According to TechCrunch, the tech industry has seen more than 240,000 jobs lost in 2023, a total that’s already 50% higher than last year and growing.
In the fast-paced world of technology, where innovation and advancement are the driving forces, it is not uncommon for even the biggest tech giants to experience periods of instability. One of the most significant consequences of such turbulence is the occurrence of layoffs. Tech layoffs have become a recurring theme, impacting both employees and the industry as a whole. In this article, we will delve into the various aspects of tech layoffs, exploring their implications and shedding light on the recent layoffs that have shaken the tech industry.
In recent years, several tech giants have experienced significant layoffs, sending shockwaves through the industry. One such example is Amazon, which announced layoffs in 2022 and 2023 as part of its restructuring efforts. The company's decision to streamline operations resulted in job losses across various departments, including its retail division. This move sparked concerns about the future of e-commerce and the potential impact on the job market.
These drastic cuts have created a climate of uncertainty and risk aversion. Many companies have become more cautious in their investments and decision-making, fearing further layoffs or financial instability. This cautiousness can impede the willingness to take risks and explore new avenues for growth and innovation.
A Comprehensive List of the Major 2023 Tech Layoffs Year to Date
Amazon
Announced on January 5, eliminating more than 18,000 roles. This announcement extends a previously announced round of layoffs in November of 2022. On January 19, the company announced it would end AmazonSmile.
Starz
Is laying off more than 10% of its staff ahead of the company spinning out from Lionsgate, CEO Jeffrey Hirsch announced November 3. The network and streaming app will also exit Australia and the U.K.
Faire
Laid off about 250 people November 3 as part of restructuring. The wholesale marketplace raised a $416 million extension at a $12.6 billion valuation last year.
Niu
Confirmed to TechCrunch November 3 that it is issuing a round of layoffs affecting about 10% of their workforce, citing “fierce competition.”
100 Thieves
Is reducing its workforce by 20%, CEO John Robinson announced November 2. The esports brand is spinning out its game studio as well as its energy drink brand, Juvee.
OpenSpace
Conducted a round of layoffs, CEO Jeevan Kalanithi announced November 2. The number of employees impacted by the layoffs has yet to be reported.
Splunk
Is set to cut around 500 employees CEO Gary Steele said in a message to employees November 1 ahead of its planned acquisition by Cisco.
Bungie
Is laying off about 100 employees, CEO Pete Parsons announced 10/30. The Sony-owned game studio is also delaying two of its upcoming titles as a result.
Karat
Reportedly cut an estimated 10% of its workforce October 27 after the financial startup for creators raised a $70 million Series B round earlier this year.
Hippo
Plans to eliminate 120 roles, the company said in an SEC filing October 30.
Liberty Mutual
Plans to cut 850 members of its staff, the insurance company confirmed October 27.
Salsify
Cut 110 jobs and are moving some roles abroad, CEO and co-founder Jason Purcell announced October 25.
Slync
Is shutting down, months after its former CEO Chris Kirchner was arrested on fraud charges and sued the company to pay for his legal bills.
Shipt
Announced October 24 in a company statement that it laid off 3.5% of their workforce and will close many open roles.
Pebble
The X alternative previously known as T2 announced October 24 that it is shutting down its operations.
Nokia
Announced October 19 that it will cut up to 14,000 jobs, or 16% of its workforce, following a sizable dip in Q3.
Roblox China
Cut 15 roles on October 24, two years after the joint effort with Tencent abruptly paused its service.
Tropic
Eliminated 26 roles, CEO David Campbell confirmed in a LinkedIn post October 21.
Convoy
Is halting operations due to a “massive freight recession,” CEO Dan Lewis announced in a memo October 19, a week after laying off 20% of its workforce.
LegalZoom
Plans to lay off more than 100 workers in its sales division, the company disclosed in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter.
Plume
Laid off more than two dozen workers, TechCrunch learned October 18, about a year after the trans healthcare startup raised a $24 million Series B.
Eliminated at least 40 roles in its news division, Google confirmed October 18.
Expedia Group
Cut around 100 jobs, Skift reports, in its second round of layoffs in recent months. The cuts reportedly impacted employees across data and AI.
