In a company, one of the most significant factors is the employees. Without them, one cannot even imagine running a company, no matter how small the business is. Your employees are the main assets of your company. However in 2022, we are seeing, some major, popular companies laying off their employees. Some of these layoffs have stunned the world of business as they are even reaching thousands of employees at once.
The reason for the layoffs varies, from cost-cutting to bad performance to financial difficulties. Some of the companies even faced criticism for their sudden decision. Many people lost their jobs during the pandemic and now these strings of similar layoffs are creating a ruckus in the world. The economic situation of the world is also a big reason for these layoffs. According to reports over 8000 people alone in just the first half of 2022 have been laid off by their companies.
In this article, we will talk about those companies who have laid off their employees and their reason for doing that. Furthermore, we will also talk about the companies that have the possibility to follow the path of laying off their employees. So, without any further ado, let’s get started.
“Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that.” -Herb Kelleher
HP
Zomato
Amazon
Meta
Twitter
Udaan
Coinbase
Unacademy
Microsoft
BYJU’S
Noom
Clear
Rupeek
Meesho
Better.Com
Ford
Walmart
Robinhood
Vedantu
BlueStacks
TikTok
Netflix
Tesla
CityMall
Cars24
Klarna
MFine
Blinkit
Trell
Furlenco
OkCredit
Lido Learning
Unilever
DiDi
Royal Mail
Nestlé
Tesco
Cineplex
Primark
Conde Nast
Common Reasons for the Layoffs
Companies That Have to Freeze Their Hiring
HP
Founder – Bill Hewlett, David Packard
Founded – 1939
Laid Off – Up to 6,000 Employees (by 2025)
The American multinational IT Company, HP has joined the list of top tech companies laying off its employees. HP will lay off 4,000 to 6,000 employees, which is around 10% of its current global workforce of 61,000, over the next three years as a part of its cost-cutting efforts.
The company will also reduce its real estate footprint along with the layoffs. HP’s ‘Future Ready Transformation’ plan is expected to save the company as much as $1.4 billion annually by the end of 2025. It expects the restructuring and other activities to cost around $1 billion.
Zomato
Founder – Deepinder Goyal, Gaurav Gupta, Pankaj Chaddah
Founded – 2008
| Zomato Recent Layoffs | |
|---|---|
| November 2022 | 100-150 (3% of the Workforce) |
| May 2020 | 520 |
India’s prominent food delivery startup, Zomato, is reportedly planning to lay off its employees on account of its cost-cutting efforts to become profitable. Zomato is going to lay off about 3-4% of its workforce, which currently consists of nearly 3,800 employees. Around 100 Zomato employees have already been affected in the product, technology, catalogue, and marketing areas. Zomato has called it a “regular performance-based churn.” Earlier, Zomato laid off around 520 employees (13% of its workforce) in May 2020 as a result of the business downturn caused by the pandemic.
Amazon
Founder – Jeff Bezos
Founded – 1994
Laid Off – 10,000 Employees (November 2022)
Amazon has also joined the bandwagon of layoffs and is reportedly laying off 10,000 employees in corporate and technology jobs. The company’s layoffs will be focused on its device business, including its Alexa products, and its retail and human resources divisions. The layoffs represent less than 1% of Amazon’s global workforce of more than 1.5 million. It is the biggest job cut that Amazon has ever made in its history.
Meta
Founder – Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin
Founded – 2004
Laid Off – 11,000 Employees (November 2022)
On November 9, 2022, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced that it is laying off more than 11,000 employees, accounting for nearly 13% of its workforce. It is one of the biggest tech layoffs of 2022. According to Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the reasons behind the company’s mass layoffs include the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and diminishing ad revenues, which caused Meta’s revenue to be lower than what he had expected.
Meta also plans to cut down its discretionary expenses and continue the hiring freeze through the first quarter of 2023.
