PARCUL TRIANGULUI DE CERCETARE – 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 și, în 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 raportate.
Ce se întâmplă?
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:
- Concedieri.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
Raport: Apple este cel mai recent gigant tehnologic care a implementat înghețarea angajărilor
Late October layoffs
- 27 octombrie: Elon Musk completed the purchase of Twitter, and reportedly ordered job cuts, immediately, including the firing of three senior executives.
- 27 octombrie: Automotive supplier GKN is closing its Sanford facility and will lay off 47 workers
- 27 octombrie: Credit Suisse will cut mii de locuri de muncă in a “radical” restructuring effort.
- 26 octombrie: Life science firm Medicago will cut 62 workers in a restructuring move.
- 26 octombrie: Zillow a concediat 300 de muncitori 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.
- 20 octombrie: U.K. company Arrival, which operates its U.S. headquarters in Charlotte, disclosed in a declaraţie 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.)
- 19 octombrie: Delivery company Gopuff, which has a North Carolina footprint and an office in Raleigh, is laying off more workers, Bloomberg raportate. A TechCrunch Baza de date 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.
- 19 octombrie: 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 va face o pauză pentru noi angajări pentru roluri corporative
Early October layoffs
- 14 octombrie: Dincolo de carne 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.
- 12 octombrie: Salesforce makes job cuts and announces a hiring freeze, according to Protocol
- 11 octombrie: 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
- 11 octombrie: Udacity founder, president, and now executive chairman Sebastian Thrun a anunţat disponibilizări of 13% of its workforce, or 55 workers, citing “increasing market headwinds.”
- 7 octombrie: 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.
- 6 octombrie: Peloton will – again – lay off hundreds of workers in a move to “save” the company, according to its CEO
- 6 octombrie: Spotify will lay off less than 5% of its podcast staff, cancelling 11 original podcasts, according to a TechCrunch raportează
- 6 octombrie: The so-called “crypto winter” continues, as Crypto.com will lay off an undisclosed number of workers. Originally, a raportează 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 raportate 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
- 30 septembrie: Google o va face shutter gaming studio Stadia
- 30 septembrie: Ashley Furniture shutting down Statesville, N.C., plant, with 111 affected workers
- 30 septembrie: Tech-enabled healthcare company Kepro laying off nearly 100 NC workers
- 30 septembrie: JPMorgan Chase este expanding in North Carolina and, according to Reuters, plans to hire some 2,000 workers. But that doesn’t mean CEO Jamie Dimon believes there’s not a recession coming. Instead, Dimon told WRAL last week that there is “probably” a recession on the way.
- 29 septembrie: Meta has enacted a hiring freeze, according to Bloomberg și Forbes, and engadget reports that CEO Mark Zuckerberg also told employees there could be further restructuring or layoffs
- 28 septembrie: SoftBank will cut 150 of the 500 workers employed by the Vision Fund, the venture capital arm of the company, Bloomberg reported
- 28 septembrie: DocuSign to concediază 671 de muncitori, 9% of company, as housing market slows, SF Gate reports. A day earlier, Divvy Homes, a startup backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global Management, laid off about 12% of workers, according to The Information.
- 27 septembrie: Which workers are most vulnerable to layoffs?
More September layoffs
- 26 septembrie: Cuts at Goldman Sachs
- 26 septembrie: Cuts at Wells Fargo
- Septembrie 22 - Pink Energy will opriți operațiunile, 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.
- Septembrie 22 - Cumpărați acum, plătiți mai târziu 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 raportează from Sifted.
- Septembrie 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 în Triunghi.
- Septembrie 22 - Kittyhawk, the air taxi company backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, will închide, though a joint project with Boeing will continue.
- Septembrie 21 - Job cuts still sweeping across technology sector, but Meta and Google aren’t likely to call such cuts layoffs, WRAL TechWire reported.
- Septembrie 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 raportează from Bloomberg News.
- Septembrie 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
- Septembrie 15 - Amazon confirms to WRAL TechWire that a Durham facility that employs some 400 workers is fiind închis, 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 formează o uniune.
- Septembrie 14 - TRU Colors, a startup brewery in Wilmington, announced it would închide, and serial entrepreneur and founder George Taylor explains why.
- Septembrie 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.
- Septembrie 12 - Coats American, Inc. will close a Hendersonville plant and concediază 51 de muncitori by the end of November, according to a required legal notice sent by the company to the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
- Septembrie 12 - Pink Energy, a solar company headquartered in the Charlotte area, announced it would concediază 500 de muncitori 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
- Septembrie 8 – Avaya, with headquarters in Durham, announced it would să-și reducă forța de muncă 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 raportate in august.
- Septembrie 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.
- Septembrie 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.
- Septembrie 1 - Beneficii de somaj claims fell, data showed.
August tech layoffs
Here’s a list of some of the layoffs that may affect North Carolina workers that occurred in August:
- august 31 -Snapchat lays off about 20% of its global workforce of 6,400 workers.
- august 29 – Keter, US, Inc. will concediază 68 de muncitori in Stanley “due to changing business needs at the facility.”
- august 29 – 67 employees at UNC Rockingham Hospital in Eden face pierderea locului de muncă
- august 29 – Pandemic ‘winners’ including Peloton, Wayfair, Netflix, Zoom… are now losers
- 26 august – Novartis to close Wilson plant, affecting 240 workers.
- 25 august – 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.
- 25 august – Outdoor furniture manufacturer Keter will concediază 68 de muncitori from a Gaston County facility, according to a notice filed with the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
- 25 august – Amazon will shut down the hybrid virtual and in-home care service, Amazon Care
- 25 august – Fewer Americans filed for beneficii de somaj than the prior week, but the four-week average rose, the Associated Press reported.
- 22 august – Ford announces layoffs of 3,000 white collar workers, CNN Business reported.
Firma de tehnologie cu probleme Avaya – sediul central din Durham – concediază lucrători
More August layoffs
NC’s economy takes a $1B hit in project cancellation – fifth announced this year
Even more August tech layoffs
- 4 august – Robinhood will make layoffs of 23% of its workforce, a few months after slashing 9% of workers. This includes concedierea a 82 de muncitori 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
- 4 august – Walmart o va face cut 200 corporate jobs, according to a CNN report
- august 4 - Jobless benefit applications are again on the rise, according to the U.S. Labor Department, which is a sign that more layoffs are occurring
- 2 august – Job openings have plummeted since the last monthly survey, according to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the lowest since September 2021
- 1 august – Oracle reportedly to concediază mii de muncitori
NC tech leaders grow more pessimistic about economy; 17.5% have implemented hiring freeze
Layoffs announced in July
- Iulie 29 - Cargo services firm in Charlotte cutting 154 workers
- Iulie 27 - ultimele rezultate ale sondajului 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.
- Iulie 27 - Automaker Rivian will lay off about 6% of its workforce, the founder and CEO sent in an email to employees (Raport TechCrunch.)
- Iulie 26 - Layoffs at Shopify, with approximately 10% of global workforce slashed
Concedierii continuă să vină, în ciuda raportului de locuri de muncă mai bune decât se aștepta
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 a tăiat sute de locuri de muncă. 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 concediază aproximativ 600 de muncitori. (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, a anunţat disponibilizări in a move to reduce costs last month, as well.
- Durham technology startup Adwerx announced it would concediază 40 de muncitori, 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
Compania solară din Carolina de Nord concediază 500; CEO-ul dă vina pe echipamentul defecte
Snapchat is latest tech firm to cut jobs: 20% of global workforce
Mai multe concedieri: Wayfair reduce cu 5% din forța de muncă globală
Firma de genetică Invitae, cu sediul Morrisville, va concedia peste 1,000 de lucrători
Mai multe rapoarte subliniază decizia Oracle de a concedia mii de muncitori
Concedierii au lovit Microsoft: gigantul tehnologic spune că sute de lucrători vor fi eliberați
Job cuts at Biogen, which has big RTP presence, help drug giant reduce costs 40%
Producătorul de automobile va închide uzina din China Grove și va concedia 81 de lucrători
Concedierii au lovit Microsoft: gigantul tehnologic spune că sute de lucrători vor fi eliberați
