The tech industry’s layoffs and hiring freezes: all of the news

Over the last couple years, it feels like we’ve heard news of mass layoffs and hiring freezes from tech companies nearly every week, and since the beginning of 2024, there’s been a new wave of layoffs and firings.

In the first few days of January 2024 alone:

• Google cut around a thousand employees
• Discord cut 17 percent of its staff
• Twitch cut a third of its staff (and Amazon fired hundreds from Amazon Prime Video and MGM Studios)
• Unity cut 25 percent of its workforce
• Humane cut four percent of its employees

And all that adds to the tens of thousands of tech and gaming layoffs that hit in 2023.

Elizabeth Lopatto spoke to experts in an article published last year to try and answer the question of why so many layoffs are happening right now despite tech companies continuing to register sizable profits. One reason is that “investors have changed how they’re evaluating companies,” even if there’s a lack of evidence that the layoffs can help solve any of the problems they may have.

Here’s all our coverage of the recent outbreak of layoffs from big tech, auto, crypto, gaming, and more.

• Microsoft’s ‘performance-based’ cuts have started.
• Zuckerberg says Meta will lay off more ‘low-performers’
• Meta is laying off employees at WhatsApp, Instagram, and more
• Brave has laid off around 15 percent of its employees.
• Apple is cutting jobs across its Books and News apps
• Dell is creating a new sales team to focus on AI.
• Intuit fires 1,800 employees to hire 1,800 employees and focus on AI.
• Best Buy is laying off more employees as it reckons with falling sales
• Microsoft layoffs hit HoloLens, Azure cloud teams
• Microsoft shuts down Bethesda studios behind Redfall and Hi-Fi Rush
• More Google layoffs.
• GTA 6, BioShock publisher Take-Two to lay off hundreds and cut projects
• Best Buy Geek Squad employees report mass layoffs
• Amazon lays off hundreds in the AWS physical store technology team.
• EA is the latest gaming company to lay off workers.
• “Why are we expected to do the coding Olympics for every company that wants to interview you?”
• Mozilla is laying off around 60 workers and scaling back its Mastodon instance.
• Paramount is cutting 800 jobs as it looks to “grow revenue, while reducing costs.”
• Warner Music Group to lay off 600 employees and close the Interval Presents podcast division.
• Amazon Health, Corsair, DocuSign, Drizly and Glowforge are the latest tech layoffs.
• Snap is cutting 10 percent of its staff
• Almost 30,000 workers in tech have been laid off this year.
• Jack Dorsey’s Block is also cutting jobs.
• Alphabet posted $307.4 billion in revenue for the 2023. It also spent $2.1 billion on layoffs.
• PayPal is laying off 9 percent of its employees.
• This is not “Play Nice, Play Fair,” Blizzard.
• Embracer lays off 97 Eidos employees and cancels new Deus Ex game
• Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees
• Vroom goes screech — laying off 800 workers and exiting used car sales.
• eBay will lay off 1,000 employees — 9 percent of the company
• Riot Games cuts more than 500 jobs
• TikTok is cutting jobs, too.
• Layoffs at the developer of Dead by Daylight.
• Google CEO tells employees to expect more job cuts this year
• YouTube is the latest part of Google to be hit with layoffs
• Google layoffs continue with ‘hundreds’ from sales team
• Google’s latest layoffs are just the beginning
• Layoffs hit a Gearbox studio.
• Instagram’s latest job cuts reportedly affect around 60 workers.
• Audible is laying off 5 percent of its staff.
• Discord is laying off 17 percent of employees
• Google confirms it just laid off around a thousand employees
• Google is losing its Fitbit leaders and laying off hundreds of AR employees
• Twitch is cutting one-third of its staff
• Hundreds of Amazon Prime Video and MGM Studios workers are being laid off.
• Humane lays off 4 percent of employees before releasing its AI Pin
• Twitch is reportedly planning to lay off 35 percent of its staff.
• Unity is laying off 25 percent of its staff
• 2023’s great games were overshadowed by a dark cloud of layoffs
• What do Houston, Nashville, and Dallas have in common?
• A $2 million dollar investment yesterday, layoffs today.
• Etsy is cutting around 225 jobs.
• Unity is probably going to do layoffs
• Ubisoft lays off dozens of workers as gaming industry struggles drag on
• Google’s postpandemic ‘reckoning’
• The Google News team just got a little smaller.
• LinkedIn lays off hundreds of employees for the second time this year
• Job cuts hit Qualcomm.
• Telltale Games laid off staff — but it’s unclear how many jobs were cut.
