Casualties of Big Tech layoffs find other companies are clamoring to hire them

Outside the Twitter HQ building at 1355 Market Street in San Francisco, California. (Credit: Mark Leong—The Washington Post/Getty Images)

The email landed on Nov. 4. The subject line: Your role at Twitter. 

“It was my first time getting laid off,” says Grace-Ann Baker, a former director of product management at the social media company. As it turned out, Baker wasn’t alone. New owner Elon Musk would eventually let go of nearly two-thirds of the 7,500 employees he’d inherited at the beleaguered company. And in the coming weeks and months, the trend continued across the broader technology sector. Just as fast as tech companies had hired employees during the pandemic, they now quickly shed them as the economy slowed. 

At Amazon, more than 18,000 people were laid off; at Google parent Alphabet, 12,000; at Facebook parent Meta, 11,000; and at Microsoft, 10,000. Smaller companies downsized too, with layoffs announced at payments provider Stripe, online video hosting service Vimeo, and e-tailer Stitch Fix.