The storm of layoffs in the technology sector continues after Microsoft announced it would lay off 10,000 employees. In the past year, technology companies have laid off more than 60,000 employees.
In July 2022, Microsoft said it would cut less than 1% of its total workforce, and in October announced phase two layoffs that will impact fewer than 1,000 employees.
Now, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that he will make layoffs which will cut 10,000 employees until March 31, 2023. This number is equivalent to less than 5% of Microsoft's total employees.
"I am confident that Microsoft will emerge from this stronger and more competitive," Nadella said in his announcement, as quoted by CNBC, Friday (20/1/2023).
Microsoft isn't the only company to lay off thousands of employees in the past year. In recent months giant technology companies such as Amazon, Twitter, Alphabet (Google's parent), Meta, and Tesla have also carried out massive layoffs that have affected more than 60,000 employees.
Amazon recently announced it would lay off more than 18,000 employees, mainly in its human resources and stores divisions. Previously, the company created by Jeff Bezos was reported to be laying off around 10,000 employees.
This online store giant is indeed keen to recruit new employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of its workforce swelled from 798,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019 to 1.6 million at the end of 2021.
Meta, Facebook's parent company, also announced major layoffs last November. The company created by Mark Zuckerberg plans to cut 11,000 employees or the equivalent of 13% of total employees. These layoffs were carried out after the number of Meta's workforce increased by 60% during the pandemic.
The storm of layoffs also haunted several well-known crypto companies in the midst of sluggish market conditions. Crypto exchange platform Coinbase recently announced that it will lay off one-fifth of its employees or around 2,000 people to save costs.
Here's a list of tech companies that have had massive layoffs in the past year:
Microsoft: 10,000 employees
Amazon: 18,000 employees
Alphabet: 230 employees
Crypto.com: 500 employees
Coinbase: 2,000 employees
Salesforce: 7,000 employees
Meta: 11,000 employees
Twitter: 3,700 employees
Lyft: 700 employees
Stripe: 1,100 employees
Shopify: 1,000 employees
Netflix: 450 employees
Snap: 1,000 employees
Robinhood: 1,100 employees
Tesla: 6,000 employees