Founder – Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Noah Glass
Founded – 2006
| Twitter Recent Layoffs | |
|---|---|
| November 2022 | 3,700 employees |
| July 2022 | 100 employees |
Twitter is an American communications company founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Noah Glass on March 21, 2006. Currently headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, Twitter is one of the biggest social media platforms that has been all over the news in relation to one of the biggest acquisitions in modern times ($44 billion), led by billionaire techie, Elon Musk. Twitter laid off 30% of its staff (nearly 100 employees) from the recruiting team in July 2022.
On November 4, 2022, Twitter laid off about 3,700 employees, accounting for nearly 50% of its global workforce, including 90% of employees in India, as a way to cut costs following the company’s acquisition by Musk, which closed on October 27, 2022.
Bhoraniya Huda Hifzur Rehman
Udaan
Founder – Amod Malviya, Vaibhav Gupta, Sujeet Kumar
Year – 2016
Laid Off – 350 Employees (November 2022)
Udaan, a B2B eCommerce platform and a proud unicorn startup in India has joined the list of top companies laying off its employees. The startup laid off about 350 full-time employees in November 2022 in order to attain profitability and better efficiency. However, this is not the first time that the startup has laid off its employees. Earlier in June 2022, it laid off 180 employees as a part of its cost-cutting initiatives. The second round of its layoffs this year comes only a week after the startup raised $120 million through convertible notes and debt.
Coinbase
Founder – Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam
Founded – 2012
| Coinbase Recent Layoffs | |
|---|---|
| November 2022 | 60 |
| June 2022 | 1,100 |
Coinbase is an online platform from which you can buy and sell cryptocurrency. The employees of the company work remotely and it doesn’t have any headquarters. It is considered the biggest crypto exchange platform. On a very shocking note, the company laid off around 1,100 of its employees which amounts to almost 18% of its workforce in June 2022. According to the company, the decision has been taken to control and manage the expenses of the company with the ongoing situation in the market.
Coinbase laid off another 60 employees from its recruiting and institutional onboarding departments in November 2022.
Unacademy
Founder – Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh, Roman Saini
Founded – 2015
| Unacademy Recent Layoffs | |
|---|---|
| November 2022 | 350 employees |
| June 2022 | 150 employees |
One of the biggest EdTech companies in India shocked everyone this year when they decided to lay off around 600 employees. It was a sudden decision in the month of April. The reasons for this layoff were said to be that the performances of the employees were not good enough.
After that, the edtech giant laid off 150 employees in June 2022. On November 7, 2022, Unacademy conducted another round of layoffs and laid off around 350 employees, accounting for nearly 10% of its workforce of 3,500, as the company tries to cut its expenses and generate a profit.
Microsoft
Founder – Bill Gates, Paul Allen
Founded – 1975
| Microsoft Recent Layoffs | |
|---|---|
| October 2022 | 1,000 employees |
| August 2022 | 200 employees |
| July 2022 | 1,800 employees |
Microsoft Corporation or Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975. Microsoft is an American multinational technology corporation that is unarguably one of the biggest tech companies in the world today. However, after the company announced that it would be laying off as part of a “realignment”, Microsoft also joined the list of big companies laying off their employees. Besides, it is also important to note that Microsoft became the first tech giant to lay off employees.
Microsoft laid off 1,800 employees in July 2022, and a month later, it laid off another 200 employees. In October 2022, it laid off around 1,000 employees, marking the third round of layoffs in the same year.
BYJU’S
Founder – Byju Raveendran, Divya Gokulnath
Founded – 2011
Laid Off – 2,500 (October 2022)
In October 2022, the biggest Edtech in India, BYJU’S took a drastic decision and announced that it will lay off 2,500 employees or 5% of its workforce. The unicorn, even after reaching a valuation of around $22 billion, decided to sack its employees. The startup’s co-founder and CEO blamed macroeconomic conditions and the startup’s plans to achieve profitability by the end of the current financial year as the reasons behind mass layoffs.
