AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
- Amazon and Salesforce are the latest to be hit by a wave of layoffs at big US tech companies.
- The companies are cutting thousands of employees in total.
- See the full list of layoffs so far in 2023.
A wave of layoffs that hit dozens of major US companies toward the end of 2022 appears to show no sign of slowing down into 2023.
Amazon is the latest tech giant to lay off thousands of workers. The Wall Street Journal reported that the company would cut more than 17,000 jobs in the coming weeks, more than any other major tech company in recent months.
However, Amazon is not the first tech company to have cuts in the new year: Salesforce and Vimeo have also announced layoffs amid a continued economic downturn and stagnating sales.
The downsizing follows significant reductions at companies including Twitter and Meta late last year.
The layoffs have largely affected the tech sector, which is now hemorrhaging employees at a faster rate than at any point during the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. According to data cited by the Journal from Layoffs.fyi, a site that's been tracking layoffs since the start of the pandemic, tech companies slashed more than 150,000 in 2022 alone — compared to 80,000 in 2020 and 15,000 in 2021.
Here are the notable examples so far in 2023:
Amazon
Amazon is in the midst of the most significant round of layoffs in the company's history.
In a memo to employees, CEO Andy Jassy said the company would cut more than 18,000 workers in total – far more than what was initially expected based on reporting by the New York Times.
Jassy cited "the uncertain economy" and rapid hiring as reasons for the layoffs.
While most of Amazon's 1.5 million staff have warehouse jobs, the layoffs are concentrated in Amazon's corporate groups.
Amazon's layoffs began late last year, though the Wall Street Journal reports cuts will continue through the first few weeks of 2023.
Amazon's 18,000 jobs cuts are the largest of any major tech company amid the wave of recent layoffs.
Noam Galai/Getty Images
Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff announced on Jan. 4 that the software company plans to layoff 10% of its workforce — an estimated 7,000 employees — and close select offices as part of a restructuring and cost-cutting plan.
"The environment remains challenging and our customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions," Benioff wrote in an email to staff. "With this in mind, we've made the very difficult decision to reduce our workforce by about 10 percent, mostly over the coming weeks."
He continued: "As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we're now facing, and I take responsibility for that."
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud told employees on Jan. 4 that the company would layoff 11% of its staff, the video platform's second major round of layoffs in less than a year, after cutting 6% of employees in July
"This was a very hard decision that impacts each of us deeply," Sud wrote in an email to staff. "It is also the right thing to do to enable Vimeo to be a more focused and successful company, operating with the necessary discipline in an uncertain economic environment."
A spokesperson told Insider reduction is intended to assist with ongoing economic concerns and improve the company's balance sheet.
Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Goldman Sachs is expected to layoff up to 8% of its staff in the first half of January, a person familiar with the matter told Insider in December.
The cost-cutting efforts from the investment banking giant mirrors reductions from competitors including Morgan Stanley and Citi, which also laid off employees in 2022.
"We continue to see headwinds on our expense lines, particularly in the near term," Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said at a conference last month. "We've set in motion certain expense mitigation plans, but it will take some time to realize the benefits. Ultimately, we will remain nimble and we will size the firm to reflect the opportunity set."
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