Twitter, Netflix, Microsoft: These technology companies that lay off workers

End of the health crisis, war in the Ukraine, inflation and the specter of an impending recession in the United States. With an uncertain economic backdrop, tech giants fear for their growth prospects.

The industry had grown accustomed to insolent growth over the past decade. Apple, Microsoft and Amazon are thus among the most valuable companies in the world, with 2,380 billion dollars, 1,930 billion dollars and 1,130 billion dollars respectively.

Based on their performance, they massively recruited. Over the past five years, Meta (Facebook’s parent company), Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet (Google) have nearly doubled their combined number of full-time employees to a collective total of around 563,000 employees. Wall Street Journal. Amazon alone employed more than 1.6 million people worldwide at the end of 2021.

But since the beginning of the year, several of them have announced slowdowns in hiring, or even layoffs. These announcements, if they reflect a slowdown, must be put into perspective.

Figures published on Friday July 8 by the US Department of Labor show that the sector continued to create jobs in June, at a faster rate than before the start of the health crisis. But a decline in job creation has been at work in recent months. Review of the different announcements.

Netflix loses subscribers and layoffs

Dark period also for Netflix. Launched in 1997, the video-on-demand platform lost subscribers -200,000- for the first time in its history during the first quarter of 2022. A drop that continued in the second quarter with almost a million fewer subscribers.

This slowdown comes after Netflix’s massive investments in content production to maintain its position as the world leader in the streaming video market, while new players such as the Disney+ platform have appeared in 2019.

Netflix successively announced that it would lay off 25 employees in April, then 150 in May, and finally 300 employees (3% of its payroll) worldwide at the end of June. Since its all-time high in November 2021, its valuation has fallen by more than 70%.

Microsoft fires but promises hiring

Without providing specific figures, Microsoft says it laid off “less than 1%” of its 180,000-employee workforce on July 11, Bloomberg reported. The layoffs relate to several services, notably “client and partner advice and solutions,” and are spread across several geographic areas, the IT group told Bloomberg.

These layoffs come as the group closed its shifted fiscal year at the end of June. Microsoft, however, said it wants to continue hiring for other positions and end the current fiscal year with a larger headcount by June 2023.

Shopify bears the brunt of the pandemic

Based on consumer trends linked to periods of confinement, Shopify made a bad bet. Therefore, the online sales platform laid off 10% of its employees on July 27, or about 1,000 people. Despite regular use of the service during the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers have not changed their habits enough to justify the recent hiring of the Canadian company.

Twitter continues to search for costs

The social network announced in early July the dismissal of 30% of its human resources teams, the equivalent of a hundred people. The US company had already announced in May that it would take a break in its hiring. The goal: to lower your costs and make yourself desirable in the eyes ofElon Musk. Except that since then, the head of Tesla withdrew his offer beginning of July. Now, a trial, which will begin on October 17, must determine whether the sale, worth $44 billion, can be imposed on the richest man in the world.

A few days after the abortion of the transaction, Twitter specified in a document that it did not contemplate layoffs, but wanted to continue with its cost hunting, he explains. Reuters. In an internal memorandum consulted by the Wall Street JournalThe company wrote in May about its intention to reduce its spending on outside resources such as consultants, but also its expenses for travel and events, marketing, real estate, infrastructure and other operating costs.

TikTok launches an “internal restructuring”

TikTok is reviewing its needs downward. Just under a hundred employees will leave the short video platform’s workforce, Wired has learned. Called “internal restructuring” by a spokeswoman, this wave of layoffs targets people and teams who don’t bring enough to the company.

A former employee who left earlier this year links this decision to leaving the shopping service TikTok Shop. The restructuring should affect the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom, which have at least 10,000 employees according to the American magazine.

Google will slow down hiring

There are no layoffs in the offing at Google, but there are reductions in hiring during 2022. In an email sent to employees on July 12, CEO Sundar Pichai explained that the group “will slow down the pace of hiring for the rest of the year.” “, reported the Wall Street Journal.

Google recruited around 10,000 new employees in the second quarter and recruitment is still underway this quarter, the CEO said.

And to continue: “In some cases, this means consolidating where investments overlap and streamlining processes. In other cases, it means pausing implementation and redeploying resources to higher priority areas.”

facebook press

The parent company of Facebook announced in early July the reduction of your employment plans engineers by at least 30% this year. It should still hire between 6,000 and 7,000 engineers in 2022, against the 10,000 positions initially budgeted.

Beyond narrowing its job openings, Meta will intentionally leave positions vacant. The objective clearly assumed: to increase the pressure on the performance indexes, to displace those incapable of reaching these new objectives.

In Uber hiring will be a “privilege”

Same story at Uber. The app’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, said internally that the company “will treat hiring as a privilege,” the app reported. Wall Street Journal beginnings of May.

Launched in 2009, the VTC (car reservation with driver) application is still not profitable. It is looking to cut costs to reassure its investors as its stock market is down more than 65% in the last 18 months.

After disappointing results, Snapchat tightens its belt

With a more challenging than expected second quarter of 2022, Snapchat fell short of its goals. After the announcement of the results on July 21, the company’s stock fell 25%, CNN specifies.

However, the boss had warned in May that the results would not be there, as TechCrunch noted. The platform is preparing for a cost reduction. Although this does not imply dismissal, only essential positions will be replaced in the event of departures.

Despite soaring results, Spotify is also pulling the handbrake

While the streaming audio leader is still showing strong growth, in mid-June it announced a 25% drop in recruitment this year.

This announcement is more a measure of anticipation than reaction, as justified by the group’s financial director, Paul Vogel, during the presentation of quarterly results to investors in June: