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Journalism of Courage
In the initial few days of December, tech professionals saw some major layoffs across industries. The month began with a big announcement from music streaming application Spotify that laid off close to 1500 employees, which amounts to close to 17 per cent of its overall staff.
While this is the first big layoff in December, 2023 has seen as many as 2,40,000 job cuts, a 50 per cent rise since 2022. Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, and Zoom were some of the other big tech companies that axed jobs this year.
On Monday, Spotify announced that it was laying off 17 per cent of its employees in a bid to bring down costs. The company had laid off 200 in June and some 600 of its staff in January this year. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, in a letter to employees, said that the company had hired more staff in 2020 and 2021 owing to the lower cost of capital. Although the company’s output increased, most of it was linked to having more resources. Ek said that by most metrics, the company was more productive but less efficient.
Sticking to its plan to cut nearly 20 per cent of its staff by the end of the year, Yahoo has begun its layoffs. Over the weekend, several employees from Yahoo’s Sports and News divisions took to their social media to announce their exit from the company. The latest reduction in jobs reportedly aligns with Yahoo’s initial plan to downsize one-fifth of its workforce, which is essentially a part of its comprehensive restructuring initiative that was launched earlier this year.
Videogame software provider Unity Software (UN) on November 28 laid off as many as 265 employees, which is equivalent to 3.8 per cent of its global workforce. Reportedly, the company has a total workforce of 7,000. Along with the layoffs, the company also ended its agreement with a digital video effects company founded by Hollywood director Peter Jackson.
On Monday, cloud communications company Twilio kickstarted its third round of layoffs with job cuts of 5 per cent from its workforce. Following the layoffs, CEO Jeff Lawson said that it was all part of the necessary transition to profitable growth. The latest round of layoffs primarily affects sales professionals at Twilio’s consumer data platform and contact centre software. Since September 2022, the company has laid off 3,000 workers. The company’s shares also plummeted to 1.1 per cent on Monday after the layoffs.
E-commerce giant Amazon saw massive layoffs this year. So far, it has laid off close to 18,000 employees since January. In November, Amazon’s Alexa business was reported to be laying off ‘several hundred’ employees. The same month, the tech giant also initiated job cuts in its music division which impacted its employees in North America, Latin, America and Europe.
Numerous game developers such as New World Interactive, Tinybuild, EA-owned Codemasters, and Ubisoft Montreal, announced major layoffs in the last three months. In November, Ubisoft Montreal laid off as many as 100 people, while Epic Games sacked 16 per cent of its workforce. Meanwhile, UK-based developer Codemasters suffered a round of layoffs after the launch of its racing games F1 23 and EA Sports WRC. On November 29, it was reported that Unity plans to cut 265 jobs. Based on an SEC filing, Unity also has plans to close offices in approximately 14 locations.
The latest round of layoffs can be seen as an extension of the spate of layoffs that has been witnessed in the tech industry since the start of the year.
