-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure.