New York CNN —
Just this week Alphabet, the parent company of Google, Microsoft (MSFT) and Vox Media announced related layoffs affect more than 22,000 workers.
Their moves follow job cuts earlier this month at Amazon, Goldman Sachs and Salesforce. More companies are expected to do the same as firms that have been aggressively hiring over the past two years, hitting the brakes and, in many cases, going into reverse.
The cuts stand in sharp contrast to 2022, which saw 4.5 million job gains, the second-highest on record. But last year’s job counts began falling throughout the year, with the December jobs report showing the lowest monthly gains in two years.
The highest hiring rate was in 2021, when 6.7 million new jobs were created. But that followed the first year of the pandemic, when the US virtually shut down and 9.3 million jobs were lost.
The current layoffs are affecting multiple industries, from media companies to Wall Street, but so far have hit big tech particularly hard.
That contrasts with job losses during the pandemic, which saw consumer buying habits shift towards e-commerce and other online services during the lockdown. Tech companies went on a hiring spree.
But now workers are returning to their offices and in-person shopping is rebounding. Add in the growing likelihood of a recession, higher interest rates, and tepid demand due to rising prices, and tech companies cut costs.
January was filled with headlines announcing job cuts at company after company. Here is a list of layoffs this month – until now.
Google’s parent company (GOOGL) announced on Friday that it will lay off 12,000 employees across all product lines and regions, or 6% of its workforce. Alphabet has hired 50,000 new employees over the past two years as the pandemic has created greater demand for its services. But recent recession fears have prompted advertisers to exit their core digital advertising business.
“In the last two years, we have experienced periods of dramatic growth,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email to employees. “To accommodate and drive that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”
The tech giant is laying off 10,000 employees, the company said in a securities filing on Wednesday. Microsoft has 221,000 full-time employees worldwide, including 122,000 in the United States.
CEO Satya Nadella said during a presentation in Davos that “no one can defy gravity” and that Microsoft cannot ignore the weakening global economy.
“We are going through times of significant change, and when I meet with customers and partners, some things are clear,” Nadella wrote in a memo. “As we’ve seen customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, we see them now optimizing their digital spend to do more with less.”
The publisher of news and opinion website Vox, tech website The Verge and New York Magazine announced on Friday that it will cut 7% of its workforce, or about 130 employees.
“We are experiencing and anticipating more of the same economic and financial pressures that others in the media and technology industries are experiencing,” Chief Executive Jim Bankoff said in a memo.
Layoffs are also hitting Wall Street hard. The world’s largest wealth manager is cutting 500 jobs, or less than 3% of its workforce.
Today’s “unprecedented market environment” is in stark contrast to its stance over the past three years, when it increased its workforce by about 22%. The last major round of cuts took place in 2019.
The bank is set to lay off up to 3,200 staff this month as dealmaking activity around the world plummets. More than a third of the cuts are expected to come from the company’s trading and banking units. Goldman Sachs (FADXX) had almost 50,000 employees at the end of the third quarter of last year.
The crypto broker announced earlier in January that it would be shedding 950 employees – nearly one in five of its workforce. The move comes just months after Coinbase laid off 1,100 employees.
Despite Bitcoin having a solid start to the new year, crypto companies have been hit by significant price declines in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
McDonald’s (MCD), which has thrived during the pandemic, plans to lay off some of its employees, CEO Chris Kempczinski said this month.
“We will be evaluating roles and staffing levels in parts of the organization, and there will be difficult discussions and decisions ahead,” Kempszinski said, outlining a plan to “break down internal barriers, become more innovative, and reduce work that doesn’t align with the organization’s priorities.” company.”
The online retailer of personalized subscription clothing said it plans to lay off 20% of its employees.
“We will lose many talented team members from across the company and I am truly sorry,” wrote Katrina Lake, founder and former CEO of Stitch Fix (SFIX), in a blog post.
At the beginning of the new year, Amazon (AMZN) announced that it would lay off more than 18,000 employees. Departments from human resources to the company Amazon (AMZN) stores are affected.
“Long-term companies go through different phases. They don’t find themselves in “heavy people” expansion mode every year,” CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo to employees.
Amazon boomed during the pandemic and was hiring quickly in recent years. But demand has cooled as consumers return to their offline lives and battle high prices. Amazon says it has more than 800,000 employees.
Speaking at the New York Times’ DealBook summit in November, Jassy said he believed Amazon “made the right decision” in terms of rapidly expanding infrastructure, but said the hiring frenzy was a “lesson for everyone.” .
As he spoke, Amazon warehouse workers who helped organize the company’s first-ever US union at a Staten Island facility last year went on strike before Jassy’s appearance outside the conference venue.
“We definitely want to take this opportunity to let him know the workers are waiting and we’re ready to negotiate our first contract,” Amazon Labor Union president Chris Smalls said, calling the protest a “welcome party” for jassie
Salesforce (CRM) will cut about 10% of its workforce from its 70,000+ employees and reduce its real estate footprint. In a letter to employees, Salesforce (CRM) chairman and co-CEO Marc Benioff admitted to increasing the company’s headcount too soon in the pandemic.
– CNN’s Clare Duffy, Matt Egan, Oliver Darcy, Julia Horowitz, Catherine Thorbecke, Paul R. La Monica, Nathaniel Meyersohn, Parija Kavilanz, Danielle Wiener-Bronner, and Hanna Ziady contributed to this report.