Stack Overflow
Laid off 28% of its staff, more than likely impacting 100 people, the Prosus-owned company announced October 16.
Bandcamp
Eliminated 50% of its staff on October 16 after ownership changed from video game company Epic to music licensing platform Songtradr.
Confirmed October 16 that it will cut 668 more jobs, bringing the total to nearly 1,400 this year, with the bulk of the most recent cuts impacting those with R&D roles.
Flexport
On October 13 began laying off 20% of its workers, about 600 people, as it prepares for restructuring, and continues a cost-cutting campaign that began with rescinding offers and working to lease office space.
Qualcomm
Is cutting 1,258 jobs in two of its California offices. According to a filing with the California Employment Development Department, the semiconductor company plans to make the reductions in December.
Blue Origin
Laid off 40 people October 10, including software engineers and program managers, according to The Information.
Stitch Fix
Will lay off 558 employees after the personal styling subscription service closes a distribution center in Dallas.
Synapse
Confirmed October 6 that it had laid off 86 people, about 40% of the a16z-backed fintech company. Earlier in the year, Synapse laid off 18% of its employees after its growth slowed.
Bird
Issued a new round of layoffs after acquiring Spin, according to an email interim CEO Michael Washinushi sent to the company. The layoffs came one week after the company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, and the exact number remains unknown.
Qualtrics
Announced on October 4 that 780 roles are being eliminated and that “several hundred” roles are changing or moving locations in 2024.
Hopper
Is reducing its full-time staff by 30%, amounting to 250 job cuts, the company announced October 3.
Chainalysis
Announced October 2 that it is laying off around 15% of its workforce, affecting approximately 150 employees.
IronNet
In a regulatory filing published September 29, the cybersecurity startup has ceased all business activities as it prepares for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and has laid off its remaining staff.
Naughty Dog
Is reportedly cutting at least 25 contract developers, two sources familiar with the situation told Kotaku.
Epic Games
Announced on September 28 that the Fortnite maker is laying off 16% of its workforce, amounting to 870 people.
Talkdesk
An impacted employee confirmed on September 27 that at least 140 people, if not more, were affected by Talkdesk’s third round of layoffs in less than 14 months.
Byju’s
Announced on September 26, the company plans to cut 5,000 jobs due to restructuring efforts. The startup has eliminated more than 10,000 positions in the past two years.
Roblox
Confirmed to TechCrunch on September 21, Roblox let go of 30 employees in its talent acquisition organization. No other teams are impacted.
Divvy Homes
Announced on September 11 that it is laying off 94 employees.
Sensor Tower
Announced on September 8 that it laid off approximately 40 people out of the 270+ at the company, including C-suite executives.
Roku
Announced September 6 that it plans to lay off approximately 10% of its workforce, representing over 300 employees.
Malwarebytes
Announced on August 31 that it laid off 100 employees, mainly impacting corporate employees.
Twiga
Announced on August 21 that it is laying off 283 employees, or 33% of its workforce.
SecureWorks
Announced on August 14 that it will let go of 15% of its workforce, impacting about 300 employees. This is the company’s second round of layoffs this year.
CoinDesk
Announced on August 14 that it is cutting 16% of staff.
NCC Group
Confirmed on August 10 that it is making more layoffs, its second round of layoffs in just six months. The company declined to say how many employees are affected by this round of cuts. NCC Group cut 125 employees in February.
Rapid7
Announced on August 9 that it plans to lay off 18% of its workforce, affecting more than 400 employees globally.
Mobile Premier League
Announced on August 8 that it is laying off approximately 50% of its employees or 350 people.
Astra
Announced on August 4 that it has laid off 25% of its workforce since the beginning of the quarter.
Discord
Announced on August 3 that it has let go of nearly 40 employees or 4% of its workforce.
HackerOne
Announced on August 2 that it is laying off 12% of its workforce, approximately 50 employees.
Tekion
Announced on August 2 by Inc42, the startup laid off around 300 employees or 10% of its workforce. Of the 300 employees being let go, about 200 were from Tekion’s India office.
Planet
Announced on August 1 that it is laying off 117 employees, or 10% of staff.
