Companies That Made Big Layoffs Amid Bigger Recession Worries

Though the U.S. continues to see record-low unemployment rates that it hasn't seen in more than half a century, the tide is turning thanks to a looming recession. Big corporations are hedging their bets and laying off employees by the thousands to protect their bottom lines. The big tech and mortgage industries were the first to sound the alarm, with layoffs announced in early 2022, and banks, retailers, and media companies have followed suit. Some of the largest and most notable cuts have been by some of the most recognizable names in U.S. business. 

Related: Jobs That Are Most Vulnerable to a Recession

By year-end, Yahoo plans to lay off 20% of its staff, or 1,600 workers, with 1,000 jobs to be eliminated immediately, the internet pioneer said Feb. 9. With the reductions, Yahoo hopes to streamline its advertising unit by shifting focus to its 30-year partnership with digital advertising company Taboola.

Related: The Best and Worst Job Markets in America

EBay joined the ranks of other tech giants laying off employees, announcing plans to eliminate some 500 jobs, or about 4% of its workforce. With the job cuts, the company plans to invest in new technologies to help improve its corporate structure, according to a message sent to eBay employees from CEO Jamie Iannone.

Related: Jobs Soon To Be Lost to Automation

After failing to hit its quarterly profit and revenue estimates, News Corp. responded Feb. 9 with plans to slash 5% of its workforce, or 1,250 jobs. The media giant, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, has been grappling with declines across its business units, a drop in advertising spending by businesses caused by soaring inflation and interest rates, and a fall in its share price.

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Disney plans to lay off 7,000 employees, CEO Bob Iger said during a Feb. 8 earnings call. The cuts amount to a bit more than 3% of the company's global workforce of 220,000 as of Oct. 1. The reductions are part of a larger plan to cut $5.5 billion in costs that also includes restructuring the company into three divisions: entertainment and streaming, ESPN, and parks, experiences, and products. In the fourth quarter, the Disney+ streaming service reported its first decline in subscribers even as the company saw better-than-expected earnings.

Zoom, the videoconferencing company that grew exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic, is cutting 1,300 employees, or 15% of its workforce, according to a message to employees from CEO Eric Yuan. Laid-off employees will receive up to 16 weeks of salary and health care coverage as well as fiscal year 2023 annual bonuses. Yuan acknowledged the company had overhired and didn't manage its growth well. "I am accountable for these mistakes and the actions we take today," he said, adding that he is reducing his salary by 98% for the coming year and forgoing his annual bonus.

Dell plans to lay off 5% of its workforce, according to a Feb. 6 regulatory filing. A letter to Dell employees from co-Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke only briefly mentions the layoffs, saying the computer maker plans to "support those impacted as they transition to their next opportunities" without providing any details. In January 2022, the technology company had 133,000 employees, which means a 5% cut would result in about 6,500 layoffs.

PayPal plans to lay off about 2,000 full-time employees in the coming weeks, according to a memo to employees from CEO Dan Schulman posted on the PayPal website. The cuts amount to about 7% of the company's global workforce. Schulman cited the "challenging macro-economic environment" as a reason for "right-sizing" and said that laid-off employees would receive "generous packages."

The parent company of Google plans to lay off 12,000 employees, about 6% of its workforce. The company went on a hiring spree during the two last years, recruiting 50,000 new employees as business boomed. But its ad business has since slowed as companies cut costs ahead of a feared recession. According to a staff memo sent by CEO Sundar Pichai, laid-off workers are to receive 60-day notices, at least 16 weeks of severance pay, 2022 bonuses and unused vacation time, and six months of health care coverage.

Microsoft plans to lay off 10,000 employees by March 31 as part of a larger cost-cutting plan. The number represents less than 5% of the company's global workforce of 221,000. Laid-off employees in the U.S. will receive severance pay, six months of health care coverage and continued vesting in company stock, and a 60-day notice of termination, the company said in an internal blog post. A pullback in digital spending by consumers and a looming recession were cited as reasons for the layoffs.

The cryptocurrency market has been collapsing, and Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, in response laid off 18% of its staff, about 1,000 employees, in June. Then in November, it said it would lay off an additional 60 workers. Now, the bleeding isn't even close to over, because 950 more jobs are going to be cut, totaling a fifth of the company's employees. In the understatement of the year, CEO Brian Armstrong said the company had "overhired."

