Cryptocurrency isn’t the only industry taking a nosedive right now; every area of the tech world is reeling from budget cuts and sales downturns this year. Layoffs are the new normal, and no job is as steady as it seems. The middle part of 2022 is turning into a veritable layoff landslide.
With announcements of new mass layoffs breaking just about every day now, it’s gotten pretty exhausting to even keep track of everyone affected by this latest wave. We don’t have the time to blog every company’s business, and you don’t have the energy to read about them, either. So we’re just going to keep a running list here as the layoffs roll in. Sigh.
Gaming
- Niantic, developer of Pokémon Go, is cutting 85 to 90 jobs, approximately eight percent of its workforce. The company also canceled four upcoming projects, with CEO John Hanke saying the company is “facing a time of economic turmoil.”
- Unity, which runs the game development engine of the same name, has laid off “hundreds” of employees around the world. Approximately 300 to 400 staffers have been let go so far, and layoffs are still ongoing as of June 29.
- GameStop is laying off an as-of-yet undisclosed number of employees across GameStop and Game Informer. The company’s CFO is stepping down, too.
Cryptocurrency
- Coinbase laid off about 18 percent of its total workforce in mid-June, as the value of most cryptocurrencies plunged.
- Gemini laid off about 10 percent of its employees in early June — approximately 100 staffers. The company further reduced its staff by seven percent in mid-July due to “turbulent market conditions.”
- Crypto.com laid off 260 employees, somewhere around five percent of its workforce, just half a year after investing $700 million to put its name on the Staples Center.
- BlockFi left behind 20 percent of its employees on the same day Coinbase announced its own layoffs.
- Popular NFT marketplace OpenSea is laying off about 20 percent of its workforce due to “an unprecedented combination of crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability.”
- Blockchain.com is cutting about 25 percent of its workforce — about 150 people — and will be shutting down its Argentina-based offices. Expansion in several countries has been canceled.
Internet
- Snap is laying off about 20 percent of its workforce — approximately 1,280 employees — after the company’s stock declined by nearly 80 percent this year.
- Substack is laying off about 14 percent of its staff — 13 of its 90 employees. Most of that baker’s dozen was responsible for human resources and writer support.
- Netflix has laid off about 450 staffers in May and June, with the latest round affecting more than 300 workers. The streaming company said it made the cuts so its costs line up with its “slower revenue growth.”
- Cameo laid off 87 employees in May, with a number of executives departing as well.
- Carvana, the internet’s premier car-buying site, laid off 2,500 people via Zoom in May.
- Tencent and ByteDance are laying off “thousands” of employees across the board as June comes to a close.
- MasterClass laid off 20 percent of its staff in June.
- Clubhouse laid off an undisclosed number of employees in June.
- Twitter laid off about one-third of its talent acquisition team in July after announcing in May that it would pause hiring.
- Microsoft reduced its headcount by less than one percent (of approximately 180,000 employees) as its 2023 fiscal year began, though it hopes to “grow headcount overall” this year.
- Google announced in mid-July that it would be pausing hiring across the company for two weeks. Senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan said in an email to employees that the pause would not affect offers already extended to applicants.
- Shopify laid off 1,000 employees at the end of July — about 10 percent of its staff. Most affected worked in recruiting, support, and sales.
- SoundCloud is reducing its global headcount by about 20 percent, CEO Michael Weissman announced in early August.
- HBO Max laid off about 14 percent of its staff in mid-August, with its original content team being hit hardest. More layoffs are expected.
- Patreon has laid off about 17 percent of its workforce, due to volatility created by the pandemic. The company’s entire security team has been laid off.
- Twilio has laid off about 11 percent of its workforce — more than 800 people — in a move the company’s CEO calls “wise and necessary”
Misc.
- Tesla has laid off approximately 200 employees working on its Autopilot team and shuttered an entire office in San Mateo, California. CEO Elon Musk has said somewhere around 10 percent of Tesla’s salaried staff will lose their jobs in this round of layoffs. The company is also facing a lawsuit over carrying out mass layoffs without notice.
- Robinhood laid off nine percent of its staff back in April, somewhere around 340 people. The company’s meme trading boom didn’t pay off quite as much as it hoped. The company announced in August that it would be further reducing its headcount by a whopping 23 percent. The company’s chief product officer is also stepping down.
- Rivian laid off about six percent of its workforce in late July — some 840 employees — despite its business partnerships finally picking up.