Dunzo
Announced July 19 that it is postponing employee salaries for a month and plans a new wave of layoffs as soon as July 20. Dunzo executives informed employees that they will likely be cutting over 200 jobs, in what will be its third layoff this year. The company has eliminated about 400 jobs this year so far.
Cameo
Announced on July 18 that it intends to lay off 80 workers.
Skill-Lync
Announced on July 13 that the Indian startup has laid off 20% of its workforce, around 225 employees.
Crunchbase
Announced on LinkedIn on July 9 that the company is laying off 52 employees.
Microsoft
Announced July 10 that the company is eliminating additional jobs a week after the start of its 2023 fiscal year. These layoffs are in addition to the 10,000 layoffs announced in January.
ClickUp
Announced on July 4 that it has laid off 10% of its workforce, about 90 people.
Niantic
Announced June 29 that it laid of 230 employees — one year after it laid off around 90 employees.
Plex
Announced June 29 that it laid off approximately 20% of its staff, or 37 employees.
Grab
Announced the week of June 23 that it laid off more than a thousand people, or 11% of its staff.
Olx Group
Announced on June 20 that it has cut around 800 jobs globally. The news comes as the company started to close operations of its automotive business nit Olx Autos in some markets.
Mojocare
Announced on June 18 that the company will be laying off some 150 employees, a majority of the workforce.
Tada
Operated by Korean ride-sharing company Socar’s subsidiary VCNC announced on June 15 that it plans to let go of at least 50% of its staff or about 45 people at Tada.
Better.com
Announced on June 7 that it laid off its real estate team, it is not clear how many people were impacted.
Ursa Major
At least 14 people have been laid off from the rocket engine startup, announced on June 7. Ursa Major did not respond to TechCrunch’s inquiry into the layoffs, or the number of people affected. According to LinkedIn, 292 people are listed as currently working at Ursa.
Spotify
Announced June 5 that it will cut 200 jobs in its podcast unit, leading to a workforce reduction of 2%. This comes just a few months after the company announced a significant wave of layoffs.
Taxfix
Announced on May 30 that it has laid off 20% of staff—120 employees.
Meta
Announced May 24 that it is laying off about 6,000 people. In total, about 21,000 people have lost their jobs at Meta since November.
JioMart
Reliance Retail’s online shopping platform laid off over 1,000 employees on May 22, and plans to cut as many as 9,900 more roles over the coming weeks.
Krebs Stamos Group
Announced May 18 that the consulting firm laid off six people. In April, the firm had 18 employees including the founders. On May 18, the site shows only 14 team members.
TuSimple
Announced May 18 that it is laying off about 30% of employees.
Prior to the layoff, TuSimple had about 550 employees in the U.S. and post reduction in force the company will have about 220, according to the company.
Nuro
Announced May 12 that it will lay off 30%, or about 340 employees across the company.
Announced May 8 that it is cutting 716 jobs, or about 3.6% of total employees, and will phase out its local jobs app in China. Despite reducing some roles, LinkedIn also plans to open about 250 new jobs on May 15.
Rapid
Announced May 5 that Rapid (previously known as RapidAPI) has laid off another 70 employees less than two weeks after letting go of 50% of its staff. Just 42 people remain at the company, down from 230 in April, dropping a total of 82% in headcount.
Meesho
Announced May 4 that it has cut 15% of its workforce, or 251 roles. This comes after its first round of layoffs, which eliminated 150 roles about a year ago.
Shopify
Announced May 4 that it is laying off 20% of its workforce, impacting more than 2,000 people. It’s also selling its logistics business to Flexport for roughly 13% in stock.
Bishop Fox
Announced May 3 that it laid off around 50 employees — or 13% of its workforce — on May 2.
Neato Robotics
Announced May 1 that Vorwerk-owned Neato Robotics is shutting down, with nearly 100 employees impacted by the move.
Clubhouse
Announced April 27 that it has laid off more than 50% of staff. A spokesperson for Clubhouse declined to comment on the number of people impacted by today’s workforce reduction or the number of employees who remain at the company. Last October, Davison told TechCrunch that Clubhouse had close to 100 employees.