Noom
Founder – Saeju Jeong, Artem Petakov
Founded – 2008
| Noom Recent Layoffs | |
|---|---|
| October 2022 | 500 employees |
| April 2022 | 500 employees |
Noom is a wellness app that deals with tracking the weight of a person and also focuses on mental health. The company in the month of April announced the dismissal of 500 employees. The layoff is done because of the sole reason for changing the coaching model. The strategy of coaching has been changed, and the employees were dismissed for the betterment of the business. In October 2022, Noom laid off about 500 employees, accounting for nearly 10% of its total staff.
Clear
Founder – Ankit Solanki, Archit Gupta, Srivatsan Chari
Founded – 2011
Laid Off – 190 to 200 Employees (September 2022)
India’s leading Fintech SaaS startup, Clear (formerly Cleartax) is another prominent name that has joined the list of companies laying off their employees in 2022. The Bengaluru-based startup laid off 190 to 200 employees across different departments on September 15, 2022. This number amounts to nearly 20% of the company’s workforce. The layoffs are said to be a part of the company’s restructuring efforts to increase its cash flow.
Rupeek
Founder – Sumit Maniyar
Founded – 2015
| Rupeek Recent Layoffs | |
|---|---|
| September 2022 | 50 |
| June 2022 | 180-200 |
Rupeek is a digital gold loan provider company whose headquarters is situated in Bengaluru, India. It is present in over 35 cities. The company laid off about 180-200 of its employees which is 10-15% of its workforce in June 2022. The layoff has been done from different departments and teams. Rupeek gave the reason for cost-cutting for firing its employees, the company is looking forward to making its structure leaner and more compatible. In September 2022, Rupeek once again laid off around 50 employees across different departments as part of its strategy to become profitable in the next 12-18 months.
Meesho
Founder – Sanjeev Barnwal, Vidit Aatrey
Founded – 2015
| Meesho Recent Layoffs | |
|---|---|
| August 2022 | 300 employees |
| April 2022 | 150 employees |
Meesho, in a sudden and surprising move, fired 150 employees of the company from their grocery business in the month of April. The popular reselling startup in India had its grocery business called Farmiso, which has now been renamed Meesho Superstore. The company is in discussion to merge the grocery store with its main app. The reorganization of the store is said to be the reason for the layoffs. This is also based on their performance in the business till now and their efficiency in adapting themselves to the new form of Meesho Superstore.
A few months later, in August 2022, Meesho laid off more than 300 employees after shutting down its grocery business in India, Superstore.
Better.Com
Founder – Eric Wilson, Erik Bernhardsson, Shawn Low, Viral Shah, Vishal Garg
Founded – 2016
| Better.com Recent Layoffs | |
|---|---|
| August 2022 | 250 employees |
| April 2022 | 1,000 employees |
| March 2022 | 2,000 employees |
| December 2021 | 900 employees |
Probably the most controversial layoff that has been done is by Better.com. The company was facing the heat since last year when it fired over 900 of its employees over a single Zoom call in December 2021. In March 2022, it laid off 2,000 employees and about 1,000 employees were fired in April 2022. In this year only, they have laid off almost 3000 of their employees. As per the company, the reason for the layoff is based on the performance of the employees. They have stated that the employees are fired because of their lack of productivity and their inefficiency in work. Since December 2021, the company has fired almost 50% of its workforce.
In August 2022, Better.com conducted yet another round of layoffs, by firing about 250 employees.
Ford
Founder – Henry Ford
Founded – 1903
| Ford Recent Layoffs | |
|---|---|
| August 2022 | 3,000 employees |
| April 2022 | 580 employees |
The American multinational automobile manufacturer Ford, in the month of April, announced that they are laying off 580 of its US employees. This decision comes right after when the company announced that it will restructure the company and will focus on the making of electric vehicles. The dismissal is mainly done by the engineering department as the making of electric vehicles required different skill sets. Therefore, as per the company, it is done for the future needs of the company.
