It’s been a tough year for technology companies in San Francisco and Silicon Valley , with some companies facing layoffs and hiring freezes. Tech executives say companies are cutting back on headcount as they see a recession looming.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he had a "super bad feeling" about what was going to happen next and decided to pause hiring. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said he is preparing for the worst because if a recession comes, a "crypto winter" will arrive.
Tesla, an electric car manufacturing company, laid off 10% of its employees in June this year. Tesla said it has more than 10,000 employees worldwide, according to a May filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Movie and TV streaming service Netflix has laid off 450 employees in the past two months. Netflix laid off 150 employees in its first round of layoffs in May, followed by another 300 in June.
Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase recently announced that it will lay off 18% of its employees. "I am making the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by approximately 18% to ensure we remain healthy during this economic downturn," Coinbase CEO and co-founder Armstrong wrote in a June 14 message. "Armstrong listed the reasons why the layoffs are necessary. "Economic conditions are changing rapidly. After more than 10 years of economic prosperity, we appear to be entering a recession. An economic recession could lead to another cryptocurrency winter that could last for a long time. In the past cryptocurrency winter, Transaction revenue (our largest source of revenue) has declined significantly. While it is difficult to predict the economy or the market, we always plan for the worst. We want to ensure that we can successfully survive a prolonged recession."
Online Personal Shopping. and styling company Stich Fix announced on June 9 that it was cutting 15% of its workforce — about 330 employees. CEO Elizabeth Spaulding wrote in a memo to employees: "I am writing to share the difficult news that we will be cutting approximately 15% of our positions. The majority of the layoffs will be in our non-business operations. Technical corporate positions and styling leadership positions. Given our recent business momentum and the uncertain macroeconomic environment, we have taken a fresh look at our business and what it takes to build our future. "
Headquartered in San Francisco, USA Vacation Rentals Short. The rental platform Sonder Holdings positioned itself as a higher-end Airbnb, and its valuation once reached nearly 2 billion yuan. According to Market Watch, Sonder Holdings announced on June 9 that it was "restructuring" its business, including cutting 21% of corporate positions and 7% of front-line positions.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is also in the midst of a hiring freeze. The product groups subject to the freeze are dating apps, gaming apps and messaging apps designed for children. One reason for the freeze is privacy changes in Apple's iOS that require apps to ask for permission before tracking user activity. Meta said that the application tracking transparency function of Apple will reduce the company's sales in 2022 by about 10 billion yuan.
According to Business Insider, Twitter froze most hiring efforts in May, saying: "Starting this week, we will suspend most hiring, except for business-critical positions," a spokesperson for the company said, according to Bloomberg , Twitter CEO told employees that the company is facing struggles after failing to meet its audience-building and revenue goals.
Twitter is also facing acquisition by Musk. Musk said of possible layoffs at the company that currently, "costs exceed revenue. That's not a good situation." He also touched on growth, saying he'd like to see Twitter reach 1 billion users - roughly four times its current user count.
According to Fortune magazine, Intel ordered a hiring freeze in June this year for its computing group, which makes PC chips for desktop computers and laptops. "Increasing focus and prioritization in our spending will help us weather macroeconomic uncertainty," Intel told Fortune.
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