Dropbox
Announced April 27 that it would be laying off 500 employees or 16% of staff.
Amazon
Announced on April 26 that it is shutting down its Halo Health division, effective July 31, among other divisions. The layoffs are part of the 9,000 employees announced in March. Including the 18,000-person layoffs announced in January, this brings the total to 27,000 job cuts or 8% of Amazon’s corporate workforce this year.
Rapid
Announced on April 25, Rapid, previously known as RapidAPI, lays off 50% of its staff. The layoffs are believed to have impacted 115 people.
Anthemis Group
Announced on April 25 that it will lay off 16 people from its staff, or 28% of employees.
Lyft
Announced on April 21 that employees will learn whether they have a job or not via an email that will be sent out April 27.
Lyft layoffs to affect 26% of workforce, or about 1,072 people as promised on April 27.
Meta
Announced April 18th that it is expected to lay off 10,000 jobs in the coming months. This is on top of the 11,000 jobs that were cut in November.
Redfin
Announced April 13th that it has laid off 201 employees, about 4% of its workforce. This is the third time the Seattle-based real estate company has reduced its workforce since June.
Apple
Bloomberg reported on April 3 that Apple is laying off a small number of roles on its corporate retail teams.
Netflix
Announced on March 31, Netflix confirms a “handful of layoffs,” which includes two longtime executives. The exact number of layoffs is unclear. Netflix is scheduled to report Q1 2023 results on April 18.
Roku
Announced March 30 that it is letting go of about 200 employees, or 6% of its workforce. The company had laid off 200 U.S. employees back in November.
Unacademy
Announced March 30 that it has laid off more than 350 roles, or 12% of its workforce — just over four months after cutting about 350 roles in November.
Shift Technologies
Announced March 29 that it laid off 30% of its workforce in Q1 2023.
Lucid
Announced March 28 that it is laying off 1,300 employees, or 18% of its workforce, to be completed by the end of Q2 2023.
GitHub
Announced on March 28 that it has eliminated over 100 jobs in the South Asian market, laying off virtually its entire engineering team in India. A GitHub spokesperson told TechCrunch that the layoff is part of the streamlining effort the firm had disclosed in February to cut roughly 10% of its workforce by end of Q1 2023.
Disney
On March 27 in an internal memo to employees, Disney revealed there will be three rounds of layoffs, the first beginning this week. The job cuts will impact approximately 7,000 employees, which was announced in February.
Salesforce
On March 24, Bloomberg reported that more layoffs could be on the way at Salesforce, quoting chief operating officer Brian Millham, who indicated that the company could be adding to the ongoing job cutting at the CRM leader and in tech in general. If the layoffs happen, it would come on top of the 10% cut in January.
Accenture
Announced March 23 that it plans to cut 19,000 jobs, or 2.5% of its workforce.
Indeed
Announced March 22 that it will lay off 2,200 employees, or 15% of its staff.
Roofstock
Announced March 22 that it has laid off 27% of its staff, approximately 100 employees.
Twitch
Announced March 20 that it will lay off 400 employees.
Amazon
Announced March 20 another round of substantial layoffs, this time 9,000 people are set to lose their jobs. TechCrunch is hearing that around 10% of today’s total came from AWS. As part of the new round of layoffs, Amazon is shutting down DPReview.
Livespace
Announced March 20 that it has laid off at least 100 employees, about 2% of the company’s workforce.
Course Hero
Announced March 16 that it has cut 15% of staff, or 42 people.
Klaviyo
Announced March 15 that it has laid off 140 of its staff across all teams.
Microsoft
As a part of its recent announcement to layoff 10,000 people, Microsoft laid off an entire team dedicated to guiding AI innovation that leads to ethical, responsible and sustainable outcomes. On March 27, Microsoft laid off 559 workers from its Bellevue and Redmond operations.
Meta
CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed rumors March 14 that the company will be cutting 10,000 people from its workforce and around 5,000 open roles that it had yet to fill.
Atlassian
Announced on March 6, Atlassian is laying off about 500 employees, or 5% of its total workforce.
SiriusXM
Announced on March 6, the company laid off 475 employees, or 8% of its total workforce.
