There Have Been More Than 95,000 Layoffs In The Last Year At Google, Meta, Amazon, And Other Tech Companies

Despite the 10-year bull market, job cuts are piling up in tech land.

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In January, Google announced that it would be laying off 12,000 employees from its workforce, while Microsoft announced that it would be letting go of 10,000 staff members. There has also been news that Amazon has begun a fresh round of job cuts that are expected to eliminate more than 18,000 employees, making them the largest workforce reduction in the history of the e-commerce company that has been in business for 28 years.

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Meta announced on Tuesday that it plans to lay off 10,000 workers, in addition to the 11,000 cuts the company made in November.

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A slowing economy, higher interest rates to combat inflation, and fears of a possible recession in the near future contribute to layoffs in a time of slow growth.

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The following are some of the major cuts in the tech industry so far. Numbers are approximations based on public filings, statements, and media reports:

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Alphabet: 12,000 jobs cut

The parent company of Google, Alphabet, revealed Friday that 12,000 employees are to be laid off from the company's workforce.

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Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, wrote in an email sent to the company's employees that the company will begin making layoffs in the U.S. as soon as possible. Depending on the local laws and practices, the process may take longer in other countries, he said, because of local laws and practices there. Google employees were reportedly fearing layoffs as their counterparts made cuts and as the performance rating system of the company was changed in November, according to the Trade Algo report.

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Before January, Google had largely avoided layoffs, but its health sciences division, Verily, cut about 240 employees.

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Microsoft: 10,000 jobs cut

As Microsoft prepares for slower revenue growth, it is laying off 10,000 employees through March 31. In addition, the company will take a charge of $1.2 billion.

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Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, said in a memo to employees that was posted on the company's website Wednesday that he was confident the company will emerge from this stronger and more competitive than ever. This week, some employees will hear if they are losing their jobs as a result of the layoffs, he wrote.

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Amazon: 18,000 jobs cut

Earlier this month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced the company was planning to lay off more than 18,000 employees, primarily in its human resources and stores departments. Amazon announced in November that it was looking to cut staff, including in its recruiting and devices departments. Approximately 10,000 employees were expected to be laid off at the time, according to Trade Algo.

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The Covid-19 pandemic prompted Amazon to hire on a massive scale. Its global workforce grew from 798,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019 to more than 1.6 million by the end of 2021.

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Crypto.com: 500 jobs cut

Crypto.com announced plans to lay off 20% of its workforce on Jan. 13. Approximately 490 employees were laid off, according to PitchBook data, based on the company's 2,450 employees. 

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FTX's CEO Kris Marszalek has recently stated in a blog post that the crypto exchange has grown "ambitiously" but was not able to weather the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire FTX without further reductions.

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“We have already notified all employees affected,” Marszalek wrote.

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Coinbase: 2,000 jobs cut

With the crypto market in a downturn, Coinbase announced plans to cut about a fifth of its workforce.

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There will be 950 job cuts at the exchange, according to a blog post. A coinbase, which had approximately 4,700 employees as of the end of September, had already slashed 18% of its workforce in June, citing the need to manage costs after growing "too quickly" at the height of the bull market.

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“I believe we should have done more if we had perfect hindsight,” as Brian Armstrong, CEO of Trade Algo, told Trade Algo in an interview at the time. "All you can do is react quickly once you receive the information, and that's exactly what we are doing in this case as soon as it becomes available."

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Dell: 6,650 jobs cut

Dell announced early in February that it would lay off about 6,650 employees, or 5% of its workforce. Despite having more than 130,000 employees at the start of the year, the company has made cuts to "stay ahead of the impact of the downturn."

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Dell was hit harder than its competitors by a slowdown in PC demand.

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eBay: 500 jobs cut

There were 500 job losses announced by eBay in February, which is a 4% reduction in the number of employees. eBay's CEO Jamie Iannone shared the same view as many other executives when he said the cutbacks were the result of a challenging macroeconomic environment around the world.

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Salesforce: 7,000 jobs cut

A restructuring plan by Salesforce will result in a 10% reduction in staff and some office space reductions, the company announced Jan. 4. Approximately 79,000 people were employed by Salesforce at the end of December.

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Given the challenging macroeconomic environment, co-CEO Marc Benioff said customers have become more measured in their purchasing decisions, forcing Salesforce to lay off workers.

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The company will record charges of $1 billion to $1.4 billion related to headcount reductions, and $450 million to $650 million related to office space reductions.

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Meta: 21,000 jobs cut

Meta, Facebook's parent company, announced its most significant round of layoffs ever in November. Over 11,000 employees will be cut, or 13% of the company's staff.

