From Great Resignation to Forced Resignation: Tech companies are shifting to layoffs after a huge ramp up in hiring
Coinbase and Redfin are the latest to announce layoffs, joining an ever-growing list
By | Jon Swartz | www.marketwatch.com
The Great Resignation is pivoting to a Forced Resignation.
Thousands of layoffs in the tech sector, compounded by hiring freezes and a slowdown in hiring, highlight the abrupt shift in fortunes over the past several months as a result of rampant inflation, fear of stagflation and recession, supply-chain interruptions, the war in Ukraine, an ailing stock market and other red-alert economic factors.
The latest blows came Tuesday, when Coinbase Global Inc. COIN announced an 18% layoff of about 1,100 people and real-estate brokerage Redfin Corp. RDFN said it would reduce head count by about 470 people, or 6% of its workforce.
Read more: Redfin to cut 470 jobs, stock sinks toward record low
“Everybody needs to batten down the hatches. We are in stormy, stormy seas with choppy weather on the horizon,” media titan Jeffrey Katzenberg, a board member and investor in cybersecurity startup Aura, told MarketWatch.
In recent weeks, a broad cross-section of companies across all sectors have announced layoffs or plans to limit hiring amid the economic crucible. In addition to Coinbase and Redfin, Peloton Interactive Inc. PTON, PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL, Tesla Inc. TSLA, Carvana Co. CVNA and others said they intend to slash staff. At the same time, some of tech’s biggest players — Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. META, Intel Corp.’s INTC client-computing group, Microsoft Corp. MSFT, Uber Technologies Inc. UBER and Lyft Inc. LYFT — are slowing down or freezing hires.
All told, at least 15,000 tech-related jobs have been or will be eliminated, according to Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks job cuts at startups.