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Layoffs spread in tech sector but N.C. continues to add jobs – here’s the latest
Layoffs in the tech sector, Cisco workers taking the biggest recent hit with some 4,100 work force cuts announced last week. That’s big news since Cisco…
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Layoffs in the tech sector, Cisco workers taking the biggest recent hit with some 4,100 work force cuts announced last week. That’s big news since Cisco employs thousands at its huge campus in RTP.
As of last weekend, Layoffs FYI reported that the number of tech companies reducing jobs had climbed to 850, hitting nearly 137,000 workers.
In the U.S., tech news site CrunchBase reports some 73,000 workers have lost their jobs.
But – so far – layoffs at North Carolina operations are being more than offset by creation of new jobs. Examples:
- This morning, FUJIFILM announced new jobs to man a new production plant to be built in RTP.
- Last week, Fidelity confirmed to WRAL TechWire that it is continuing to fill hundreds of jobs.
- A drone firm is moving its headquarters to the Triangle, bringing jobs
- And a new corporate headquarters in Winston-Salem means 200 jobs.
- Plus, Apple CEO says hiring continues for some key jobs – it’s building a new campus in RTP.
On Monday, meanwhile, the N.C. Technology Association reported that job openings across the state (with the biggest number in the Triangle) surged again in October to the second highest total on record.
High-tech job openings in NC climb to new high, surge in Triangle
And a lot of big firms in the Triangle continue to hire.
The latest on layoffs
Here’s the latest, from this week’s edition of the WRAL TechWire Layoff Watch which tracks job cuts and layoff news dating back to July.
- Nov. 18: Mass exodus at Twitter
- Nov. 18: Carvana cuts 1,500 jobs
- Nov. 18: Job cuts at Amazon to continue into 2023
- Nov. 17: Cisco to cut some 4,000 jobs
- Nov. 14: Amazon to cut 10,000 jobs
- Nov. 14: Elon Musk decides to cut ties with Twitter contractors, the AP reported
- Nov. 14: Disney will freeze hiring and could cut some jobs as well, CNN and Reuters reported.
- Nov. 10: Science 37, which moved its headquarters to RTP last year, will cut 90 employees, disclosing it during reporting quarterly earnings. The news was reported by the Triangle Business Journal on Monday.
- Nov. 10: Juul Labs, which has a presence in Durham, will lay off 400 workers
- Nov. 9: Redfin will shut down RedfinNow, the company’s instant buying program that only recently became active in North Carolina, and will cut nearly 900 jobs across the company.
- Nov. 9: Meta will lay off 11,000 workers. Later, Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took accountability for the job cuts.
- Nov. 8: Facing layoffs? Here’s what to know.
Triangle job board postings dip, NC jobless rate climbs – but economists remain confident
Other November layoffs
- Nov. 7: Meta will cut thousands of jobs, according to multiple media reports
- Nov. 7: Tech layoffs and hiring freezes are casting a shadow on the US economy
- Nov. 4: Twitter began to lay off workers, with an estimated 3,700 workers affected by the layoffs
- Nov. 4: Layoffs also hit Stripe, Chime, Opendoor, and more
- Nov. 4: Apple will implement a hiring freeze for corporate workers.
- Nov. 3: Lyft will cut 13% of its workforce, about 700 workers
- Nov. 3: Amazon announces it will ‘pause’ on new hires for corporate roles
- Nov. 3: American Merchandising Specialists laying off NC workers amidst national job cuts
Report: Apple is the latest tech giant to implement hiring freeze
Late October layoffs
- Oct. 27: Elon Musk completed the purchase of Twitter, and reportedly ordered job cuts, immediately, including the firing of three senior executives.
- Oct. 27: Automotive supplier GKN is closing its Sanford facility and will lay off 47 workers
- Oct. 27: Credit Suisse will cut thousands of jobs in a “radical” restructuring effort.
- Oct. 26: Life science firm Medicago will cut 62 workers in a restructuring move.
- Oct. 26: Zillow laid off 300 workers in order to focus on technology, with layoffs impacting Zillow Offers advisors, sales and back-end staff at Zillow Home Loans and Zillow Closing services, and other teams, TechCrunch reported. Zillow previously shut down Zillow Offers in the Triangle.
