Salesforce to cut around 200 Irish jobs as part of mass layoff

The impact for Ireland will be 'in line with the global percentage' of 10%, a spokesperson confirmed

The tech giant's announcement sparked renewed fears for the Irish tech sector, with Salesforce, IBM and SAP recently joining the running list of companies that have announced mass layoffs. (Photo illustration by Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Cloud computing giant Salesforce will cut approximately 200 Irish jobs as part of its global plans to cut 10% of its total workforce.

The company currently employs around 2,100 people in Ireland, and while Salesforce did not confirm exactly how many Irish jobs would be affected, a spokesperson told the Irish Examiner that the impact for Ireland is "in line with the global percentage."

"These are part of the reductions we announced in January. We are committed to the Irish market and plan to continue to invest here."

With a large presence in Ireland, the firm announced 1,500 new roles in Dublin in 2019, with plans to expand the company’s Irish workforce to 3,000 over the next five years. The company is also creating a 430,000sq ft campus in Dublin’s Silicon Docks, being built by developer Johnny Ronan.

Despite its expansion, the company's co-chief executive officer Marc Benioff said in January that the current economic environment "remains challenging," saying, "Our customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions. 

"With this in mind, we’ve made the very difficult decision to reduce our workforce by about 10%."

Globally, Salesforce had 73,541 employees at the end of January last year, a 30% jump from 2021.

The company's growth had slowed during the past four quarters, posting its weakest revenue increase in the third quarter.

The tech giant's announcement sparked renewed fears for the Irish tech sector, with Salesforce, IBM and SAP recently joining the running list of companies that have announced mass layoffs. 

Companies including Meta, Stripe, Amazon and Twitter have cut their employee base in the past year in preparation for a sharp downturn in light of continued interest rate hikes by central banks to curb inflation.

Businesses that relied on cloud services during the pandemic are now trying to reduce expenses through job cuts or delaying new projects, hurting companies such as Salesforce and Microsoft.