(KRON) — The tech wave brought on by the pandemic continues to ebb as more Bay Area-based companies order layoffs.
Countless companies across the U.S. have ordered layoffs including high-profile tech companies such as Twitter, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon.
As we make our way through 2023, companies continue to announce staffing cuts in and out of the tech industry. Many have cited the need to correct staffing after an aggressive hiring period during the pandemic or a restructuring of business strategies.
Waymo
Waymo confirmed to KRON4 that it cut 8% of its staff in two rounds of layoffs. Reuters reported that 137 employees were terminated in the second round.
The Mountain View-based company said the layoffs were the result of a “close look at our organizational structure.” Some of the roles that were removed were in engineering.
Coinbase
Crypto-trading company Coinbase headquartered in San Francisco announced a 20 percent staffing cut that would impact around 950 employees. The announcement came in the wake of the collapse of FTX with CEO Brian Armstrong citing “fallout from unscrupulous actors in the industry” along with downward trends in the crypto market and broader macroeconomy as reasons for the downsize.
As of Jan. 31, Coinbase’s stock price has dropped about 67 percent year over year.
DocuSign
San Francisc-based DocuSign announced plans to lay off 10 percent of its workforce Thursday, according to a letter filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This will impact about 700 employees, “primarily in the Company’s worldwide field organization,” the letter stated.
The letter cited a company restructure as the reason for the staffing cut.
This is the second round of layoffs DocuSign has announced since September 2022, when the company rolled out another restructuring plan that saw it reduce its then workforce by about 9 percent.
eBay
San Jose-based eBay plans to slash its workforce by 4 percent, according to the company’s SEC filing.
CEO Jamie Iannone wrote a letter to employees announcing that eBay is eliminating jobs in response to the global macroeconomic environment, CNBC reported.
As of Feb. 8, eBay’s stock price has fallen about 14 percent year over year.
Tech behemoth Google announced a six percent slash of its workforce, which would impact around 12,000 jobs.
As of Jan. 31, Google parent company Alphabet’s stock price has fallen about 26 percent year over year.
Okta
San Francisco-based identity recognition software company Okta announced plans to cut its global workforce by five percent, which would impact about 300 employees.
In a letter to employees posted on its corporate blog Feb. 2, CEO Todd McKinnon admitted that the company hired too many employees for their current situation.
“A workforce reduction like this is the last thing I wanted to do, and I am truly sorry,” he told employees.
As of Feb. 2, Okta’s stock price has fallen about 58 percent year over year.
PagerDuty
San Francisco-based company PagerDuty announced a seven percent workforce layoff citing a change in the company’s strategy. The announcement said the layoffs would impact mostly North America
CEO Jennifer Tajeda faced backlash over her letter to employees announcing the layoffs, in which she quoted Martin Luther King Jr. and did not mention the layoffs until the seventh paragraph.
As of Jan. 31, PagerDuty’s stock price has fallen about seven percent year over year.
PayPal
PayPal, headquartered in San Jose, Calif., announced its plans to cut seven percent of its workforce, which would impact about 2,000 people.
As of Jan. 31, PayPal’s stock price has fallen about 50 percent year over year.
San Francisco-based social media company Pinterest has announced plans to lay off almost 150 people, according to Bloomberg. Pinterest later confirmed the layoffs in a statement sent to TechCrunch.
“We’re making organizational changes to further set us up to deliver against our company priorities and our long-term strategy,” a company spokesperson said in a statement quoted by TechCrunch. “All of the employees who were impacted contributed to Pinterest and as they transition, we’re committed to supporting them with separation packages, benefits, and other services.”
As of Feb. 2, Pinterest’s stock price has seen a 5-percent dip year over year.
Salesforce
San Francisco-based company Salesforce announced a 10 percent cut to its staff, which would impact more than 7,350 employees.
In a letter to employees, CEO Mark Benioff said, “The environment remains challenging and our customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions,” regarding the layoffs.
As of Jan. 31, Salesforce’s stock price has fallen by about 24 percent year over year.
Splunk
San Francisco-based data management company Splunk filed a letter with the SEC announcing its plans to cut four percent of its workforce mostly in North America, which would impact about 325 employees.
CEO Gary Steele cited organizational and strategic changes as the reason for the layoffs and is offering a severance package to any employees impacted.
As of Feb. 1, Splunk’s stock price has fallen about 21 percent year over year.
Twilio
San Francisco-based communications company Twilio announced its plans to lay off about 17 percent of its workforce Monday, according to an email sent to Twilio employees and published on its corporate blog.
CEO Jeff Lawson cited a major restructuring of the company as the reason for the staffing cut.
This announcement comes just months after a decision to lay off about 11 percent of its workforce in September 2022.
As of Feb. 13, Twilio’s stock price has fallen about 67 percent year over year.
Twitter reportedly laid off about 10 percent of its remaining workforce–about 200 employees–in an attempt to continue cutting costs since Elon Musk’s takeover in 2022. It now has a staff size of less than 2,000.
This is the second round of layoffs since an announcement in November 2022 that saw about 3,700 employees laid off–about half of the company’s previous workforce of about 7,500.
Since Musk bought out all shareholders for $44 billion, the company is no longer publicly traded.
Workday
Workday, headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif., filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it planned to lay off three percent of its global workforce with the majority of the layoffs impacting its product and technology division.
The company said all notifications were set to be completed by Jan. 31.
As of Jan. 31, Workday’s stock price had fallen by about 24 percent year over year.
Zoom
San Jose-based video communications company Zoom announced it would be cutting 15 percent of its workforce impacting about 1,300 employees in a letter to its employees published on its company blog. It also said the company’s CEO Eric Yuan would be taking a 98 percent pay cut and members of executive leadership would take a 20 percent pay cut to their base salaries as well as forfeit any corporate bonuses in Fiscal Year 2023.
As of Feb. 7, Zoom’s stock price has fallen about 43 percent year over year.
For a full list of companies that have seen layoffs, click here.