• More layoffs at Twitch.
• Naughty Dog is reportedly the latest studio to cut developer jobs
• Worms publisher Team17 loses its CEO, starts “period of consultation” ahead of restructuring.
• Epic Games cuts around 830 jobs
• BioWare is laying off ‘approximately’ 50 people
• Google’s $99 a night company hotel advertises ‘no commute’ as a perk
• CD Projekt Red is laying off about 9 percent of its staff
• Amazon is forcing some staffers to relocate as part of its return-to-office mandate.
• Microsoft is laying off 276 employees in Washington.
• Niantic lays off staff and shuts down games as it focuses on Pokémon Go
• Plex lays off more than 20 percent of its staff
• Google is laying off employees at Waze
• Ford is reportedly preparing more layoffs.
• Reddit is cutting ‘roughly 90’ staffers and reducing hiring.
• Verizon warns customer service employees of impending layoffs
• Meta has started its third of three planned rounds of layoffs.
• Disney’s third planned round of layoffs has started.
• Meta’s next round of layoffs will start next week
• Microsoft won’t give salaried employees raises this year
• Nuro plans for more layoffs as the AV sector’s economic woes deepen
• Unity is laying off 600 employees.
• Clubhouse is laying off more than half of its workforce
• Amazon is laying off Studios and Prime Video staffers.
• Lyft lays off nearly a third of its employees.
• Dropbox is laying off 500 people and pivoting to AI
• More Amazon layoffs.
• More Lyft layoffs are coming.
• Whole Foods is laying off several hundred corporate workers.
• Insider laid off employees on Thursday, too.
• “Why should we stay at Meta?”
• Meta layoffs hit London.
• Meta’s latest layoffs cut employees in technical roles
• Amazon is laying off some advertising staffers.
• Meta’s next round of layoffs might happen this week.
• “Humbled” Silicon Valley VCs are loading up on money from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.
• DPReview’s archives live on!
• Meta’s layoffs are reportedly ‘gutting’ its new customer service teams
• Amazon’s layoffs could affect its gaming efforts.
• Apple has reportedly started a small number of corporate layoffs
• EA is laying off 6 percent of its workers
• Lucid’s laying off 18 percent of its workers
• The site that’s supposed to help people find jobs is laying off thousands of people.
• Amazon is shutting down DPReview, the go-to camera reviews website
• How Apple’s avoiding layoffs: delaying bonus payments, pausing hiring, cutting travel budgets.
• Amazon’s layoffs included ‘just over 400’ job cuts at Twitch.
• Amazon’s latest layoffs cut 9,000 more jobs in divisions including Twitch and AWS
• Even Apple can’t escape the economy.
• Meta is laying off 10,000 more employees in a series of cuts
• Waymo has laid off over 200 employees this year.
• Cerebral’s laying off even more staff.
• Meta’s “year of efficiency” reportedly isn’t off to a good start.
• Thursday has brought even more layoff news.
• Ebay is the latest to announce layoffs.
• Zoom is laying off 1,300 employees, around 15 percent of its workforce
• Pinterest’s new round of layoffs comes weeks after its last cuts
• Rivian is laying off 6 percent of its employees — again
• Is it time to start the Intel deathwatch?
• PayPal is laying off 2,000 employees.
• January was the worst month for tech layoffs.
• Why are so many tech companies laying people off right now?
• Spotify is laying off 6 percent of its global workforce, CEO announces
• More details come out on which departments saw layoffs at Google, Microsoft, and Amazon
• Today on The Vergecast: Elon Musk status update, M2 MacBook Pros, and tech layoffs.
• Google cuts 12,000 jobs in latest round of big tech layoffs
• 1,852 Amazon workers are out of a job in Seattle.
• Amazon begins another round of job cuts as it lays off more than 18,000 people
• Microsoft says it has changed its ‘hardware portfolio’ amid layoffs
• Microsoft announces big layoffs that will affect 10,000 employees
• DirecTV is reportedly laying off hundreds of workers.
• Verily, Alphabet’s health-focused company, is cutting jobs
• Meta confirms it’s rescinded some full-time job offers
• Esports and lifestyle brand 100 Thieves is laying off staff
• Amazon confirms it’s laying off 18,000 workers.
• Amazon confirms its massive layoffs will affect 18,000 employees
• Vimeo is laying off 11 percent of its workforce in another round of job cuts
• Apple’s market cap is down $1 trillion from its peak exactly one year ago.
• Micron will cut 10 percent of its workforce next year.
• Some ex-Meta employees say they’re not getting full severance.
• GameStop is reportedly cutting more jobs.
• Kraken crypto exchange lays off 30 percent of workforce
