Layoff Watch: Tech firms have cut more than 100,000 jobs – and more are coming

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Should tech layoffs be considered a bellwether for the rest of the economy?  If so then tougher times appear to be coming.

While many tech companies rapidly increased hiring following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulting, two and a half years later, tech layoffs continue to lead headlines. They are not immune to the growing malady of a slowing economy.

“Meta, Alphabet, and Microsoft should be able to deal with ups and downs in revenue growth, as long as they can remain productive,” said Columbia Business School professor Dan Wang in an interview with CNN Business. But in the current environment “there is little evidence that these companies can maintain the same level of productivity.”

The latest company to announce layoffs is Facebook parent company Meta, with “many thousands” of jobs expected to be cut, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and in the New York Times.

And that follows a week where Twitter, now owned by Elon Musk, began to cut 3,700 employees, about half of its workforce, and where Apple and Amazon both announced they would freeze hiring on new corporate roles.

Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet are also cutting back portions of the company and restructuring, though Google continues to hire for roles based in the Triangle.  And Intel is expected to layoff as many as 20,000 workers, even though the company has announced major expansion plans in recent months, Bloomberg reported.

What’s happening?

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, delivered a recent quarterly earnings report that showed that advertising sales had slowed.  Meta, too, showed a decrease in ad spending at their company’s platforms, and Twitter has had advertisers pull back from spending money on the platform.

“The revenue at the most well known tech companies comes from advertising,” said Jessica Mitsch Homes, co-founder and CEO of Momentum, in an interview with WRAL TechWire.  “Marketing budgets tend to get scaled back when companies are looking to conserve cash in uncertain times.”

Consider Meta, as an example, said Homes.  “Meta’s primary business model is driven by advertising,” she said.  “Meta has also made a big bet on the metaverse, that bet is being met with investor skepticism and as a result, they’re announcing layoffs.”

It’s not just social media companies that rely on advertising dollars to drive revenue, though.

“Many of the companies that have announced layoffs are businesses that grew significantly during the pandemic,” said Homes.  “We saw a lot of business growth during the pandemic due to the availability of cheap capital and in response to an unusual increase in demand for certain technology.”

But even though these companies may be household names, and even have workers in the region, there are hundreds of other employers in the region.

And those, said Homes, “are grounded in good fundamentals and didn’t experience the rapid but temporary growth in demand.”

Instead, the Triangle supports technology and technology needs across a “wide range of industries,” said Homes, adding that “diversification of industries will help soften the blow of any economic slowdown.”

For instance, the Triangle continues to attract economic development projects, including in  technology, manufacturing, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals, among others.

The numbers are growing

Outside of the Triangle and North Carolina, the number of job cuts that are occurring is growing, as this most recent edition of the WRAL TechWire Layoff Watch documents.  For instance:

  • Layoffs.fyi reports that there have been nearly 9,000 tech startup layoffs already in November, not including any forthcoming layoffs at Meta.  Further, there have now been more than 100,000 tech startup layoffs since January 1, 2022, according to the Layoffs.fyi database.
  • Layoffs are occurring in the tech sector and in the real estate industry, two of the sectors most impacted by the Federal Reserve’s decision to increase interest rates, with four consecutive 75-basis point increases in recent months.
  • And, further, tech sector layoffs have now risen to more than 52,000 as of November 4, according to TechCrunch.

Here’s the latest, from this week’s edition of the WRAL TechWire Layoff Watch which tracks job cuts and layoff news dating back to July.

Triangle job board postings dip, NC jobless rate climbs – but economists remain confident

Most recent layoffs

Report: Apple is the latest tech giant to implement hiring freeze

Late October layoffs

  • Oct. 27: Elon Musk completed the purchase of Twitter, and reportedly ordered job cuts, immediately, including the firing of three senior executives.
  • Oct. 27: Automotive supplier GKN is closing its Sanford facility and will lay off 47 workers
  • Oct. 27: Credit Suisse will cut thousands of jobs in a “radical” restructuring effort.
  • Oct. 26: Life science firm Medicago will cut 62 workers in a restructuring move.
  • Oct. 26: Zillow laid off 300 workers in order to focus on technology, with layoffs impacting Zillow Offers advisors, sales and back-end staff at Zillow Home Loans and Zillow Closing services, and other teams, TechCrunch reported.  Zillow previously shut down Zillow Offers in the Triangle.
  • Oct. 20: U.K. company Arrival, which operates its U.S. headquarters in Charlotte, disclosed in a statement ahead of its earnings report next month that the company will “restructure its business to focus resources on a family of Van products for the US market.”  The firm announced job cuts, including ones that could impact workers in Charlotte, earlier this year.  (The company has not yet responded to a request for comment from WRAL TechWire about how its announced restructuring plan will impact its North Carolina workforce.)
  • Oct. 19: Delivery company Gopuff, which has a North Carolina footprint and an office in Raleigh, is laying off more workers, Bloomberg reported.  A TechCrunch database notes that the company initially made layoffs in March, more followed in July, and a third round was announced in October, with about 2,200 total layoffs.
  • Oct. 19: Two property technology companies Zeus Living, based in San Francisco and Clever Real Estate, based in St. Louis announced layoffs amidst concerns of a housing market slowdown.

Amazon will ‘pause’ on new hires for corporate roles

Early October layoffs

  • Oct. 14: Beyond Meat lays off nearly one in five workers, or 19% of its workforce, as sales are lower than anticipated and the company is cutting back, according to CNBC.
  • Oct. 12: Salesforce makes job cuts and announces a hiring freeze, according to Protocol
  • Oct. 11: Noom lays off about 10% of its workforce, or about 500 workers, according to TechCrunch, mostly among the company’s coaches, the second-such layoffs this year
  • Oct. 11: Udacity  founder, president, and now executive chairman Sebastian Thrun announced layoffs of 13% of its workforce, or 55 workers, citing “increasing market headwinds.”
  • Oct. 7: Impossible Foods is making layoffs, again, with an estimated 50 workers to get cut, according to SF Gate.  That follows layoffs made earlier this year.
  • Oct. 6: Peloton will – again – lay off hundreds of workers in a move to “save” the company, according to its CEO
  • Oct. 6: Spotify will lay off less than 5% of its podcast staff, cancelling 11 original podcasts, according to a TechCrunch report
  • Oct. 6: The so-called “crypto winter” continues, as Crypto.com will lay off an undisclosed number of workers.  Originally, a report from Ad Age suggested the layoffs could have impacted about 30% of the company’s remaining workforce, after it laid off more than 200 workers earlier in the year, but Tech in Asia reported on October 10 that the company said that was “inaccurate” despite Ad Age reporting that a spokesperson for the company did confirm there had been “targeted job reductions”

Peloton lays off hundreds more workers to ‘save’ the company, CEO says

Late September layoffs

More September layoffs

  • Sept. 26: Cuts at Goldman Sachs
  • Sept. 26: Cuts at Wells Fargo
  • Sept. 22 – Pink Energy will shut down operations, according to a letter sent to all employees that was obtained by WRAL News.  This came hours after a 5 On Your Side report about the company and its difficulties, and following a notice of facility closure and layoffs sent to the North Carolina Department of Commerce on September 12.
  • Sept. 22 – Buy now, pay later company Klarna will make another round of layoffs, four months after the company cut its workforce by 10%, with the new cuts affecting fewer than 100 workers, according to a report from Sifted.
  • Sept. 22 – Even as Google looks to implement cost-cutting moves and its CEO wants employees to be more efficient and productive, it seeks to hire more than 200 workers in the Triangle.
  • Sept. 22 – Kittyhawk, the air taxi company backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, will shut down, though a joint project with Boeing will continue.
  • Sept. 21 – Job cuts still sweeping across technology sector, but Meta and Google aren’t likely to call such cuts layoffs, WRAL TechWire reported.
  • Sept. 20 – Real estate firm Compass, which is backed by Softbank to the tune of about $1 billion, will again make layoffs to its technology team, according to a report from Bloomberg News.
  • Sept. 19 – The number of open information technology jobs in North Carolina falls to an eight-month low, according to the latest data from NC TECH.

As threat of layoffs grows, which workers are the most vulnerable?

More companies making layoffs

  • Sept. 15 – Amazon confirms to WRAL TechWire that a Durham facility that employs some 400 workers is being shut down, and a spokesperson tells WRAL TechWire that the company does not intend to lay off any workers, as every employee will be given the opportunity to transfer to another Amazon facility.  Meanwhile, a group of Amazon employees who work in a Garner facility continue efforts to form a union.
  • Sept. 14 – TRU Colors, a startup brewery in Wilmington, announced it would shut down, and serial entrepreneur and founder George Taylor explains why.
  • Sept. 14 – The cloud firm Twilio cuts 11% of workers and CEO Jeff Lawson explains why in a letter, noting that the company used an “Anti-Racist” lens in determining which employees would be laid off.
  • Sept. 12 – Coats American, Inc. will close a Hendersonville plant and lay off 51 workers by the end of November, according to a required legal notice sent by the company to the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
  • Sept. 12 – Pink Energy, a solar company headquartered in the Charlotte area, announced it would lay off 500 workers a few months after laying off 600 workers, with the CEO citing faulty equipment as the cause.

Pendo lays off about 5% of workforce, including workers in Raleigh

Early September layoffs

  • Sept. 8 – Avaya, with headquarters in Durham, announced it would reduce its workforce in order to lower costs to “position Avaya as a more agile and innovative organization,” the company’s new CEO told WRAL TechWire in a statement.  The number of layoffs is not known; but the company allocated $11 million to be used to cover costs associated with laying off workers, as WRAL TechWire reported in August.
  • Sept. 7 Pendo layoffs affect 45 workers, less than 5% of its workforce, with half of those layoffs occurring in the company’s Raleigh headquarters location.  WRAL TechWire confirmed the layoffs on September 12.
  • Sept. 2 – The latest data on the employment situation in the United States showed that the pace of job growth slowed in August but the economy added more jobs than expected during the month, a preliminary total of 315,000, though the unemployment rate increased as more people began to look for work and the labor force participation rate increased as well.
  • Sept. 1 Unemployment benefits claims fell, data showed.

UNC economist: More people joining labor force is key to a ‘soft landing’ for economy

August tech layoffs

Here’s a list of some of the layoffs that may affect North Carolina workers that occurred in August:

  • Aug. 31 – Snapchat lays off about 20% of its global workforce of 6,400 workers.
  • Aug. 29 – Keter, US, Inc. will lay off 68 workers in Stanley “due to changing business needs at the facility.”
  • Aug. 29 – 67 employees at UNC Rockingham Hospital in Eden face job loss
  • Aug. 29 – Pandemic ‘winners’ including Peloton, Wayfair, Netflix, Zoom… are now losers
  • Aug. 26 – Novartis to close Wilson plant, affecting 240 workers.
  • Aug. 25 – Better, which has an office in Charlotte, makes its fourth round of layoffs in 2022 according to TechCrunch.  Those four rounds of layoffs followed a mass layoff of 900 workers via a Zoom meeting in December 2021.
  • Aug. 25 – Outdoor furniture manufacturer Keter will lay off 68 workers from a Gaston County facility, according to a notice filed with the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
  • Aug. 25 – Amazon will shut down the hybrid virtual and in-home care service, Amazon Care
  • Aug. 25 – Fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits than the prior week, but the four-week average rose, the Associated Press reported.
  • Aug. 22 – Ford announces layoffs of 3,000 white collar workers, CNN Business reported.

Troubled tech firm Avaya – HQ in Durham – is laying off workers

 More August layoffs

NC’s economy takes a $1B hit in project cancellation – fifth announced this year

Even more August tech layoffs

  • Aug. 4 – Robinhood will make layoffs of 23% of its workforce, a few months after slashing 9% of workers.  This includes laying off 82 workers in Charlotte and closing the company’s office facility there, at which it had promised to hire nearly 400 workers not more than 18 months ago
  • Aug. 4 – Walmart will cut 200 corporate jobs, according to a CNN report
  • Aug. 4Jobless benefit applications are again on the rise, according to the U.S. Labor Department, which is a sign that more layoffs are occurring
  • Aug. 2 – Job openings have plummeted since the last monthly survey, according to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the lowest since September 2021
  • Aug. 1 – Oracle reportedly to lay off thousands of workers

NC tech leaders grow more pessimistic about economy; 17.5% have implemented hiring freeze

Layoffs announced in July

  • July 29 – Cargo services firm in Charlotte cutting 154 workers
  • July 27 – The latest survey results from NC TECH show that 1.6% of surveyed companies have laid off, considered making layoffs, or furloughed workers, and another 17.5% have already implemented a hiring freeze.
  • July 27 – Automaker Rivian will lay off about 6% of its workforce, the founder and CEO sent in an email to employees (TechCrunch report.)
  • July 26 – Layoffs at Shopify, with approximately 10% of global workforce slashed

Layoffs still keep coming despite better-than-expected jobs report

Other reports, tech layoffs

More on layoffs announced earlier this year:

  • Invitae announced it planned to lay off as many as 1,000 workers globally and Arrival, with a North American headquarters in Charlotte, announced it could cut 30% of its staff in the coming months.  They’ll be making additional announcements in the coming weeks.
  • Microsoft, which as recently as last month, told WRAL TechWire that it was hiring for hundreds of positions locally in the Triangle, has now also announced that it will cut hundreds of jobs.  The firm is still hiring in North Carolina, according to the latest WRAL TechWire Jobs Report, though it does shows a drop off in the number of openings locally at the firm compared to earlier this year.
  • Peloton, which had something of its own pandemic boom and bought a North Carolina company previously, announced it would no longer manufacture its own stationary exercise bicycles, and would lay off some 600 workers. (Editor’s Note: This was the first announcement from Peloton; the second announcement came later in the summer.)
  • And Biogen, which has a big presence in RTP, announced layoffs in a move to reduce costs last month, as well.
  • Durham technology startup Adwerx announced it would lay off 40 workers, citing “macroeconomic uncertainty.”

Retention, retraining workers becomes focus for many employers in changing job market

More Triangle tech layoffs coverage

More NC layoffs as Coats American to close Hendersonville facility, lay off 51 workers

North Carolina solar company lays off 500; CEO blames faulty equipment

Snapchat is latest tech firm to cut jobs: 20% of global workforce

More layoffs: Wayfair is cutting 5% of its global workforce

Genetics firm Invitae, with Morrisville facility, to lay off more than 1,000 workers

Multiple reports outline Oracle’s decision to lay off thousands of workers

Layoffs hit Microsoft: Tech giant says hundreds of workers to be let go

Job cuts at Biogen, which has big RTP presence, help drug giant reduce costs 40%

More layoffs in NC – Medline closing Salisbury facility, will cut nearly 100 workers

Automotive manufacturer to close China Grove plant, lay off 81 workers

Layoffs hit Microsoft: Tech giant says hundreds of workers to be let go

Peloton, which had plans for big NC plant, will stop making bikes; 600 to lose jobs

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