- Oct. 20: U.K. company Arrival, which operates its U.S. headquarters in Charlotte, disclosed in a statement ahead of its earnings report next month that the company will “restructure its business to focus resources on a family of Van products for the US market.” The firm announced job cuts, including ones that could impact workers in Charlotte, earlier this year. (The company has not yet responded to a request for comment from WRAL TechWire about how its announced restructuring plan will impact its North Carolina workforce.)
- Oct. 19: Delivery company Gopuff, which has a North Carolina footprint and an office in Raleigh, is laying off more workers, Bloomberg reported. A TechCrunch database notes that the company initially made layoffs in March, more followed in July, and a third round was announced in October, with about 2,200 total layoffs.
- Oct. 19: Two property technology companies Zeus Living, based in San Francisco and Clever Real Estate, based in St. Louis announced layoffs amidst concerns of a housing market slowdown.
Early October layoffs
- Oct. 14: Beyond Meat lays off nearly one in five workers, or 19% of its workforce, as sales are lower than anticipated and the company is cutting back, according to CNBC.
- Oct. 12: Salesforce makes job cuts and announces a hiring freeze, according to Protocol
- Oct. 11: Noom lays off about 10% of its workforce, or about 500 workers, according to TechCrunch, mostly among the company’s coaches, the second-such layoffs this year
- Oct. 11: Udacity founder, president, and now executive chairman Sebastian Thrun announced layoffs of 13% of its workforce, or 55 workers, citing “increasing market headwinds.”
- Oct. 7: Impossible Foods is making layoffs, again, with an estimated 50 workers to get cut, according to SF Gate. That follows layoffs made earlier this year.
- Oct. 6: Peloton will – again – lay off hundreds of workers in a move to “save” the company, according to its CEO
- Oct. 6: Spotify will lay off less than 5% of its podcast staff, cancelling 11 original podcasts, according to a TechCrunch report
- Oct. 6: The so-called “crypto winter” continues, as Crypto.com will lay off an undisclosed number of workers. Originally, a report from Ad Age suggested the layoffs could have impacted about 30% of the company’s remaining workforce, after it laid off more than 200 workers earlier in the year, but Tech in Asia reported on October 10 that the company said that was “inaccurate” despite Ad Age reporting that a spokesperson for the company did confirm there had been “targeted job reductions”
Peloton lays off hundreds more workers to ‘save’ the company, CEO says
Late September layoffs
- Sept. 30: Google will shutter gaming studio Stadia
- Sept. 30: Ashley Furniture shutting down Statesville, N.C., plant, with 111 affected workers
- Sept. 30: Tech-enabled healthcare company Kepro laying off nearly 100 NC workers
- Sept. 30: JPMorgan Chase is expanding in North Carolina and, according to Reuters, plans to hire some 2,000 workers. But that doesn’t mean CEO Jamie Dimon believes there’s not a recession coming. Instead, Dimon told WRAL last week that there is “probably” a recession on the way.
- Sept. 29: Meta has enacted a hiring freeze, according to Bloomberg and Forbes, and engadget reports that CEO Mark Zuckerberg also told employees there could be further restructuring or layoffs
- Sept. 28: SoftBank will cut 150 of the 500 workers employed by the Vision Fund, the venture capital arm of the company, Bloomberg reported
- Sept. 28: DocuSign to lay off 671 workers, 9% of company, as housing market slows, SF Gate reports. A day earlier, Divvy Homes, a startup backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global Management, laid off about 12% of workers, according to The Information.
- Sept. 27: Which workers are most vulnerable to layoffs?
More September layoffs
- Sept. 26: Cuts at Goldman Sachs
- Sept. 26: Cuts at Wells Fargo
- Sept. 22 – Pink Energy will shut down operations, according to a letter sent to all employees that was obtained by WRAL News. This came hours after a 5 On Your Side report about the company and its difficulties, and following a notice of facility closure and layoffs sent to the North Carolina Department of Commerce on September 12.
- Sept. 22 – Buy now, pay later company Klarna will make another round of layoffs, four months after the company cut its workforce by 10%, with the new cuts affecting fewer than 100 workers, according to a report from Sifted.
- Sept. 22 – Even as Google looks to implement cost-cutting moves and its CEO wants employees to be more efficient and productive, it seeks to hire more than 200 workers in the Triangle.