• DoorDash announces layoffs affecting 1,250 workers
• Job cuts are coming to a Silicon Valley original.
• Alexa isn’t pulling its weight.
• Robot delivery startup Nuro is laying off 20 percent of its workers
• Amazon’s CEO says more layoffs will happen in 2023
• Roku lays off 200 US employees
• Steve Aoki dropped the beat at Amazon during layoffs
• Amazon employees are still waiting to hear if they’ll keep their jobs.
• Amazon confirms cuts to hardware and services teams
• The Amazon layoffs have started.
• Ask A Manager has weighed in.
• The Tech Winter, visualized.
• Amazon mass layoffs will reportedly ax 10,000 people this week
• Tim Cook confirms that Apple’s slowing down on hiring.
• Twitter reportedly cut thousands of contractors without warning
• Disney is preparing to cut jobs, according to leaked memo from CEO
• Meta announces huge job cuts affecting 11,000 employees
• Twitter’s layoff notices in Africa are missing something.
• Meta layoffs are starting tomorrow, and they’re going to be bad.
• Elon Musk’s Twitter layoffs leave whole teams gutted
• Amazon confirms a “pause” on corporate hiring.
• Amazon curbs corporate retail hiring for the rest of 2022
• Lyft to lay off 13 percent of its workforce as economic outlook darkens
• Peloton CEO promises the company is ‘done’ with layoffs
• Twitter braces for layoffs
• Intel layoffs are coming in Q4 as it cuts billions in spending
• Wireless ISP Starry lays off half its workers in a bid to save cash
• Leaked documents show just how fast employees are leaving Amazon
• Warner Bros. Television’s massive job cuts worsen WBD’s diversity problem
• Layoffs at Gimlet and Parcast expose cracks in Spotify’s exclusivity model
• Intel reportedly planning major layoffs, likely affecting thousands of jobs
• Peloton’s CEO doesn’t understand why people aren’t happier he laid off 500 people
• Peloton CEO cuts 500 more jobs to ‘assure the future viability of the business’
• Warner Bros. Discovery is ‘absolutely not for sale,’ says CEO
• Meta is freezing hiring
• CNN lays off audio staffers as it shifts podcast strategy
• Meta and Google’s definitely-not-layoffs prod employees to compete for new jobs.
• Patreon is laying off 17 percent of its workforce and closing offices
• The T-Mobile / Sprint merger hasn’t created jobs — it’s cut thousands
• Snap lays off 20 percent of employees and cancels projects
• Ford is laying off thousands of employees, and here’s the memo explaining the change
• Wayfair lays off 870 people, about 5 percent of its global workforce
• Crypto.com laid off 260 employees — then quietly let go of hundreds more
• Peloton gears up to hike prices, lay off 800 employees, and shutter stores
• Rivian is laying off 6 percent of its employees
• Shopify is laying off 1,000 employees
• Zuck turns up the heat
• Ford will reportedly slash a quarter of its workforce to fuel EV expansion
• Google pauses hiring for two weeks to ‘review our headcount needs’
• Apple reportedly wants to slow down hiring in 2023
• Giant NFT marketplace OpenSea lays off about 20 percent of its staff
• Read the memo Google’s CEO sent employees about a hiring slowdown
• Ford-backed autonomous car startup Argo AI lays off 150 employees
• GameStop is laying off staff and has fired its CFO
• Substack CEO says he’s ‘very sorry’ about laying off 13 people
• Tesla lays off nearly 200 Autopilot employees who help train the company’s AI
• Netflix cuts around 300 jobs after losing subscribers
• Tesla accused of violating federal law over ‘mass layoffs’ at Gigafactory
• Tesla layoffs reportedly affect hourly workers, too
• Spotify will reduce hiring by 25 percent
• Coinbase is laying off 1,100 employees as Bitcoin prices continue to fall
• BlockFi and Crypto.com lay off hundreds of staff as coins slump
• Crypto winter has come, and Coinbase is in trouble
• Elon Musk reportedly orders hiring freeze, 10 percent staff reduction at Tesla
• Klarna used a prerecorded video message to lay off 10 percent of employees
• Snap plans to slow hiring, warns that revenue will grow slower than expected
• Meta freezes hiring for Messenger Kids, shopping team, and other products
• Netflix is laying off 150 employees and cutting dozens from its Tudum fansite
• Here’s the memo Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal sent about firing execs and a hiring freeze
• Uber CEO vows to be ‘hardcore about costs,’ slow down hiring in memo to employees
• Netflix tried and failed to build fandom with Tudum
• The company behind celebrity cameo videos has laid off a quarter of its workers
• Netflix is laying off staff from the fansite it just launched
• Fired Peloton employees crash new CEO’s first all-hands