In August 2022, Ford confirmed laying off around 3,000 employees and contract workers. The job cuts are effective September 1, a spokesman said. The reason behind the layoffs is said to be the change in operations and redeployment of resources as the company plans to embrace new technologies that were not previously core to its operations, such as developing advanced software for its vehicles.
Walmart
Founder – Samuel Moore Walton
Founded – 1962
Laid Off – 200 Employees (August 2022)
Walmart Inc., the popular American retail multinational corporation disclosed that it would be cutting the job roles of hundreds of corporate employees. In its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters, Walmart reported on August 3, 2022, that it would have to part with nearly 200 of its employees. The departments that would have to bear the brunt are numerous, including merchandising, real estate, and global technology, among others.
Robinhood
Founder – Vladimir Tenev, Baiju Bhatt
Founded – 2013
| Robinhood Recent Layoffs | |
|---|---|
| August 2022 | 700+ |
| April 2022 | 300+ |
Consumer investing and trading service company, Robinhood before announcing its financial performance in the first quarter of 2022 announced that they are going to lay off 9% of its employees that is more than 300 of its employees in April 2022. All these employees were their permanent employees. The company went public last year in 2021 but they face a decline in trading, as per reports, this is said to be the main reason for the dismissal. In August 2022, the company again laid off about 23% of its workforce which might account for more than 700 employees. The Financial Times estimated the number of employees impacted to be nearly 780.
Vedantu
Founder – Anand Prakash, Pulkit Jain, Saurabh Saxena, Vamsi Krishna
Founded – 2011
| Vedantu Recent Layoffs | |
|---|---|
| July 2022 | 100 employees |
| May 2022 | 624 employees |
Yes, another popular Edtech startup, Vedantu has laid a good number of employees. Vedantu laid off 424 employees both full-time and contractual, in May 2022. Before that, it laid off 200 of its employees in the same month. The reason for this is to increase their Capital runway as per Vedantu. Apart from that, the reopening of schools and classes being conducted offline, are also said to be the reason for the layoffs of the Edtechs. Vedantu again laid off 100 employees across departments, in July 2022. This was done due to the business restructuring procedure that Vedantu is planning.
BlueStacks
Founder – Rosen Sharma, Jay Vaishnav, Suman Saraf
Founded – 2011
Laid Off – 120 to 150 Employees (July 2022)
BlueStacks was founded by Rosen Sharma, Jay Vaishnav, and Suman Saraf in 2011. Headquartered in Campbell, California, United States, BlueStacks is known as the 2nd largest PC gaming platform in the world that aims to bring PC gamers and the Android gaming library. The pouring demand for Android smartphones has helped the company witness humongous growth throughout the year. This popular Android emulator platform has laid off 60 Indian employees, as per reports dated July 20, 2022. BlueStacks reportedly informed a majority of the employees via video calls on July 18, 2022, that their services would not be needed anymore.
Along with India, the company has also cut down its workforce in many other countries as well, from its offices in London, Tokyo, Seoul, and Beijing. The total count of layoffs might be as high as 150 employees as well, ranging between 120-150, according to the reports. The reason behind the layoffs is internal restructuring. BlueStacks has offered 1 month of salary as severance pay to the laid-off employees along with medical benefits, as mentioned by sources.
TikTok
Founder – Zhang Yiming
Founded – 2016
Laid Off – 100 Employees (July 2022)
TikTok is a short-form video hosting service platform that is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. TikTok has achieved sensational growth in India and across the world for its viral, short-form content, which even resulted in several countries complaining and banning TikTok. The platform is still growing with 8 new users joining TikTok each second. It has over 1 billion monthly active users, as of July 2022.
The popular, controversial ByteDance subsidiary TikTok has reportedly started reducing its workforce by laying off staff working in the EU, EK, and the US. These layoffs, according to Wired and some other news and media networks might affect around 100 TikTok employees, which currently work with a workforce of around 10,000 employees across the US and Europe. The TikTok layoffs are in line with the global restructuring initiatives of the company.