Goldman Sachs plans to lay off as many as 3,200 employees during the second week of January, according to news reports. More than a third of the cuts are from the investment banker's trading and banking units, which have been hardest hit by a slowdown in the global economy. The firm had just over 49,000 employees at the end of the third quarter, and the cuts may amount to the largest staff reduction since the 2008 financial crisis.

Amazon's plan to lay off 10,000 employees, mostly in technology and corporate roles, was first revealed in mid-November. There have been rumors swirling that the layoffs could reach 20,000 and now it appears they were on the mark. An additional wave of layoffs was announced Jan. 4, bringing the total number of planned layoffs at Amazon to 18,000 — so far. The ecommerce giant is to begin advising affected workers starting Jan. 18.

Salesforce is cutting 10% of its workforce and closing some of its offices. In an email to the tech company's employees, co-CEO Marc Benioff said that the company had hired too many employees early in the pandemic. In January 2022, the company had 73,541 global employees, so the layoffs could involve about 7,300 employees. The layoffs are expected to begin in the coming weeks.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, laid off 11,000 employees in November. Though founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the layoffs a last resort, they still amounted to 13% of its workforce, mostly in the company's recruiting and metaverse teams.

The layoffs at Twitter under new owner Elon Musk have been controversial, public, and dramatic. Musk has gone on firing sprees, laying off about 50% of the company, or about 3,700 employees, just a week after the purchase of the company was complete in late October. The upheaval has led many employees to resign as well. Some axed employees have even filed a lawsuit claiming that the company violated federal law by not giving sufficient notice of the layoffs.

Global investment bank Morgan Stanley laid off about 2% of its employees at the beginning of December. Though that doesn't sound like a lot, it's about 1,600 workers, and coincide with the holiday season. The layoffs come after the bank grew its workforce by 34% since the first quarter of 2020. 

CNN laid off hundreds of employees the first week of December and suspended live programming on HLN. The cuts included notable names like Chris Cillizza, Robin Meade, and Susan Glasser. "The changes we are making today are necessary and will make us stronger and better positioned to place big bets going forward without fear of failure," CNN CEO Chris Licht said in a memo. 

Digital-media company BuzzFeed is cutting its staff by 12% for a total of about 180 staffers. The layoffs mostly come from the tech, sales, content, and production divisions. "In order for BuzzFeed to weather an economic downturn that I believe will extend well into 2023, we must adapt, invest in our strategy to serve our audience best, and readjust our cost structure," CEO Jonah Peretti said in a memo.

Online used-car company Carvana cut 1,500 employees in November, or 8% of its workforce. It comes as the used-car market slows after booming during the height of the pandemic. The company also laid off 12% of its staff, about 2,500 workers, in May. "To those impacted, I am sorry,” CEO Ernie Garcia said in an email to employees. “As you all know, we made a similar decision to this one in May. It is fair to ask why this is happening again, and yet I am not sure I can answer it as clearly as you deserve.”

The housing market is no longer booming thanks to rising interest rates. That downturn is why Redfin, a residential real estate brokerage, laid off 862 employees, or about 13% of its workforce, in November. Most of the cuts come from shutting down RedfinNow, its home-flipping business. The cuts were on top of the 8% reduction in its workforce it made in June.

After soaring sales during the pandemic, Peloton has seen multiple rounds of layoffs. The latest cull came in early October with 500 jobs eliminated. In August, it cut 780 jobs and closed retail stores, and in February, the company laid off 2,800 employees, including 20% of its corporate staff. Combined, that's more than 4,000 employees laid off so far in 2022.

The pandemic driven e-commerce boom didn't last as inflation and a looming recession makes consumers tighten their wallets. Retailer Shopify laid off 10% of its global workforce in July, or about 1,000 employees. The cuts came mostly in recruiting, support, and sales roles.

Gannett, the nation's largest newspaper chain, initiated several rounds of layoffs in 2022. The latest came Dec. 1, when it said an additional 200 jobs would be eliminated, cutting news division staff by 6%. That's on top of the 400 employees laid off in August and the voluntary buyouts and mandatory unpaid leave it announced in October. 

Consumers aren't ordering takeout as much these days, and that's affecting third-party delivery companies like DoorDash. It said Nov. 30 that it would cut 1,250 positions to reduce operating costs.