What companies have slowed hiring? Google latest to hit brakes

A number of tech giants have announced hiring freezes and hinted at layoffs over the past few weeks - from Apple to Meta, here are some of the companies making trims

Thu, 21 Jul, 2022 - 14:30

Martine Paris

With recession fears mounting - and inflation, the war in Ukraine and the lingering pandemic taking a toll - many tech companies are rethinking their staffing needs, with some of them instituting hiring freezes, rescinding offers and even starting layoffs.

Microsoft Corp, Google and Lyft Inc are some of the latest companies to pull back. Microsoft said Wednesday it was eliminating many job openings. Google is pausing hiring for the next two weeks, while Lyft is shutting down a division and trimming jobs.

Here’s a look at the dozens of companies that are tapping the brakes.

Alphabet

Google’s parent company has been decelerating its recruiting efforts. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told employees this month that, although the business added 10,000 Googlers in the second quarter, it will be slowing the pace of hiring for the rest of the year and prioritizing engineering and technical talent.

“Like all companies, we’re not immune to economic headwinds,” he said. The hiring pause announced Wednesday is part of that slowdown, Google said, “to enable teams to prioritize their roles and hiring plans for the rest of the year.”

Google had 164,000 employees at the end of March, 8,000 of which were based in the company's Dublin-based EU headquarters.

Amazon

Amazon.com Inc said in April that it was overstaffed after ramping up during the pandemic and needed to cut back.

“As the variant subsided in the second half of the quarter and employees returned from leave, we quickly transitioned from being understaffed to being overstaffed, resulting in lower productivity,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said.

Amazon is subleasing some warehouse space and has paused development of facilities meant for office workers, saying it needs more time to figure out how much space employees will require for hybrid work.

The company had 1.6 million workers as of March, making it the biggest employer in the tech world. Amazon has offices in Cork and Dublin.

Apple

Apple Inc is planning to slow hiring and spending at some divisions next year to cope with a potential economic slump, according to people familiar with the matter.

But it’s not a companywide policy, and the iPhone maker is still moving forward with an aggressive product-release schedule.

Apple had 154,000 employees in September and as of 2020, employed over 6,000 people in its Cork campus.

Coinbase

Coinbase Global Inc, a cryptocurrency exchange, told employees it was cutting 18% of staff in June to prepare for an economic downturn. It also rescinded job offers.

“We appear to be entering a recession after a 10+ year economic boom,” CEO Brian Armstrong said in a blog post. “While it’s hard to predict the economy or the markets, we always plan for the worst so we can operate the business through any environment.

The company, which has a Dublin office, ended the quarter with about 5,000 employees.

Gemini Trust

Gemini Trust Co, a cryptocurrency exchange founded by Bitcoin billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, announced a 10% staff reduction in June.

Lyft

Lyft told employees it was reining in hiring in May after its stock dropped precipitously. The company went further this week, announcing plans to shutter its car-rental business and cut about 60 jobs.

Lyft had about 4,500 employees in 2021. Archrival Uber Technologies Inc., meanwhile, has been more upbeat. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told Bloomberg in June that his company was “recession resistant” and had no plans for layoffs.

Meta

Meta Platforms Inc, the parent of Facebook, slashed plans to hire engineers by at least 30%. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that he’s anticipating one of the worst downturns in recent history.

The company had more than 77,800 employees, including more than 3,000 Dublin-based employees, at the end of March.

Microsoft

Microsoft, which employs 2,000 people in Ireland, told workers in May that it was slowing down hiring in the Windows, Office and Teams groups as it braces for economic volatility.

More recently, the software maker cut some jobs - less than 1% of its total - as part of a reorganization. This week, the company said it began eliminating many job openings—a freeze that will last indefinitely.

Netflix

Netflix Inc, the streaming giant, has had several rounds of highly publicised layoffs since it reported the loss of 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter.

In April, it began scaling back some marketing initiatives, then cut 150 employees in May and 300 in June. Last quarter, it reported $70m (€69m) in expenses from severance and shed an additional 970,000 subscribers. Netflix had 11,300 employees in 2021.

Peloton

Peloton Interactive Inc announced plans to cut about 2,800 jobs globally, roughly 20% of its corporate roles, as part of a surprise shake-up in February that saw its CEO John Foley and several executive team members step down.

Peloton began searching for office space in Cork last year, with reports that the company planned to create 700 jobs in the area, but scaled back the hunt in September.

Robinhood

Robinhood Markets Inc, the headline-grabbing online brokerage, terminated 9% of its workforce in April. It had about 3,800 employees at the end of last year and racked up more than $2 billion of losses since going public last July.

Spotify

Spotify Technology SA, the audio service, is cutting employee growth by about 25% to adjust for macroeconomic factors, CEO Daniel Ek said in a note to staff in June. The company has more than 6,500 employees, according to its website.

Tesla

Tesla Inc, the electric-vehicle maker led by Elon Musk, cut 200 autopilot workers as it closed a facility in San Mateo, California, in June.

Musk said earlier that layoffs would be necessary in an increasingly shaky economic environment and that about 10% of salaried employees would lose their jobs over the next three months, though the overall headcount could be higher in a year.

The company had 100,000 employees globally at the end of last year.

Twitter

Twitter Inc. initiated a hiring freeze and began rescinding job offers in May, amid uncertainty surrounding Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company.

The company had 7,500 employees in 2021 and employs more than 500 people in its Dublin-based European headquarters.