Netflix
Founder – Marc Randolph, Reed Hastings
Founded – 1997
| Netflix Recent Layoffs | |
|---|---|
| June 2022 | 300 employees |
| May 2022 | 150 employees |
The biggest streaming platform, in a surprising turn of events, announced that it was going to lay off 150 of its employees across the company in May 2022. Although it was not a huge number, it still became the talk of the town. Some of Netflix’s sudden decisions led to its slower growth of revenue, which was said to be the prime reason for laying off 150 employees. According to Netflix, it was basically done to cut costs at the streaming giant. Netflix recently lost over 2 lakh subscribers and is expected to lose more; this is one of the reasons for its slower revenue growth. In the month of June 2022, Netflix again laid off 300 of its employees, and again the reason was cost cutting.
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Tesla
Founder – Elon Musk, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning
Founded – 2003
Laid Off – 200 (June 2022)
Tesla which was working on its Autopilot advanced driver assistance features has faced a sudden shock. In an unexpected turn of events, Tesla laid off around 200 employees who were working on the autopilot feature in June 2022. This decision comes after Elon Musk asked the company to decrease the headcount by 10%.
CityMall
Founder – Angad Kikla and Naisheel Vardhan
Founded – 2019
Laid Off – 191 (June 2022)
The three-year-old Ecommerce startup CityMall stuns everyone when it announced the layoff of 191 of its employees in June 2022. The Gurugram-based startup even after raising $75 million, added its name to the list of startups that have laid off their employees in the year 2022. The reason for this layoff as stated by the company is the structural changes that are taking place in the system.
Cars24
Founder – Gajendra Jangid, Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal, Vikram Chopra
Founded – 2015
Laid Off – 600 Employees (May 2022)
Cars24 said goodbye to over 600 employees of the company, which is 6% of their workforce. The fired people include employees from different departments and roles. The company has not provided any special reason for the layoff and has only stated that it is based on the performance of the employees. Every year employees are laid off if they are not providing their very best. Cars24 decision of firing its employees comes at a time when the company is looking to expand itself globally.
Klarna
Founder – Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Niklas Adalberth
Founded – 2005
Laid Off – 700 (May 2022)
Klarna is a Swedish fintech company that deals with online financial services. In a pre-recorded video the CEO of the company forwarded the news to the employees that the company will lay off 10% of the global workforce. Almost 700 employees were affected by this decision in May 2022. The CEO said that the Ukraine-Russia war and a likely recession are the reason behind this drastic step.
In September 2022, the company disclosed over a video meeting that it is planning another round of layoffs in an attempt to “reflect” its new and “more focused nature.” According to Klarna, the new round of layoffs will affect less than 100 employees, globally.
MFine
Founder – Prasad Kompalli, Ashutosh Lawania
Founded – 2017
Laid Off – 500 (May 2022)
MFine is a digital health platform based in Bengaluru that provides services like doctor consultations, diagnostic tests and others. The health platform’s sudden turn of events laid off almost 500 employees of the company in May 2022. It is almost 50% of their workforce. The company hired employees even in the month of April but after the struggle to raise funds started increasing, it decided to lay off its employees.
Blinkit
Founder – Albinder Dhindsa
Founded – 2013
Laid Off – 1,600 approx (March 2022)
Blinkit, previously known as Grofers is an online grocery shopping platform, recent in the month of March it laid off some of its employees. It is said to be 5% of their workforce which is about 1,600. The layoff has been done in mostly three cities, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. The company has spent almost INR 600 Crores to focus on their 10 minutes delivery offering. Apart from laying off their employees, the online grocery platform is also delaying the payments of the vendors. The main reason for the layoff is said to be cost-cutting.
Trell
Founder – Agrawal, Sachan, Arun Lodhi, Bimal Kartheek Rebba
Founded – 2016
Laid Off – 300 (March 2022)
Nothing seems to be going right for the Social commerce startup Trell. Amidst its investigation of its alleged financial irregularities, it is said to have decided to fire 300 of its employees almost 50% of its workforce. The situation that has led to this decision is mainly the investigation that is going on by EY India. However, the company gave out the reason for restructuring and strengthening the company for the layoff. The roles that are not needed are cut off from the company.