Alerzo
The Nigerian B2B e-commerce platform had a headcount of more than 2,000 before a first round of layoffs in September 2022. Alerzo has laid off 15% of its full-time workforce, the company confirmed on March 6, leaving about 800 employees at the startup.
Cerebral
Announced March 1, the company is letting go 15% of it’s workforce — roughly 285 employees.
Waymo
Announced March 1, Alphabet’s Waymo issued a second round of layoffs this year. Combined with the initial cuts in January, the self-driving technology company has let go of 8%, or 209 employees, of its workforce.
Thoughtworks
Announced on March 1, the company laid off about 4% of its global workforce — approximately 500 employees.
Announced on February 26, the company laid off more than 200 employees, including Esther Crawford, Haraldur Thorleifsson and Leah Culver. Since Musk took over Twitter in October last year, the company’s headcount has fallen by more than 70%.
Poshmark
Announced February 24, Poshmark confirmed with TechCrunch that less than 2% of its workforce was affected, primarily in the U.S. The company employs roughly 800+ employees.
Green Labs
We do not have an exact figure of how many Green Labs plans to lay off its staff. Green Labs confirmed to TechCrunch that it is conducting a round of layoffs that could impact at least 50% of its workforce.
Chipper Cash
Announced on February 20, the African cross-border payments platform conducted a second round of layoffs just 10 weeks after it cut approximately 12.5% of its workforce. Chipper Cash relieved almost one-third of its workforce, about 100 employees.
Evernote
On February 17 the company confirmed laying off 129 people.
Jumia
Announced February 16 that it cut 20% of its staff, or more than 900 positions across its 11 markets, in Q4 of 2022.
Convoy
Announced on February 16 that it is shuttering its Atlanta office and laying off workers as part of restructuring. This is the third time in less than a year that the company has laid off workers.
Sprinklr
Announced on February 15 that it will impact 4% of its global workforce — or more than 100 employees.
iRobot
Announced on February 13 that it will lay off 7% of its workforce, roughly 85 employees.
Twilio
Announced on February 13 that it will impact around 17% of its global workforce, about 1,400 people.
GitHub
Announced February 9, 10% of its staff will be impacted through the end of the company’s fiscal year. Before this announcement, which was first reported by Fortune, GitHub had about 3,000 employees.
Yahoo
Announced on February 9, 20% of its staff, impacting 1,600 employees in its adtech business. Yahoo is the parent company to TechCrunch.
GitLab
Announced February 9 that it’s reducing its headcount by 7%. The round of redundancies will impact around 114 people, though that specific figure is dependent on its actual headcount as of February 9.
Affirm
Announced on February 8 that it is reducing its staff by 19%, or about 500 employees, and shutting down its crypto unit.
Zoom
Announced the cut of 15% of its staff, or 1,300 people on February 7.
VinFast
VinFast has not shared how many employees have been cut, but a LinkedIn post from a former employee said “nearly 35 roles” were affected. Announced on February 6.
Dell
Announced February 6, impacting 6,650 people, or 5% of worldwide workforce.
Getaround
Announced February 2, 10% of staff — about 42 employees.
Announced February 2, 150 employees impacted. This is the second job-cutting move within weeks of the first round in December 2022.
Rivian
Announced on February 1, cutting 6% of its workforce for the second time in less than a year.
SoFi Technologies
Announced on January 31, cutting 65 jobs, or about 5% of its 1,300-person workforce. First reported by The Wall Street Journal.
NetApp
Announced on January 31, impacting 8% of its staff — about 960 people.
Groupon
Impacting another 500 employees announced on January 31. The company said this new set of layoffs will be spread across the first two quarters of 2023.
Impossible Foods
PayPal
Announced on January 30, about 2,000 full-time employees, or 7% of its workforce, were affected.
Arrival
Announced on January 30, with a newly appointed CEO, slashing 50% of its workforce — 800 employees globally.
Waymo
The self-driving technology unit under Alphabet quietly laid off workers on January 24, according to The Information and several posts on LinkedIn and Blind. It’s not yet clear how many of Waymo’s staff will be affected.