- Sept. 22 – Kittyhawk, the air taxi company backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, will shut down, though a joint project with Boeing will continue.
- Sept. 21 – Job cuts still sweeping across technology sector, but Meta and Google aren’t likely to call such cuts layoffs, WRAL TechWire reported.
- Sept. 20 – Real estate firm Compass, which is backed by Softbank to the tune of about $1 billion, will again make layoffs to its technology team, according to a report from Bloomberg News.
- Sept. 19 – The number of open information technology jobs in North Carolina falls to an eight-month low, according to the latest data from NC TECH.
As threat of layoffs grows, which workers are the most vulnerable?
More companies making layoffs
- Sept. 15 – Amazon confirms to WRAL TechWire that a Durham facility that employs some 400 workers is being shut down, and a spokesperson tells WRAL TechWire that the company does not intend to lay off any workers, as every employee will be given the opportunity to transfer to another Amazon facility. Meanwhile, a group of Amazon employees who work in a Garner facility continue efforts to form a union.
- Sept. 14 – TRU Colors, a startup brewery in Wilmington, announced it would shut down, and serial entrepreneur and founder George Taylor explains why.
- Sept. 14 – The cloud firm Twilio cuts 11% of workers and CEO Jeff Lawson explains why in a letter, noting that the company used an “Anti-Racist” lens in determining which employees would be laid off.
- Sept. 12 – Coats American, Inc. will close a Hendersonville plant and lay off 51 workers by the end of November, according to a required legal notice sent by the company to the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
- Sept. 12 – Pink Energy, a solar company headquartered in the Charlotte area, announced it would lay off 500 workers a few months after laying off 600 workers, with the CEO citing faulty equipment as the cause.
Pendo lays off about 5% of workforce, including workers in Raleigh
Early September layoffs
- Sept. 8 – Avaya, with headquarters in Durham, announced it would reduce its workforce in order to lower costs to “position Avaya as a more agile and innovative organization,” the company’s new CEO told WRAL TechWire in a statement. The number of layoffs is not known; but the company allocated $11 million to be used to cover costs associated with laying off workers, as WRAL TechWire reported in August.
- Sept. 7 – Pendo layoffs affect 45 workers, less than 5% of its workforce, with half of those layoffs occurring in the company’s Raleigh headquarters location. WRAL TechWire confirmed the layoffs on September 12.
- Sept. 2 – The latest data on the employment situation in the United States showed that the pace of job growth slowed in August but the economy added more jobs than expected during the month, a preliminary total of 315,000, though the unemployment rate increased as more people began to look for work and the labor force participation rate increased as well.
- Sept. 1 – Unemployment benefits claims fell, data showed.
UNC economist: More people joining labor force is key to a ‘soft landing’ for economy
August tech layoffs
Here’s a list of some of the layoffs that may affect North Carolina workers that occurred in August:
- Aug. 31 – Snapchat lays off about 20% of its global workforce of 6,400 workers.
- Aug. 29 – Keter, US, Inc. will lay off 68 workers in Stanley “due to changing business needs at the facility.”
- Aug. 29 – 67 employees at UNC Rockingham Hospital in Eden face job loss
- Aug. 29 – Pandemic ‘winners’ including Peloton, Wayfair, Netflix, Zoom… are now losers
- Aug. 26 – Novartis to close Wilson plant, affecting 240 workers.
- Aug. 25 – Better, which has an office in Charlotte, makes its fourth round of layoffs in 2022 according to TechCrunch. Those four rounds of layoffs followed a mass layoff of 900 workers via a Zoom meeting in December 2021.
- Aug. 25 – Outdoor furniture manufacturer Keter will lay off 68 workers from a Gaston County facility, according to a notice filed with the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
- Aug. 25 – Amazon will shut down the hybrid virtual and in-home care service, Amazon Care
- Aug. 25 – Fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits than the prior week, but the four-week average rose, the Associated Press reported.
- Aug. 22 – Ford announces layoffs of 3,000 white collar workers, CNN Business reported.
Troubled tech firm Avaya – HQ in Durham – is laying off workers
More August layoffs
- Aug. 22: NC TECH releases July 2022 IT Job Trends report, showing a significant drop in tech job openings month-over-month
- Aug. 19: Wayfair making layoffs globally
- Aug. 16: Centene cancels investment plans for a $1 billion campus in Charlotte
- Aug. 14 – Arrival confirms to WRAL TechWire that the company has laid off 35 workers in Charlotte following a corporate restructuring impacting about 30% of global employees announced earlier this year.
- Aug. 12 – Peloton announces additional job cuts, after laying off workers earlier this year
- Aug. 11 – Layoffs announced in Johnston County and Pitt County, through the North Carolina Department of Commerce WARN report
- Aug. 9 – GoHealth announced 800 layoffs, including 140 in the Charlotte area, a spokesperson confirmed to WRAL TechWire on August 16
NC’s economy takes a $1B hit in project cancellation – fifth announced this year
Even more August tech layoffs
- Aug. 4 – Robinhood will make layoffs of 23% of its workforce, a few months after slashing 9% of workers. This includes laying off 82 workers in Charlotte and closing the company’s office facility there, at which it had promised to hire nearly 400 workers not more than 18 months ago
- Aug. 4 – Walmart will cut 200 corporate jobs, according to a CNN report
- Aug. 4 – Jobless benefit applications are again on the rise, according to the U.S. Labor Department, which is a sign that more layoffs are occurring
- Aug. 2 – Job openings have plummeted since the last monthly survey, according to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the lowest since September 2021
- Aug. 1 – Oracle reportedly to lay off thousands of workers
NC tech leaders grow more pessimistic about economy; 17.5% have implemented hiring freeze
Layoffs announced in July
- July 29 – Cargo services firm in Charlotte cutting 154 workers
- July 27 – The latest survey results from NC TECH show that 1.6% of surveyed companies have laid off, considered making layoffs, or furloughed workers, and another 17.5% have already implemented a hiring freeze.
- July 27 – Automaker Rivian will lay off about 6% of its workforce, the founder and CEO sent in an email to employees (TechCrunch report.)
- July 26 – Layoffs at Shopify, with approximately 10% of global workforce slashed
Layoffs still keep coming despite better-than-expected jobs report
Other reports, tech layoffs
More on layoffs announced earlier this year:
- Invitae announced it planned to lay off as many as 1,000 workers globally and Arrival, with a North American headquarters in Charlotte, announced it could cut 30% of its staff in the coming months. They’ll be making additional announcements in the coming weeks.
- Microsoft, which as recently as last month, told WRAL TechWire that it was hiring for hundreds of positions locally in the Triangle, has now also announced that it will cut hundreds of jobs. The firm is still hiring in North Carolina, according to the latest WRAL TechWire Jobs Report, though it does shows a drop off in the number of openings locally at the firm compared to earlier this year.
- Peloton, which had something of its own pandemic boom and bought a North Carolina company previously, announced it would no longer manufacture its own stationary exercise bicycles, and would lay off some 600 workers. (Editor’s Note: This was the first announcement from Peloton; the second announcement came later in the summer.)
- And Biogen, which has a big presence in RTP, announced layoffs in a move to reduce costs last month, as well.
- Durham technology startup Adwerx announced it would lay off 40 workers, citing “macroeconomic uncertainty.”
Retention, retraining workers becomes focus for many employers in changing job market
More Triangle tech layoffs coverage
More NC layoffs as Coats American to close Hendersonville facility, lay off 51 workers
North Carolina solar company lays off 500; CEO blames faulty equipment
Snapchat is latest tech firm to cut jobs: 20% of global workforce
Genetics firm Invitae, with Morrisville facility, to lay off more than 1,000 workers
Multiple reports outline Oracle’s decision to lay off thousands of workers
Layoffs hit Microsoft: Tech giant says hundreds of workers to be let go
Job cuts at Biogen, which has big RTP presence, help drug giant reduce costs 40%
More layoffs in NC – Medline closing Salisbury facility, will cut nearly 100 workers
Automotive manufacturer to close China Grove plant, lay off 81 workers
Layoffs hit Microsoft: Tech giant says hundreds of workers to be let go
Peloton, which had plans for big NC plant, will stop making bikes; 600 to lose jobs
The post Layoffs spread in tech sector but N.C. continues to add jobs – here’s the latest first appeared on WRAL TechWire.
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