Factbox: Companies cut jobs, freeze hiring to prepare for economic slowdown

Bigben Interactive SA

29/07/2022 19:06

July 29 (Reuters) - Technology companies, crypto exchanges and financial firms are cutting jobs and
slowing hiring as global economic growth slows due to higher interest rates, red-hot inflation and an energy
crisis in Europe.
    In a sign of a tough second half of the year, growth in the world's largest economy, the United States,
shrank for the second straight quarter, while in the euro zone business growth slowed sharply in June due to
rising cost of living. 

  
LAYOFFS:    
 Company name      Date       Layoffs impact      Commentary 
 Alibaba Group     March 16   About 39,000 staff  Started firing employees in February. It discussed job
  9988.HK                                         cuts with several business units that month and left it to
  BABA.N                                          them to make specific plans, a source told Reuters.
 Tencent Holdings  March 16   10%-15% headcount   In an internal meeting at Tencent at the end of 2021, CEO
  0700.HK                                         Pony Ma told staff the company should prepare for a
                                                  "winter", two sources told Reuters. 
 Tesla Inc         June 3     Roughly 10% in      "I have a super bad feeling about the economy," CEO Elon
  TSLA.O                      salaried staff      Musk said in emails seen by Reuters.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2XQ0PQ
 JPMorgan Chase &  June 22    Over 1,000          "Our staffing decision this week was a result of cyclical
 Co  JPM.N                    employees           changes in the mortgage market," a spokesperson said.
 Shopify Inc       July 26    10% of its          "Ultimately, placing this bet was my call to make and I
  SHOP.N                      workforce           got this wrong," CEO Tobi Lutke said, referring to a bet
  SHOP.TO                                         on post-pandemic growth in online shopping that went sour.
 Netflix  NFLX.O   May 17     150 jobs            "While we continue to invest significantly in the
                   June 23    300 jobs            business, we made these adjustments so that our costs are
                                                  growing in line with our slower revenue growth," the
                                                  company said.
 Coinbase Global   June 14    1,100 jobs          "We appear to be entering a recession after a 10+ year
 Inc  COIN.O                                      economic boom. A recession could lead to another crypto
                                                  winter, and could last for an extended period," CEO Brian
                                                  Armstrong said.
 OpenSea           July 14    20% of its          "The reality is that we have entered an unprecedented
                              workforce           combination of a crypto winter and broad macroeconomic
                                                  instability, and we need to prepare the company for the
                                                  possibility of a prolonged downturn," CEO Devin Finzer
                                                  said.
 Klarna            May 23     10% of its          "Since then (2021), we have seen a tragic and unnecessary
                              workforce           war in Ukraine unfold, a shift in consumer sentiment, a
                                                  steep increase in inflation, a highly volatile stock
                                                  market and a likely recession," CEO Sebastian
                                                  Siemiatkowski said.
 Robinhood         April 26   9% of its           
 Markets Inc                  full-time           
  HOOD.O                      employees           
 
HIRING FREEZES:
 Company name      Date       Action taken        Commentary 
 Apple Inc         July 18    To slow hiring,     The decision stems from a move to be more careful during
  AAPL.O                      spending next year  uncertain times, though it is not a company-wide policy,
                              in some units       Bloomberg News reported, citing sources.
 Meta Platforms    June 30    Cut plans to hire   "If I had to bet, I'd say that this might be one of the
 Inc  FB.O                    engineers by at     worst downturns that we've seen in recent history," CEO
                              least 30% to        Mark Zuckerberg told workers in a weekly employee Q&A
                              ~6,000-7,000        session, audio of which was heard by Reuters.
 Twitter Inc       May 12     To pause most       CEO Parag Agrawal, in a memo to employees seen by Reuters,
  TWTR.N                      hiring, review      attributed the decision in part to a lack of confidence in
                              existing job        Twitter's ability to reach aggressive growth targets it had
                              offers to see if    set in 2020.
                              any "should be      
                              pulled back"        
 Uber              May 9      To scale back       "We will treat hiring as a privilege and be deliberate
 Technologies Inc             hiring, reduce      about when and where we add headcount," CEO Dara
  UBER.N                      spending on         Khosrowshahi said in a letter seen by Reuters.
                              marketing,          
                              incentives          
 Snap Inc          May 23     To slow hiring and  "We continue to face rising inflation and interest rates,
  SNAP.N                      push some planned   supply chain shortages and labor disruptions, platform
                              hiring to 2023      policy changes, the impact of the war in Ukraine, and
                                                  more," CEO Evan Spiegel said in a memo to employees.
 Amazon.com Inc    July 28    Company is          
  AMZN.O                      questioning its     
                              hiring plans,       
                              likely will not     
                              hire at same pace   
                              as in previous      
                              years               
 Intel Corp        June 8     Froze hiring in     
  INTC.O                      the division        
                              responsible for PC  
                              desktop and laptop  
                              chips               
 
Source: Company filings, media reports           
  
    

 (Compiled by Chavi Mehta, Tiyashi Datta and Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)