Spotify
Announced on January 23, impacting around 6% of its global workforce — around 600 employees.
Alphabet
Google’s parent company announced laying off 6% of its global workforce on January 21, equating to 12,000 employees. These cuts impact divisions such as Area 120, the Google in-house incubator and Alphabet’s robotics division, Intrinsic.
Fandom
The entertainment company announced an unspecified number of employees impacted across multiple properties on January 20. According to a report by Variety, the company employs around 500 people, and the layoffs have affected roughly 10% of its staff across different sites.
Swiggy
Announced plans to lay off 380 jobs on January 20 and shut down its meat marketplace.
Sophos
Announced on January 18, 10% of its global workforce, about 450 people were let go.
Microsoft
As announced on January 18, 10,000 employees will be impacted.
GoMechanic
Laid off 70% of its workforce on January 18.
Clearco
Announced on January 17, impacting 30% of staff across all teams.
ShareChat
Announced on January 15, ShareChat laid off 20% of its workforce — or over 400 employees — just a month after eliminating more than 100 roles.
SmartNews
Announced on January 12 a 40% reduction of its U.S. and China workforce, or around 120 people.
Intrinsic
Alphabet’s robot software firm, Intrinsic, is laying off 40 employees TechCrunch confirmed on January 12. Amounting to around 20% of the headcount.
Greenlight
The fintech startup offering debit cards to kids laid off 104 employees on January 12, or over 21% of its total headcount of 485 employees.
Career Karma
Learning navigation platform Career Karma laid off another 22 people on January 12 across its global and domestic workforce.
DirectTV
Announced on January 12 plans to lay off about 10% of its management staff on January 20.
Informatica
Reported on January 11 that it will lay off 7% of it’s workforce, or 450 staffers globally.
Carta
Announced on January 11, the equity management platform cut 10% of its staff. Judging by LinkedIn data, the layoff could have impacted around 200 employees.
Citizen
Impacting 33 staff members on January 11.
Coinbase
To cut 950 jobs, or about 20% of its workforce, and shut down “several” projects, announced on January 10. This is the second round of major layoffs at the crypto exchange, which eliminated 18% of its workforce, or nearly 1,100 jobs last June.
SuperRare
The NFT marketplace is cutting 30% of its staff, announced on January 6.
Salesforce
Announced on January 4 that it’s cutting 10% of its workforce, impacting more than 7,000 employees. A month later, some Salesforce employees had just found out they were also a part of the 10% layoff announcement.
Vimeo
Announced on January 4, cutting 11% of its workforce.
What's Next on The Horizon for Tech Layoffs?
As the tech sector continues to evolve and adapt, it is inevitable that layoffs will continue to occur. While it is challenging to predict the exact nature and extent of future layoffs, several trends and factors can shed light on potential scenarios for 2024. With inflation on the rise, an election looming, we will likely see additional large cuts in the next six months.
For the workforce affected by these layoffs, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. While eperiencing a layoff can be a challenging and disheartening experience for tech professionals. There are strategies that can help individuals navigate this difficult period and come out stronger on the other side. Firstly, it is essential to take the time to process emotions and seek support from friends, family, or professional networks. Talking about the experience and seeking guidance can provide much-needed perspective and assistance in exploring new opportunities.
Additionally, upskilling and staying abreast of the latest industry trends can enhance employability. The tech industry is constantly evolving, and staying relevant in a competitive job market requires continuous learning. Pursuing certifications, attending workshops, or enrolling in online courses can help individuals expand their skill set and increase their chances of securing new employment. While tech is a viable option, it could make sense to explore other industries and markets that are less volitile.
Lastly, networking is another critical aspect of navigating the aftermath of a layoff. Building and maintaining professional relationships can open doors to new opportunities and provide valuable insights into the job market. Attending events, joining online communities, and reaching out to former colleagues or mentors can help connect with potential employers and gain access to the hidden job market.
While the future of tech layoffs may remain uncertain, one thing is clear: the tech industry will continue to evolve, and with it, the challenges and opportunities that come with it. By staying informed, adaptable, and resilient, professionals can navigate the turbulent waters of tech layoffs and thrive in this dynamic industry.
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