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After just four months, Mark Zuckerberg, the company's CEO, announced in a message to employees in March that the company would lay off an additional 10,000 employees and close hiring for 5,000 jobs in the coming months.

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As a result of Meta's disappointing guidance for the fourth quarter of 2022, one-fourth of its market cap was wiped out and the stock fell to its lowest level since 2016.

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Tech giant cuts headcount after expanding by about 60% during pandemic. Competitors such as TikTok, a slowdown in online ad spending, and Apple's iOS changes have hurt the company.

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Twilio: 1,500 jobs cut

Twilio announced in February that it would lay off 17% of its workforce, which translates into about 1,500 employees. There were nearly 9,000 employees working for the company in September of 2022. By that time, nearly 11% of the company's workforce had already been laid off.

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Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson said at the time that the changes hurt.

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Twitter: 3,700 jobs cut

It was reported that Elon Musk cut around 3,700 Twitter staffers, not long after he closed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter in late October, according to internal communications viewed by Trade Algo. That's about half of the entire staff. It has been found that there has been a significant increase in the number of employees quitting since Musk changed some policies around working from home and stated his expectations that all employees commit to a "hardcore" work environment since then.

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Musk tweeted on Nov. 4 that Tesla was losing $4 million a day and had no choice but to lay off employees.

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Lyft: 700 jobs cut 

The company announced in November that it was cutting 13% of its staff, or about 700 jobs. "A probable recession sometime next year" and rising ride-share insurance costs were mentioned in a letter to employees by CEO Logan Green and President John Zimmer.

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The ride-hailing company promised laid-off workers 10 weeks of pay, health insurance coverage until April 30, accelerated equity vesting until Nov. 20 and recruiting assistance. An extra four weeks of pay will be given to employees who have worked for the company for more than four years.

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Stripe: 1,100 jobs cut

Stripe, the online payment giant which has about 1,100 employees, has announced plans to lay off approximately 14% of its staff in November, which amounts to roughly 1,400 people.

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Despite rising inflation, fears of a looming recession, higher interest rates, energy shocks, tighter investment budgets, and sparser startup funding, Collison explained the cuts in a memo to staff. This combination of factors signals "a new economic climate starting in 2022," he said.

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According to reports, Stripe's internal valuation was lowered to $74 billion in July from $95 billion last year.

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Shopify: 1,000 jobs cut

Shopify announced in July that it laid off 1,000 employees, or 10% of its global workforce.

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Tobi Lutke, CEO of Amazon, said in a memo to staff that he had underestimated the duration of the pandemic-driven e-commerce boom. There has been a 78% decline in the stock price of the company in 2022.

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Netflix: 450 jobs cut

Two rounds of layoffs have been announced by Netflix. After reporting its first subscriber loss in a decade, the streaming service cut 150 jobs in May. The company announced 300 more layoffs at the end of June. 

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Netflix said in a statement to employees: "While we continue to invest heavily in the business, we have made these adjustments so that our costs are growing in line with our slower revenue growth.".

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Snap: 1,000 jobs cut 

In late August, Snap announced it was laying off 20% of its workforce, which equates to more than 1,000 workers.

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In a memo sent to Snap employees, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel stated that the company was in need of reshaping its business so that it could be able to deal with its financial challenges. "We were expecting revenue growth of 8% over the previous quarter, which is much lower than what we received at the beginning of the year," he said.

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Robinhood: 1,100 jobs cut

There was a 23% reduction in Robinhood's staff in August, which comes after they cut 9% of their workforce in April. This amounts to more than 1,100 employees as based on public filings and reports that have been made available to the public.

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Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood, blamed a widening crypto market crash and high inflation on the deterioration of the macro environment.

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Tesla: 6,000 jobs cut

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced in June that 10% of salaried employees would be laid off. Based on public filings, Trade Algo estimated the reductions would affect about 6,000 employees.

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"Tesla will reduce salaried headcount by 10% as we have become overstaffed in many areas," Musk wrote. “The above does not apply to those who build cars, battery packs, or install solar panels. There will be an increase in hourly headcount."

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Zoom: 1,300 jobs cut

Zoom laid off 1,300 workers in February after cutting 15% of its workforce. During the height of Zoom's growth, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said, "we didn't take as much time as we should have to analyze our teams and assess if we were growing sustainably."

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The explosive growth of Zoom has been sparked by the Covid-19 lockdowns, but the company has also suffered as many people have returned to normalcy after the lockdowns.