Furlenco
Founder – Ajith Karimpana
Founded – 2012
Laid Off – 180 (March 2022)
Furlenco is a startup that provides rented furniture to its customers. The company is said to lay off about 180-200 of its employees. It is also reported that the startup has stopped all their operation in the cities like Kolkata, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Mysuru. The company has given restructuring as the main reason for the firing of their employees, the staffs mostly belong to the customer support and grievance management departments.
OkCredit
Founder – Gaurav Kumar, Aditya Prasad, Harsh Pokharna
Founded – 2017
Laid Off – 40 (February 2022)
OkCredit is a digital ledger company and on a shocking front, the company laid off around 40 of its employees in the month of February 2022. The organisation said that the reason for the sudden decision was because of the company’s changes in their priority. This has led to the restructuring of the company and the roles of the employees in the company which has led to the dismissal of several employees from the company.
Lido Learning
Founder – Sahil Sheth
Founded – 2019
Laid Off – 150+ Employees (February 2022)
The employees of Lido Learning faced a shocking and terrible situation when about 150 to 200 of them were laid off in the month of February 2022. Lido Learning has been backed by some of the most prominent investors like Anupam Mittal and Mukesh Bansal. The company also raised over $10 million in the month of September 2021. Lido Learning founder Sahil Sheth informed the employees that because of facing some financial difficulties, the company wouldn’t be able to pay their salaries. Apart from that, some employees were asked to look for other jobs.
Unilever
Founder – Antonius Johannes Jurgens, Samuel van den Bergh, Georg Schicht
Founded – 1929
Laid Off – 1,500 Employees (January 2022)
Unilever, the consumer goods multinational company revealed its plan to cut 1,500 jobs from the company in January 2022. This will be valid worldwide, the decision comes after its failure to buy the consumer health division of GlaxoSmithKline. Unilever has decided to opt for a more competitive operating model and reorganize the company for its growth and to be more responsive to consumer trends.
DiDi
Founder – Cheng Wei, Zhang Bo, Wu Rui
Founded – 2012
Laid Off – 3000 (February 2022)
Chinese Ridesharing service DiDi decided to lay off 20% of its workforce in the month of February. Approximately 3,000 employees lost their jobs because of this decision. The reason for this decision is said to be the regulatory pressure that the company faced since an investigation was launched against the company last year. With its shares facing a huge decline and the company suffering a loss, the decision was taken to analyse the whole matter.
Royal Mail
Founder – Henry VIII
Founded – 1516
Laid Off – 700 (January 2022)
The postal company of Britain, Royal Mail has been present for centuries. The company in January 2022 decided to cut off 700 employees of theirs. This decision comes after the company faced problems because of Covid, which has led to delays in deliveries. The performance of the postal company was criticised, therefore to bring change and restructure the company, they decided to fire their 700 employees.
In October 2022, the company announced that it is planning to cut down its workforce by around 10,000 by August 2023. Royal Mail attributes this decision to ongoing strikes and rising losses at the company.
Nestlé
Founder – Henri Nestlé
Founded – 1866
Laid Off – 104 (March 2022)
Nestlé is a Swiss multinational food and drink conglomerate. In a sudden decision, the food processing giant has decided to close down its Sweet Earth food facility that is in California. This has led to the laying off of 104 employees in March 2022. The decision comes after, the plant-based meat company was seen to have negative growth and experience losses. Nestle acquired Sweet Earth Food Facility in 2017, it sells plant-based meat food items.
Tesco
Founder – Jack Cohen
Founded – 1919
Laid Off – 1600 (February 2022)
Tesco is the biggest supermarket chain in Britain, now the supermarket chain is looking for a major overnight transformation. They are mostly shutting down the meat and fish counters of 300 stores because of low demand. This decision may lead to the layoff of 1600 employees of Tesco. The job cuts are followed as the supermarket chain is on the verge of reorganising itself.
