2023 Layoff Roundup – More than 60K Jobs Lost

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by Samuel Pordengerg Mar 17, 2023 News
2023 Layoff Roundup – More than 60K Jobs Lost

Many tech companies laid off employees last year. Companies are facing higher costs, need for restructuring, and an uncertain global economy in the year 2023. The challenges can mean that companies have to cut jobs. Customers who lose subscription products and services may not get the same level of customer service they have become accustomed to.

Over 60,000 job cuts and the elimination of 5,000 vacant positions have been announced this year. Companies that announced layoffs late last year are not included in this list.

Disney

The Walt Disney Company is in the middle of a strategic restructuring that will include transitioning to three core divisions: Entertainment, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. About 3% of Disney's total workforce will be eliminated as a result of the restructure.

In a February 9, 2023 announcement, Iger said, "For nearly 100 years, storytellers and creatives have fueled The Walt Disney Company, with virtually every interaction we have with our consumers coming from something creative." I want to position this company for a new era of growth. The restructuring will return creativity to the center of the company, increase accountability, improve results, and ensure the quality of our content and experiences.

The Walt Disney Logo next to Micky Mouse on a white background
Source: Disney

Dotdash Meredith

Tech companies are not the only ones that are affected by layoffs. The pain is being felt by media companies as well. Approximately 7% of the staff at Dotdash will be laid off. The layoffs will affect a lot of departments. About 200 jobs were laid off last year because of the company's print operations.

Google

According to CNBC, in January, 12,000 staff were told via email that they would lose their jobs. Local laws and employment practices in other countries could cause some layoffs to be delayed.

There have been periods of dramatic growth over the last two years. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we are currently facing. Thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in artificial intelligence, I am confident in the huge opportunity we have. Tough choices will have to be made to fully capture it.

We undertook a review to make sure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities. The results of that review are reflected in the roles we are eliminating. The CEO said that they cut acrossAlphabet.

Meta

More than 11,000 employees were laid off by Meta in November of 2022. More jobs will be cut and open positions will be eliminated. The round of layoffs is part of the theme of the year of efficient.

In the next couple of months, org leaders will announce restructuring plans that include flattening our orgs, canceling lower priority projects, and reducing our hiring rates. I had to reduce the size of our recruiting team because of less hiring. We expect to announce restructurings and layoffs in our tech groups in late April and late May, according to a March 14 memo to employees.

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After restructuring, the CEO said they will lift hiring and transfer freezes in each group and complete their analysis of the hybrid work model.

Part of our work will involve removing jobs, and that will be in service of both building a leaner, more technical company and improving our business performance to enable our long term vision.

A leaner org will be more efficient. People will be more productive and their work will be more enjoyable. The final output is what we build for people. We do everything in service of that.

Meta logo on smartphone with Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp logos in the background
Source: Bigstock Photo

Microsoft

About 5% of the tech company's total workforce will be cut by the end of March.

The company needs to align their costs with revenue and customer demand, according to the CEO. He said the company is allocating capital and talent to areas of secular growth and long term competitiveness for the company. He didn't say which divisions would be affected.

In a memo to staff, he wrote, "It's important to note that while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we will still be hiring in key strategic areas." This is a difficult time for many people. As we go through this process, the senior leadership team and I are committed to being transparent and thoughtful.

These decisions need to be made. They are difficult because they affect people and people's lives.

Several rounds of layoffs have taken place in the last few years.

NPR

NPR announced in February that it would lay off 10% of its staff due to falling revenue. Unfilled positions will be cut by the media organization. There is a budget shortfall between $30 million and $32 million.

The global economy is uncertain at a time when we are doing some of our most important work. The ad industry has weakened and we are grappling with a decline in revenues from corporate sponsors. We will need to eliminate many of the vacant positions that have been frozen in order to support personnel costs. The filled positions need to be reduced by 10%.

National Public Radio (npr) logo displayed on smartphone
Source: Adobe Stock Photo

Salesforce

Thousands of jobs were cut and some offices were closed at the start of the year at the popularCRM company. It is estimated that the cost of restructuring will be between two and three billion dollars. They said in the SEC filing that they were restructuring to reduce costs, improve operating margins, and increase profitability. The uncertainty of the economy made it necessary for the company to reduce its workforce.

I have been thinking about how we got to this point. We hired too many people before the economic downturn and I take responsibility for that.

The fiscal year ended on January 31st. The company had an operating margin of 3.3%, but their revenue results were strong. The total revenue for the year was $32.35 billion, an 18% increase over the previous year. Subscription and support revenue increased 18% year-over-year. Other revenue included professional services. Subscription and support revenue makes up nearly all of the revenue. Professional services and other revenue make up the rest. A net loss was reported by the company.

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SiriusXM

About 8% of the total workforce will be laid off by the satellite radio company. The cuts will affect almost all departments. The company would place tighter restrictions on travel and entertainment spending as a result of the job cuts. In the wake of a companywide review of the business, Jennifer Witz was looking for areas where the company could be more efficient and Agile.

The company is going into a new phase. Witz said that the investments we are making in the business this year necessitate us to think differently about how our organization is structured.

Over the past five years, our business has grown and expanded with the addition of new acquisitions. In her email to the company, Witz said that they have completed an assessment of their departments and functions to determine where we can improve collaboration, consolidate teams to achieve greater efficiency, and design an organization structure that is best positioned to achieve our priorities.

The company ended the year with over 30 million self-pay subscribers, an increase of 348,000. There are some who listen to the ad-supported version of Pandora and others who don't.

Twitter

There were a number of layoffs and re-hirs after Musk bought the company. About 10% of the remaining 2,000 employees were laid off last month. About 7,500 people were employed when Musk took over. There were layoffs and resignations that reduced the number of employees.

Esther Crawford, the founder of screen-sharing app Squad, and Martin de Kujiper, the founder of newsletter platform Revue, were among those who lost their jobs as a result of the acquisition by Twitter.

Twitter logo on rubber stamps
Source: Adobe Stock

Vox Media

133 people were laid off from the company in January. The revenue, editorial, operations and core services divisions were affected by layoffs. The company has laid off employees in the last year.

Jim Bankoff, CEO, said that they are not expecting further layoffs at this time, but that they will continue to assess their outlook, keep a tight control on expenses and consider other cost savings measures as needed.

In the summer of 2015, the company laid off 39 employees. After completing their merger, Group Nine Media laid off 3% of their workforce.

Yahoo

Yahoo is the latest tech company to lay off workers. In February, Yahoo announced that they would lay off 50% of their ad tech division, or about 1,600 employees. In the middle of February, about 1,000 positions were cut. In the second half of the century, the balance of layoffs will happen.

"Despite many years of effort and investment, this strategy was not profitable and struggled to live up to our high standards across the entire stack." These changes will simplify and strengthen our advertising business for the long run, and enable Yahoo to deliver better value to our customers and partners.

The layoffs were not due to financial difficulties, but the company needs to restructure its business ad division. Yahoo is shutting down Yahoo for Business, a platform that allows publishers to sell automated ads within their content, according to a report.

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