Google cuts add to tech wipeout that has claimed over 100,000 jobs

Big tech companies benefitted from boom in e-commerce sector that kicked off during Covid lockdowns in 2020 but now they are reporting declining growth rates as customer behavior returns to normal

Alphabet Inc.’s plan to reduce headcount by more than 6% — about 12,000 roles — is adding to mass job cuts that are accelerating at technology companies around the world. 

The tech sector announced 97,171 job cuts in 2022, up 649% compared to the previous year, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Disclosures about cuts at Google’s parent company, Microsoft Corp., and Amazon.com Inc. have added another 30,000 positions in January.

Big tech companies like these benefitted from a boom in e-commerce spending and remote work that kicked off during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020. Now, many of these businesses are reporting disappointing growth rates and dealing with sagging share prices as customer behavior returns to normal. Their leaders are saying they expanded too quickly, with Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai writing that he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,’’ in an email to employees on Friday. 

Here’s a running list of who’s cutting jobs and pulling back on hiring. 

Alphabet 

Google parent Alphabet announced it will cut about 12,000 jobs, more than 6% of its global workforce, in a move that will affect roles across the company. 

The company had in October reported third-quarter earnings and revenue that missed analysts’ expectations, with profit dropping 27% from a year earlier. Investors began to pressure the search giant to adopt a more aggressive strategy to curb spending. TCI Fund Management Ltd. urged the company to set a target for profit margins, increase share buybacks and reduce losses in its portfolio, noting Alphabet’s headcount has swelled 20% per year since 2017. 

Amazon

The e-commerce titan is laying off 18,000 employees, CEO Andy Jassy announced on Jan. 4. The cuts, which started last year, were initially expected to affect about 10,000 jobs.

“Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so,” Jassy said. “These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure.” 

In November, Amazon halted “new incremental” hiring across its corporate workforce. 

Blockchain.com 

Crypto platform is letting go of 28% of its workforce, around 110 employees, in its latest round of layoffs, announced early January.

Capital One 

Capital One Financial Corp. eliminated hundreds of technology positions this week with more than 1,100 workers affected, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

Coinbase

Coinbase Global Inc. is eliminating 60 positions as the cryptocurrency market slumps. The crypto exchange announced in June it would lay off 18% of its workforce, or roughly 1,200 employees.

ConsenSys

Ethereum software company ConsenSys confirmed it is eliminating 96 positions, representing 11% of the crypo firm’s total workforce. 

Crypto.com

Crypto.com plans to cut about 20% of its global workforce, the company announced Jan. 13. The company didn’t respond to media requests for the specific number of jobs eliminated at the time. Kris Marszalek, the firm’s chief executive officer, said the cuts would help “position the company for long-term success.”

Genesis

Genesis Global Trading Inc. has laid off 60 employees in its latest round of job cuts, or about 30% of the crypto brokerage’s workforce. The company now has 145 employees remaining.

Huobi

The crypto exchange announced this month it’s cutting 20% of its 1,100 employees.

Microsoft

Microsoft said it will cut 10,000 jobs this year, or about 5% of its workforce, which will result in a $1.2 billion charge in the fiscal second quarter. CEO Officer Satya Nadella said in a blog post and internal email to employees on Jan. 18 that the company will continue to hire in “key strategic areas.” Nadella, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said the tech industry needs to adjust to the broader economic slowdown. 

The mass layoffs extended to its video-game division, including developers at hit titles Starfield and Halo. The scale of the cuts in the gaming division are not clear. 

“During the pandemic there was rapid acceleration. I think we’re going to go through a phase today where there is some amount of normalization in demand. We will have to do more with less — we will have to show our own productivity gains with our own technology.” 

Salesforce

Salesforce will cut about 10% of its workforce and reduce its real estate holdings, according to a regulatory filing on Jan. 4. CEO Marc Benioff said in a letter to employees, “We hired too many people” during the pandemic. The software company had about 80,000 employees. The cutbacks included staff at Slack, Tableau and Mulesoft, businesses that Salesforce acquired in recent years.

Silvergate

Silvergate Capital Corp., a crypto bank, said in January it is firing 40% of its staff after customers withdrew $8.1 billion worth of digital assets during the fourth quarter. 

Sharechat

Social media platform ShareChat is cutting more than 500 jobs to reduce costs, according to a spokesman.

Stitch Fix

Stitch Fix Inc. will cut about 20% of salaried employees as the personal-styling platform struggles to maintain the sales growth it saw during the pandemic. The company will also close its Salt Lake City distribution center.

Twitter

The upheaval at Twitter has more to do with its recent buyout — and the accompanying debt — than economic concerns. But the company has suffered some of the deepest cuts of its peers right now. After Elon Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion, eliminated about 3,700 jobs by email in November, cuts have continued in January, particularly those overseeing global content moderation. 

Unity Software

Unity Software Inc. is cutting 284 jobs, its second round of downsizing in less than a year amid a broad tech-industry retrenchment.

Vimeo

Vimeo Inc. announced it will cut 11% of its global full-time workforce, according to a Jan. 4 regulatory filing.