Cineplex
Founder – Ellis Jacob, Garth Drabinsky, Gerald W. Schwartz
Founded – 1999
Laid Off – 5000 (January 2022)
Cineplex is a movie theatre chain in Canada. The pandemic situation has created many problems throughout the world, the theatre chain also faced a problem due to this. The company in the month of January announced that it was temporarily laying off 5000 employees of their as theatres are shutting down in Ontario. This decision comes after the surge of the Omicron variant of Corona in the country. However, the layoff is said to be a temporary one.
Primark
Founder – Arthur Ryan
Founded – 1969
Laid Off – 400 (January 2022)
The UK-based multinational fashion retailer Primark has decided to cut off 400 employees of theirs in the month of January. As per reports, the decision was taken to simplify the management structure. As the omicron variant surged and the inflation seems to get serious, the sales of Primark were hit. Now to restructure the company, the layoff was needed.
Conde Nast
Founder – Condé Nast
Founded – 1909
Laid Off – 90% of the Workforce
Conde Nast is one of the biggest global media companies, home to some iconic brands like Vogue, GQ and Vanity Fair. On a quite shocking front, the Magazine giant announced that they will lay off 90% of employees in Russia and will halt the distribution of Vogue Russia and other publications of theirs. The biggest reason for this decision was said to be the Ukraine invasion by Russia. The company has cut off its term permanently with Conde Nast Russia.
Common Reasons for the Layoffs
Big companies and organisations are facing problems and many of them are laying off their employees in response to that. There are multiple reasons, varying from company to company. Some of the common reasons for the layoff are:
- Companies are not able to adapt to the situations after the lockdown and pandemic.
- Inflation is on the rise again.
- Companies facing financial difficulties.
- The slowdown of funding in the business world.
- The Ukraine invasion by Russia has led many companies to stop doing business with the latter.
- The inefficiency of employees.
- Restructure and modernisation of a company.
Companies That Have to Freeze Their Hiring
With the economy of the world facing jeopardy and several other reasons, a number of companies have frozen their hiring and they are:
- Meta has frozen their hiring and it is said to be lasting through the first quarter of 2023. The main reasons, the company has given are the industry-wide downturn and privacy data changes.
- In May 2022, Wayfair froze their hiring for 90 days and again the reason is the situation with the economy of the world.
- Twitter freezes their hiring and many of its top employees are getting fired, the sole reason is the ownership change of the company, as it now belongs to Elon Musk.
- Google is another company that has slowed down its hiring, though it has not frozen its recruitment yet, as mentioned by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, in the first week of July 2022.
Conclusion
Various companies are taking the step of firing their employees as mentioned above the reason varies from economic conditions to the pandemic to the restructuring of the company, and even the inefficiency of the employees. Apart from all these, there also seems to be a slowdown in funding and pressure by investors to make the company more and more profitable. With the current global economic situation, it seems like the worst is yet to come.
FAQs
What is a layoff?
A layoff simply refers to the termination of an employee of a company. It occurs due to business-related reasons and not because of the employee’s fault. A company may lay off a single employee or multiple employees at the same time.
Why Companies are laying off their employees?
Companies are firing employees for various reasons that vary from economic conditions to the pandemic to the restructuring of the company, and even the inefficiency of the employees.
Which Indian startups are laying off their employees?
Many Indian startups are laying off their employees in 2022, including Udaan, Unacademy, BYJU’S, Vedantu, Meesho, Cars24, Clear, Lido Learning, and more.
Is Meta laying off its employees?
On November 9, 2022, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced that it is laying off more than 11,000 employees, accounting for nearly 13% of its workforce.
How many Twitter employees were laid off?
On November 4, 2022, Twitter laid off about 3,700 employees, accounting for nearly 50% of its global workforce, including 90% of employees in India, following the company’s acquisition by Elon Musk.
